Corridors of Death [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

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

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000

At the end of a meeting in the offices of the British Civil Service, a respected senior civil servant is found murdered. Detective Superintendent James Milton of Scotland Yard is bewildered - who would want Sir Nicholas Clark dead?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"English crime at its most understated…Despite a corunucopia of corpses, the author’s cool appraisal of the subtleties of the civil service mind is delightful. The juxtaposition of a superintendent used to a different type of criminal mind and that of a civil servant, whose sense of the ridiculous helps the elegant untangling of apparently intractable clues, is the key to the book’s success."  --Lisanne Radice, The London Times

 

"Cleverly constructed and lightly written, this novel shows that, in the age of postmodernism and metaphysical detection, the unembellished story can still hold its own." --Patricia Craig, Books and Bookmen

"Edwards’s brilliant mix of farce and mystery…The author delivers a jolt with each development in the case and the final one is a thunderclap."  --Publishers Weekly

 

 

"A witty and elegant tale of wrongdoing in Whitehall, where our rulers stab each other in the back, both literally and metaphorically…a splendid murder story."  --Keith Jeffery, Times Literary Supplement

 

 

"A rather offbeat novel about murders in the higher echelons of the British civil service…The plotting and writing are good, and – just as important – the unflattering look at the workings of the British bureaucracy is convincing."   --New York Times – in ‘Notable Books of the Year’ 1982

 

 

"As funny as Yes Minister, if rather more savage."  --Tribune

 

"An honest, witty, sometimes jaundiced and occasionally malicious view of that great British institution, the civil service."  --The Economist

 

"A pleasantly talky, old-fashioned whodunit – with informative satire of politician-vs-civil-servant tangles in Whitehall bureaucracy."  --Kirkus Reviews

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Dr Ruth Dudley Edwards was born and brought up in Dublin, Ireland.  Since she graduated she has lived in England, where she has been a teacher, a Cambridge postgraduate student, a marketing executive, a civil servant and, finally, a freelance writer, journalist and broadcaster. An historian and prize-winning biographer, her recent non-fiction includes the authorized history of The Economist, a portrait of the British Foreign Office and a book about the newspaper world of the mid-twentieth century.  She uses her knowledge of the British establishment in her satirical crime novels:  targets so far include the civil service, gentlemen’s clubs, Cambridge colleges, the House of Lords, the Church of England, publishing, literary prizes and - always - political correctness. She has three times been short-listed for awards from the Crime Writers’ Association.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Chivers Audio Books; Unabridged edition (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754005089
• ISBN-13: 978-0754005087
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,485,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent mystery with a whiff of better things to come, June 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Corridors of Death (Thorndike British Favorites) (Paperback)

This is the first of RDE's series of mysteries set in modern-day British institutions, introducing Robert Amiss, the unlikely and likeable hero of the series, and his policeman friend Jim Milton. It demonstrates RDE's trade-mark clear-sighted understanding of her settings, in this case the intricacies and absurdities of the British government and civil service. At the same time she does not lecture. She hits the plot straight away (we don't even get to meet the murder victim alive) and does not let up the pace. Amiss is the junior-but-fast-tracked (graduate entrant), intelligent and basically decent Private Secretary to the murdered Permanent Secretary who is recruited by Milton to be his mole and his guide to the complex hierarchy, conventions and personalities involved. Amiss' explanations get a wee bit laboured - I can't believe that a senior British policeman needs to have explained to him what the various "Secretaries" in the civil service really connote - but I guess explanation in some form or another is unavoidable if she is not to lose her non-British readers entirely. As it is, this is a painless and indeed enjoyable introduction to the British civil service by an insider (as RDE has been a civil servant herself).

Another RDE trademark is that believable and distinct (and recognisably British) characters come to life with remarkable economy of words. As usual with RDE the plot is not over-clever, but nonetheless tight and can't be faulted. Her strength really is making everything so true-to-life. Policemen engage in real hard thinking and thorough dog-work, coping at the same time with political pressures. People act true to nature and yet don't always conform to steorotype. Milton and Amiss display real intelligence and understanding of human nature (no glaring oversight of an obvious angle which proves to be the key to the mystery). RDE mixes realism and entertainment to a commendable degree. Needless to say, she writes well; well-paced, articulate and snappy prose.

This books take the point of view of Jim Milton more than Robert Amiss, which is interesting for devotees of the series because Amiss quickly becomes central whereas Milton fades away gradually. For the reader interested in character development, this first book provides an important piece in the jigsaw. Here Milton is portrayed more vividly than in any other book in the series, and we learn to respect his patience and professionalism, and understand a little more of his personal life. Amiss is a bit flat here compared to the following and later books where he becomes more lively. One gets the feeling that perhaps at this stage RDE meant Milton to be her central character rather than Amiss. But this is the only book where he is in real and appropriate employment so for Amiss fans it is a chance to see him on his homeground.

I give this four rather then five stars because some later books in this series (Matricide, Ten Lords, Publish) are more deserving of full honours. She hasn't quite gotten into her satirical stride in this first book, though that's not to say that she's not irreverent. But it is only in later books that her satire gets truly and howlingly wicked, and her comic talent blossoms. I recommend any book in the series; not one of them is a dud.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bill Wallis Adds An Extra Dimension to the Audio Book, October 29, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: Corridors of Death (Audio Cassette)

Because the other review dealt so well with this book as a narrative, I would like to address it as an audio book. I've been much taken with Bill Wallis' narration of other books in the Robert Amiss series (which I have preforce read out of order). My favorite of the books I have read so far is Carnage On The Committee although I also quite liked Clubbed to Death. The instant book (in which, alas, Ida "Jack" Troutbeck does not appear) is narrated in the same clear and amusing style.

Wallis does a good job with the various accents without being incomprehensible to my American ear. He also plays the characters very straight, never over doing the fact that this is a satire or dealing with them in a heavy handed fashion. As for the tapes, while there is always a bit of background hum where a cassette tape is concerned it wasn't really annoying, even on a low quality cassette player.

Highly recommended for both the original story and the audio production.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Got better and better by the end..., January 30, 2011

By 

Angela Wolf "bookangel" (Hamburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Corridors of Death (Paperback)

A senior British senior servant is found murdered right after an important meeting, and the only suspects are important bureaucrats. Detective Milton of Scotland Yard is on the case, and he continually needs to prove himself because everyone seems to want the case wrapped up and hushed up. Fortunately he has an 'ace in the hole', Robert Amiss, a secretary who is willing to secretly give him information on all these important people.

I was feeling 'meh' about this book in the beginning. I bumped up my rating to 3 stars by the end because the dead man turned out to be very 3-dimensional. At first I thought he was a typical nasty man whom everyone wanted to die - but as the book unfolds he became much more interesting. (It's an odd feeling building a relationship with a corpse!) And might I add that Amiss, the amateur detective, is a well developed character. He is the star of the series, so I'm hoping there are good things to come in the next books.

Bottom line: Thought it was going to be boring, but turned out a bit better than I expected. And I learned a little about British civil service at this time period.