Clubbed to Death [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Ruth Dudley Edwards (Author), Bill Wallis (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2002

Robert Amiss is working under cover as a waiter at a gentleman's club at the request of his friend, D.S. Pooley. The club secretary has allegedly jumped to his death from the club's gallery, but Pooley believes he was murdered. Amiss finds himself in a bizarre caricature of a club run by -- and for -- debauched geriatrics, with skeletons in every closet. Why are there so few members? And did they murder the reforming secretary?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This low-key whodunit set in a London club shows members dropping out of the old-boy network in decidedly unusual ways. Ruled by the memory of lascivious poet, bon vivant and womanizer John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, whose verse appears throughout the narrative, the ffeatherstonehaugh (pronounced "Fanshaw") club is appalled when its secretary, Trueman, falls from an upper story to his death in the saloon. The police deem the death a suicide at first, but keep the case open and install Robert Amiss, friend of CID Sgt. Pooley (both last seen in The School of English Murder ) as a waiter and spy. Robert finds almost everything amiss at the social sanctuary--from resident members' dining sumptuously at little expense to the suspected selling off of rare wine. The chairman of the club vows to bring about radical change, only to be dynamited at his first committee meeting. Edwards's accurate portraits of the people and mores in English men's clubs, coupled with her deliciously dry sense of humor, make for a procedural that is short on suspense but long on entertainment.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Choice prose, cutting wit, and memorable characters distinguish this traditional British mystery. Sergeant Pooley enlists the aid of his otherwise unemployed friend Robert Amiss to help investigate a suspicious death at an old and infamous London club. There Robert observes a coterie of elderly eccentrics, who, coddled and catered to, openly oppose new management, yet seem incapable of murder--until hidden dynamite kills the new club president. Well-plotted, smooth-flowing, and highly satisfying.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Chivers Sound Library; Unabridged edition (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754054829
• ISBN-13: 978-0754054825
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,916,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Fourth Hilarious Robert Amiss Mystery, July 26, 2007

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Clubbed to Death (VG Crime) (Paperback)

If the term Gentleman's Club has come to mean in the United States, a strip bar with suspect, sticky stains on the floor, weak drinks and a huge sign that can be seen from the nearest interstate, then it is time to pick up a copy of Clubbed to Death. In the select world of "Club Land" where dignified front doors open to elegant foyers, sumptuous dining rooms and hushed libraries redolent with the whiff of cigars and brandy, one particular club stood out for its interesting ethnos-- a club endowed by it wealthy founder in the spirit of John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester. Wilmot, a noted intimate of King Charles II, libertine and poet, died at the age of 32 of "dissipation", i.e., the effects of alcoholism and syphilis.

But all is not well at the ffeatherstonehaugh (pronounced Fanshaw) club. The members in residence are all elderly and eccentric. The servants are treated vilely. And just recently the last Secretary who had been brought in to reform the finances of the club had fallen to his death from the gallery.

Unsatisfied with the coroner's verdict of death by accident, another member of the club had urged Detective Superintendent Jim Milton and Sergeant Ellis Pooley to investigate the matter further. Sergeant Pooley's idea was to send the currently unemployed Robert Amiss into the mouth of the lion disguised as a waiter.

Despite the fact that the subject is murder, there is a quite a bit of hilarity to be found in the dreadful living circumstances that Robert finds himself subjected to, the far from benign club members and the machinations of Scotland Yard as they try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Fans of Ida "Jack" Troutbeck will no doubt be disappointed to find that she does not appear in this mystery, but there's still a lot of fun to be had.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous mystery, April 17, 2010

By 

C. A. Wujcik (CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clubbed to Death (Paperback)

This author writes humorous very British mysteries with wit and fun, and with satire and excellent characterization. Not a "noir."