Grave Mistake

By: Ngaio Marsh

Narrated by: Jane Asher

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A spa stay turns into a homicidal holiday.... A bit snobbish and a trifle high strung, Sybil Foster prides herself on owning the finest estate in Upper Quintern and hiring the best gardener.

In fact she is rapturous over the new asparagus beds when a visit from her unwelcome stepson sends her scurrying to a chic spa for a rest cure, a liaison with the spa's director...and an apparent suicide.

Her autopsy holds one surprise, a secret drawer a second. And Inspector Roderick Alleyn, CID, digging about Upper Quintern, may unearth still a third...deeply buried motive for murder.

©1978 Original Text of 1978 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." ( Times Literary Supplement)

"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." ( New York Magazine)

Overall terrific with minor glitches

I thought Jane Asher fabulous on the women's voices and paced the book well She really acted her voice is a bit high for some of the make voices Unlike another reviewer I can say that Allen is Not pronounced Allen according to the author in one of the books but by mistake many of the readers say Allen very engaging book

Great story, distracting narration

The narrator’s voice has a high pitch which is jarring. I enjoyed the book, but won’t be finishing there audio book.

Well Plotted (pun intended)

I enjoyed Gnaio Marsh. I read her book as recommended by another author in one of their books. I can’t seem to remember which author… but maybe Fleming had Bond read her in one of his stories. At any rate, she definitely rivals Agatha Christie.
Inspector Alleyn and his sidekick “Br’er Fox” were highly entertaining, deductive, and intuitive. Marsh’s characters are well developed and her plot well developed. You won’t be sorry you read her.
Everyone picks on narrators, and usually it’s just a matter of taste. With this one, her voice for the men is a little high, but after I got into the story it was easy to overlook. The pace of the reading and the phrasing was good.

Good story

Good plot & sympathetic characters. A good read--absorbing. Did get annoyed with the narrator--the foreign men's accents are not particularly convincing.

Return to greatness

The main plot device has been used by other writers, but this is an interesting twist on it. This is NGs best in a long time. The narrator is generally good, but minus a star for voicing Alleyn too high.

Fantastic Story & Narrator

I loved Jane Asher’s performance as narrator- she did a superb job. The story, in my opinion, was not one of Marsh’s best but Asher brought it to life. Although Allen explained how the murderer was identified, the choice of murderer seemed appeared to be rather randomly selected. Nevertheless, Grave Mistake was a good read with fascinating if not slightly exaggerated characters, a good storyline and enough intrigue to keep you reading and trying to identify the murder before Alleyn reveals him or her.

Great Story.

The story itself is classic Marsh with interesting, well developed characters and an intricate puzzle mystery.

The narrator, however, distracts from the enjoyment of the text in a significant way. First, she pronounces the surname of the series-long detective improperly (the proper pronunciation is widely known having been discussed by the author herself many times). Second, the narrator’s use of accents related to foreign (non-British) characters is abysmal. Two distinct characters of different ethnicities have exactly the same accent. It is literally impossible to distinguish which of these two characters is speaking by listening to the narrator.

I highly recommend other Ngaio Marsh mysteries here on Audible, but would not listen to another audiobook performed by this particular narrator.

A bit of a twist at the end!

This book is another excellent addition to the Inspector (now superintendent) Alleyn series. The ending had a bit more of a twist than mist of her other stories. The narrator did a good job for almost all of the voices- except for Alleyn’s. His voice sounded very unnatural, as if she were trying too hard to make him sound impressive. Her female voices were all quite good. Another point is that she pronounced Alleyn as Al-leen” or something close to it. Marsh herself has written that it should be pronounced simply as “Allen.” (Another narrator has done the same, so Ms. Asher is not alone.) James Saxon is definitely my preference for this series. His narration is always excellent and I am absorbed into the story. Nadia May also does an excellent job, but with a male main character, I prefer Mr. Saxon to portray Alleyn, as well as Fox. Ms. May is especially good with using just the right inflection to portray the intention or emotion of the speaker. There are another 1-2 male narrators who are also very good, though Mr. Saxon is the best. I think Ms. Asher could have used some direction in adjusting Alleyn’s voice and perhaps some of the other male voices. Overall, it is another excellent mystery from Ms. Marsh.

Superb reading of a classic British mystery

Jane Asher is so good a reader for Ngaio Marsh's "Grave Mistake" that I was sad to see all her other readings are children's books. She needs to be given adult work --- her voice characterizations are truly excellent. The Vicar's upper class! The "Brer Fox" voice, perfect for Alleyn's colleague. In fact, this excellent story has a lot to do with voice and vocal differences and that may be why this reader took it on. I wish she would read all the Ngaio Marsh books.

Story marred by narrator's choices

This is one of my favorite Ngaio Marsh books, but I did not enjoy the narration. The narrator chose to pronounce Alleyn's name so that it almost sounded like Elaine. That was persistently annoying, but I also disagree with the Voice which she chose for Alleyn. It was hard and unsympathetic, and not suiting the attractive man as Marsh portrays him. Inspector Fox's voice was also, I think, inappropriate, occasionally exhibiting elements of Cockney. Neither man came across appealingly, and one of the unattractive characters, Dr. Basil Schramm--Who was born in England--was given a European accent.