The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy

By: James Anderson

Narrated by: Cornelius Garrett

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to Alderley, a magnificent mansion in the heart of the West Country where a grand house party is taking place. The preparations have been made, the guests have been invited, and the staff are on hand. What could possibly go wrong? Let the entertainment begin.

The theft of the diamond necklace and the antique pistols might all be explained, but the body in the lake - that really was a puzzle. 'Don't expect me to solve anything,' Inspector Wilkens announced modestly when he arrived to sort out the unpleasantness. And at a gathering that included English aristocracy, foreign agents in disguise, a ravishing baroness, a daring jewel thief, a Texas millionaire and, of course, the imperturbable butler, it was going to take some intricate sleuthing to uncover who killed whom and why.

©1975 James Anderson (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Many surprise twists!

First great thing about this book is the narration, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The second would be the characters themselves, and the surprise ending, I will enjoy this book for years to come!

Absolutely Adore This Series

I read them out of order but it didn’t matter.. they are stand alone ,… and there are no spoilers,… they are refreshingly complex,. So one doesn’t get bored… Enjoying the last one with this months credit..

Good mystery slow starter

The mystery doesn’t start until chapter 15. Many golden age are slow starting but on my. The narrator saves the day. The characters are delightful. And the ending is twisted.

lots of fun

There's a lot going on in this, but I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of some old golden age type books. If you like that type of mystery, you'll enjoy this.

Lengthy denouement

Starts out as a standard English country house party tale with an endless array of guests and police. The unraveling of the myriad threads if the plot takes a number of chapters. Every character hets sorted out so all mysteries are solved

Great rated G mystery!

Clean, interesting, entertaining. I love the narrator. He also narrated "The Reluctant Widow" one of my favorite books!

It had me right up to the end

Any additional comments?

I was thoroughly enjoying this story until the final wrap up, and then things got so unnecessarily convoluted that I needed a cheat sheet showing where each character was at every moment in connection with every other character. I enjoyed the writing style and the characters and the fact that there was no unnecessary violence. He came so close, I will probably give the author another try. The narrator was good, except that the female voices were a little funky.

He had fun writing this one!

This is a cozy with all the bells and whistles, a complete romp in a Stately Home … I really enjoyed his Thirty-Nine Cufflinks also, but this one he just cut loose and wrote up a real circus of a murder mystery done British style. This one had me smiling and shaking my head in bemused wonder as it just kept unfolding and unfolding … I love his restrained style, he doesn't need to throw in sexual encounters or gritty violence, he's way too experienced and clever an author to need such poor tools to keep our interest. His plots are so rich, and his characters so well fleshed and believable, it's such a pleasure to just listen and be swept along wondering how he'll untangle it all. If you like British mysteries cozy-style, you'll like this one.

Such a pity there are only three of these gems

JA obviously had much fun plotting and writing these novels because they are a lot of fun to hear. They’re very original even given the much worked genre, original sleuth, very complex but superbly plotted mysteries and great characters. The narration is perfect.

the title says it all

The novel follows through on its title -- a very funny, campy "manor house" murder mystery set on eve of WWII. The crazy-quilt denouement was, however, too long for my tastes although lovers of convoluted Golden Age homages may like the multiple twists. Cornelius Garret displays virtuosity, but I would have preferred more restrained voices for some of the international accents. I look forward to the subsequent "mangled mink" affair and hope that Audible unearths more from Anderson.