Mary

I was so glad to find this audio - I love the Miss Silver mysteries! I hope this is the first of many....

Miss Silver is often compared to Miss Marple, and there are similarities. Both are single ladies "of a certain age" who love to knit and have a talent for solving mysteries. The stories are set primarily in the 1940s or 1950s, generally in small towns or villages in England. The characters are generally upper middle-class or wealthy, though they may have fallen on hard times.

One difference between the two characters, though, is that Miss Silver doesn't have to stumble on a body in the library to become involved. She is a "private enquiry agent" - a detective, in fact! She works closely with Scotland Yard or the local police, who sometimes ask for her help with certain types of cases.

"Latter End" is typical of the Miss Silver stories - and a good introduction to them. It's beautifully read. The narrator handles the voices and accents very well, even the male characters, and makes it easy to follow the story.

I hope there are more to come!!

I've been a fan of the Mrs. Pollifax books for years, and am delighted that Audible is making them available. This one brings back John Sebastian Farrell - a character that has appeared in several stories. This is a lighthearted romp of a spy story. There is romance, but no sex, and of course the good guys win in the end!

I thoroughly enjoyed this performance - in addition to a main narrator, there are several other actors performing the individual parts. I find it easier to keep track of who is speaking when the voices are distinct. The only disadvantage is that, because this is an unabridged recording, the main narrator has to insert the occasional

There are actually three separate productions in this audiobook. I'm not a Holmes purist, but I have enjoyed many of the original stories in their various incarnations, and I'm especially fond of the Jeremy Brett TV series and the BBC audios of the original stories.

The first story presented here, "Sherlock Holmes", is a fun story with many similarities to "A Scandal in Bohemia" - only this time, Sherlock gets the girl. I've seen a stage production, which I loved, and this audio version brought back very good memories. Except for the odd note at the end (Sherlock kissing a woman?!) it's a real winner.

The second production, an adaptation of "The Speckled Band", has a lot more Victorian melodrama than I remember from the story (or the TV version I've seen), but it's not bad.

Both of these are well acted by a talented cast.

The third production, "Ghastly Double Murder in Famed Detectives Flat", is billed as a comedy. I gave up on it after the first 10 minutes or so. I found it so far from the spirit of the orignial characters that I couldn't finish it. I gather it's supposed to be a satire or parody - I didn't find it funny.

If you enjoy the Father Brown or Sherlock Holmes style of detective fiction - the detective notices small, everyday details that others miss and pieces together the answer to the puzzle - you'll enjoy the Martin Hewitt stories. They're interesting puzzles, and I'd like more of them.

What prevented a 5 star rating was the narrator. He had a nice voice and he was able to distinguish between characters very well. However his delivery was sometimes very halting - as if he was reading something he'd never seen before and he was having to think out how to say something before the words came out of his mouth. It was distracting.

Still, they're worth a listen!

I'm a fan of Albert Campion, and I remembered this story from the series that appeared on PBS a few years back. The story itself is fun - colorful characters in a pre-war England that probably never truly existed. The narration was excellent - the majority of the story is told in the first person, but when other characters "speak" it is easy to distinguish their voices.

The one thing that bothers me a little relates to the first person narration. There are several instances of the "had I but known" syndrome, and I find it irritating. It doesn't stop me recommending this book though - and wishing that Audible had more Campion stories available!

I'm a huge fan of the Paul Temple serials, and I was very interested to hear this one when I read that it's the oldest one in the BBC archives. I was a little disappointed for two reasons - I much prefer Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury in the roles of Paul Temple and his wife, Steve, and the story is much too short!

That said, the actors who play Paul & Steve really aren't bad - they just aren't the voices I normally associate with the characters. Also, Charlie (their butler) does not appear in this one - the butler is a much older character.

The episodes in this serial are only about 15 minutes long, but they follow the same pattern used in the later serials: they start with a recap of the last minute or so of the previous episode and there is generally a major break at the mid-way point. That means much less action in each episode.

For fans of the series, don't miss this one - it's interesting to see how it evolved! For those who have never heard a Paul Temple serial before, start with one of the others and come back to this one only if you become a fan.