Jumping Jenny

De: Anthony Berkeley

Narrado por: Seán Barrett

At a costume party with the dubious theme of 'famous murderers and their victims', the know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham is settled in for an evening of beer, small talk and analysing his companions.

One guest in particular has caught his attention for her theatrics, and his theory that she might have several enemies among the partygoers proves true when she is found hanging from the 'decorative' gallows on the roof terrace. Noticing a key detail which could implicate a friend in the crime, Sheringham decides to meddle with the scene and unwittingly casts himself into jeopardy as the uncommonly thorough police investigation circles closer and closer to the truth.

Tightly paced and cleverly defying the conventions of the classic detective story, this 1933 novel remains a milestone of the inverted mystery subgenre.

©1933, 2022 The Estate of Anthony Berkeley Cox, Introduction Martin Edwards (P)2022 Soundings

Suspenseful

Kept me glued to the story and couldn’t stop listening. Don’t want to spoil the ending. A must read/listeni

Brilliant

Audible suggested this author to me, based on my extensive collection of the two most famous British mystery writers, Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. I had never heard of him but learned from Wikipedia that he was a contemporary of Christie and a co-founder of her writing group. This story was absolutely spectacular, full of twists and novel plot points; if you are really familiar with the Poirot canon, there is an interesting faint echo of The Veiled Lady! And of course, since this was written contemporaneously, the culture, language, and customs of the interwar period in Britain is captured beautifully. It rings with an authenticity that modern attempts to set stories in this time frame very often lack. Overall just an absolute gem, and I hope more of his work will be brought back into print and audiobook.

Holy shiitake mushrooms

Didn’t see that coming. Excellent narration and even better story. Highly recommended for any classic mystery fans.

Well….wow

This was actually brilliant. It managed to surprise me completely. It puts me in mind of The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, and I expect was actually at least some of the inspiration for that novel. You think you know, and you try to make it make sense, and you go through all sorts of mental calisthenics, only to find out that the solution both is and isn’t exactly what seems to be. This type of mystery is exactly why I love the Golden Age.

A Twisted Tale of Upside-down Murder

I was under the impression that nobody could even come close to Ngaio Marsh but, dash it, I was wrong! Here ABerkley gives us a well constructed tale (with very few mistakes) which is enclosed top to bottom in Ronald Stratton's cottage and which is sprinkled with a heavy dose of British humour. Read and enjoy. The Narrator is an acquired taste - but I think he does a very good job, and shines especially in the more theatrical scenes of the story.

superb! and such a surprise ending!

The digs at amateur detectives and detective fiction are so enjoyed! This book written by a true and favorite master of the genre.

Unusual classic with a twist ending

Started out with a long houseparty that did become a bit chatty. Then went on with the detective trying to manipulate the inquiery in amusing but unlikely ways. But towards the end I could not stop reading until the twist ending. Turned out I liked the book better than I thought during the first half of the story, although it may not be this authors best effort.

Please more Anthony Berkeley books!

The characters were fascinating. The plot twists were completely unexpected. The narrator was excellent and brought the characters to life!

one of the more amusing mystery stories..

This book gives the name of the guilty party pretty much right away. What follows is a bit of a nail-biter and a bit of a comedic hurly-burly. At the end we find out that we might have been wrong about the who the "guilty" party really was..

Twists and turns

I didn’t think I was liking the book until the last hour and more twists to the story came up. Several characters so I needed to pay attention as they all were important characters in how the story was told. The murderer is not the person I was initially led to believe. Decent story.