The Incident at Fives Castle

By: Clara Benson

Narrated by: Elizabeth Klett

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

It is Hogmanay, and Angela Marchmont is at Fives Castle, the Scottish seat of the Earl of Strathmerrick, to see in the start of 1928. But when she finds out that the Foreign Secretary, the American Ambassador, and the Head of British Intelligence are also among the guests, Angela begins to suspect that something momentous is afoot. Before long, they are all snowed in and a body is discovered, and Angela soon finds suspicion directed against herself....

©2014 Clara Benson (P)2018 Clara Benson

Another wonderful page-turner with plenty of twists, humor, and intrigue

Clara Benson is at the top of a VERY short list of modern writers who truly understand and have mastered the fine art of crafting authentic-feeling “golden age of mystery” murder-mysteries! Her comfort and skill seem to grow and blossom more and more with each new novel and this fifth installment of her Angela Marchmont Mysteries is no exception! (In fact, it’s probably my favorite Angela Marchmont mystery so far!!) As usual, Benson deftly spins a gripping tale of deception, spies, intrigue, and treachery, embellishing it with dusting of clues (if you’re clever enough to spot them)- both helpful and misleading- and plenty of twists -and laughs!- along the way.
I LOVE that Benson brings Freddy Pilkington-Soames, and other recurring characters, into her books!! It makes her imaginary world of London high society feel quite real and gives unprecedented depth to both the characters and the stories; you “get to know” the characters, their backgrounds, their personalities, and their quirks and peccadilloes better and better with each book and that feeling of familiarity with the characters lends itself to deeper immersion into Benson’s world. I also love that she varies the settings of her books so that they’re not all mysteries at house parties or mysterious thieves or political scandal- they’re not even all about murders!

My ONLY critiques about her writing (and they’re really not that serious) are as follows:
1) If you’re an aficionado of murder mysteries as I am- you can tell that many of the clues were added after the majority- if not the entirety-of the story was written and that sometimes makes the clues rather obvious and feels a bit forced/awkward because they weren’t written with the natural flow of the story as she was writing. (It’s like looking at a patch of excellent darning on an old sweater- even though it’s been done expertly and there’s no incongruity in any aspect of the stitching or in the weight of the yarn/thread, the yarn/thread used for darning is newer than the original yarn/thread so the colors don’t perfectly match.)
2) Some of her storylines, or- most often- pieces of the storylines, seem to have obviously been taken from the classic works of some of the greats (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, etc.) HOWEVER, to be completely fair, there are only so many permutations of “cozy British murder mysteries” before they begin to sound repetitive. Imagination and variation are both limited by the locales frequented by the upper classes of society during that time, the types and social ranks of the characters readers are interested in, and the political situation /current events during the “Golden Age of Mystery”, which is a TINY period in history!

I have just one comment on the narration and that is that Klett has EXTREMELY pronounced diction and speaks rather slowly and it is a bit distracting -especially during conversations between two or more characters- bc people don’t enunciate so emphatically or speak so slowly in real life and it sounds quite forced. I guess it’s better than to not be able to understand the narrator bc they slur their words together and speak too quickly but it’s still unnatural and a bit distracting.

Give us more Freddy Stories, please!

I love the Freddie books! They are fun, well plotted, and well written! Ms. Benson is a master of comedy and dialogue- a rare gift. Thank you, Ms. Benson.

A mystery that kept my interest

Another great Angela Marchmont mystery by Clara Benson. Did not easily see the culprit(s)---kept me guessing. Very interesting story full of characters that added side interest to the main event. The narrator is outstanding---Elizabeth Klett's English accent is impeccable, and the different voices she uses for the many characters adds to the enjoyment of the narrative.

Mystery in a Scottish Castle

I very much enjoy the Angela Marchmont mystery series, of pseudo-golden age detective novels. This is the fifth in the series and author Clara Benson has her characters well in hand. If you wish that Agatha Christie had written more mystery novels, this may well be the book for you. And Elizabeth Klett does a first rate job of telling the tale. The characters are distinctive, and she manages this without making any of them annoying to listen to (which some narrators do, as they try to make each character sound different.) As this is a mystery story, I don't want to give away the plot, but I can promise you a mysterious scientist who may have developed a powerful secret weapon, several politicians, missing plans, spies, young people playing jokes, mixed up lovers and more. And, of course, Angela Marchmont, a lady who travels with her pistol and is not afraid to take some chances, all for the sake of the truth and the good of the British Empire (this book is set between WWI and WWII). AND, this book can be a good companion book to the third Freddy Pilkington-Somes mystery, A Case of Conspiracy in Clerkenwell, also available from Audible. Or, read the entire series. But I find the audiobooks to be a richer experience to just reading the novel. Hopefully the rest of both book series will be made available from Audible over time.

Fabulous!

Another wonderful Angela Marchmont mystery! It feels so much like it was written in the 1920s that you might not believe that it was only written a few years ago. This was a well written mystery, read by a talented reader. Fun, and with many twists and turns.

More Clara Benson, please! (even if I don't know what her real name is).

Don’t listen to this audiobook on a long road trip!

The high pitch of the narrator (sometimes sounding like a very young Hermione Granger) can put nerves on edge and create enough tension to promote a state of road rage!
Every character sounds like a child, which gets confusing when the multiple children are involved.
Only the last hour or so of the audiobook can actually be construed as a story. The rest is a rambling of relatives and pompous class description. I was looking for something light hearted and fun when I chose this book. What I got was a bit on the air-head side ... your mind can wander for a while and when you come back to it ... you haven’t missed anything!