Fallen Into the Pit

An Inspector Felse Mystery

By: Ellis Peters

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Helmut Schauffler, a young Nazi working in the small English village of Comerford, sets out to play upon the post-war sensibilities and fears by terrorizing his new neighbors.

©1951 Ellis Peters (P)1991 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"What a treat you have in store in Fallen Into The Pit! Narrator Simon Prebble's skills will remind you of the Golden Age of radio, circa 1930s and '40s. Each character's voice is as individual as the many faces of Alec Guinness." ( The Reading Lamp)

A great British Village Mystery!

I thoroughly enjoyed this - the audio equivalent of a page turner.

Great characters, great local color, very intriguing. I highly recommend this one.

Excellent!!!

Peters never ceases to amaze. Initially I was somewhat sceptical about reading another series by Peters. Having read the entire Cadfael series, and having read some reviews that this series was not as good, I did so with a certain amount of reluctance. It was misguided pessimism. A good author does not sully her reputation by writing pulp fiction garbage. in my estimation this is another home run for Ellis Peters. While it is not a medieval peice and instead a more modern day series, it ranks up there with the Cadfael series. Well worth the time.

A Great Find

I know Ellis Peters from the Cadfael series. After reading all of those books, I was glad to find this series. I love the quaint dialog between great characters. The mystery itself was well crafted with plenty of turns.

A peek into an earlier time.

This book was written in 1951. Sometimes when I read a modern novel which takes place in an earlier time, I wonder how close the author's imagination has come to what the reality would have been in that time and place. In this book, I didn't have to wonder about that; the author knew this time and place intimately. The book is set in rural England in 1951, and that was a very different world from the one we are living in now. This was a time before television and long before personal computers or game consoles were invented. In that world, bunches of kids get together with one another after school and play outdoors for hours--until dark. They range great distances from home without all the fear of strangers that is so ever-present today and without the need to have their parents drive them here or there. It left me feeling very nostalgic.

The victim of the crime was a very unpleasant person which means that there were plenty of suspects available for us readers to sort through. There were several people who were very viable subjects that I liked a lot and I was worried that when the crime was solved, I would feel bad because a good person was being put away for getting rid of a person who needed to be gotten rid of. And there were obscure layers of motivation that were not instantly recognizable.

In short, I enjoyed this book a lot. In fact, I have already downloaded every book in the series which Audible offers. I wish they had them all.

very entertaining

interesting look at an previous time, good story about Post-WWII Britain in a small village.

The moral tone of the story first bothered me. Then I started to go along with the developing in characters and story line.

Prebble"s superb reading is expressive, turning most stories into enjoyable asventures. Yet, some stereotyped characters aspects like the German's incurable "Nazi Natur " and the Jewish woman's supernatural ability to "turn yet another cheek" and never loosing her quiet, upset my sense of real people's complexity somewhat.