Little Knell [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Catherine Aird (Author), Bruce Montague (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2001

Colonel Caversham, once prominent in the British colonial service, has died and left his large collection of artifacts to the local Calleshire museum.Included in those artifacts is a 3,000 year old Egyptain mummy and case, now the responsibility of one Mr. Fixby-Smith, Curator of the Greatorex Museum.What should be a simple moving job, however, is complicated by the fact that the local coroner, Mr. Granville Locombe-Stableford, since no body - no matter how ancient - can moved without his consent. Which is how Detective Chief Inspector C. D. Sloan is dragged away from his more pressing concern with the burgeoning local drug problem and sent to the museum to sort out egos and red tape. When the lid of the mummy case is raised, however, what greets the Corner, Curator, and Inspector is now what they expect.Instead of the remains of the ancient Rodoheptah, they find the body of an unidentified young woman who has been dead only a matter of days... AUTHORBIO: Catherine Aird is the author of some eighteen crime novels, most of which feature Detective Chief Inspector C. D. Sloan. She holds an honorary M.A. from the University of Kent and was made an M.B.E.Her more recent works are Stiff News (St. Martin's Press, 1999) and After Effects (St. Martin's Press, 1996).She lives in Sturry, Kent in England.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drugs, laundered money, extortion and, of course, murder concern the delightful Inspector C.D. Sloan, last seen in 1998's Stiff News, in this intricately plotted police procedural from British veteran Aird. When a 3,000-year-old mummy case is left to a local museum, the last thing anyone would expect to find inside is a body a week-old body, that is. It belongs, as the inspector eventually learns, to a young accountant named Jill Carter. Sloan and his aggressively obtuse sidekick, Constable Crosby, discover that Carter worked in the firm of Pearson, Worrow & Gisby. Nigel Worrow, a partner in the firm, was the last one seen with Carter; another accountant, David Barton, is in a coma from a car accident; and a shiny green, very expensive Bentley is seen parked outside the firm. Inspector Sloan, meanwhile, is preoccupied with a large shipment of heroin that was seized from one Horace Boller, a fisherman with a fishy story. Boller likes to drop by the animal refuge run by the quaint Kirk sisters. The Kirk sisters seem terribly innocent, but there are lots of hiding spots for illicit goods at the refuge, and their animal reserve in Africa could hold cash as well as lions. Prominent Calleshire businessman Howard Air generously supports the reserve, and Sloan has to wonder if there's an ulterior motive behind Air's largesse. Sloan is the kind of down-to-earth detective who makes you glad you aren't a criminal: gently persistent and full of wry observations, no superman but all the more believable because of that. (Apr. 16)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Series detective C. D. Sloan (Stiff News) investigates a bizarre case of murder after a formerly prominent member of the British colonial service wills his collection of artifacts to the local museum. Unfortunately, an ancient mummy case contains the recently dead body. Inspiring and entertaining.
Copyright 2001 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 Cassette
• Publisher: Chivers Audio Books; Unabridged edition (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754005747
• ISBN-13: 978-0754005742
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,153,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an engaing read with loads of dry humour, April 3, 2001

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Knell (Us) (Hardcover)

The Chief Inspector C. D. Sloan (Seedy to his friends) books are probably some of the cleverest police procedural British mysteries around. Written with minimal violence, this is a very well written series that revolves around the very dry and droll exchanges between Sloan (a very precise and methodical man) and the many uniquely eccentric people he frequently works with -- from his long winded and quotation loving boss, Superintendent Leeyes to his very young and rather dim car-mad underling, Detective Constable Crosby. This latest Sloan mystery involves a missing mummy, a murdered young woman, and drugs.

It all starts when the coroner receiving an anonymous tip that a body has been moved within his jurisdiction of East Calleshire, but without his knowledge or consent, and the coroner wants the police to investigate. It turns out that the body concerned is that of a mummy that has been bequeathed to the local Calleshire museum by the now dead Colonel Caversham. Sloan is a little annoyed. He has just received a warning from the customs and excise people to be on the lookout for increased crime since they had just removed about 4 kilos of heroin from circulation, and Sloan would rather spend his time trying to nab the ringleader of this local drug ring than chasing after a mummy. However when the sarcophagus is opened they find the body of a young woman who looks as if she's been dead for less than a week instead of the expected mummy. The curator of the museum is aghast -- where is the mummy? But for Sloan the questions are very different: who is the murdered woman? And who tipped off the coroner about the body? Sloan will have to sift through much before he can finally arrive at the conclusion of this very perplexing mystery.

The great thing about Catherine Aird's Sloan novels is that there are no extraneous characters or plot lines. Everything has a significance, so that if you pay close attention you can actaully solve the mystery along with Sloan. This makes Aird's books perfect brain teasers. This entire series is clever, amusing and entirely engaging. "Little Knell" definitely makes for a very good read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read, dry humor, one tiny quibble, October 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Little Knell (Us) (Hardcover)

Aird always has ingeniously plotted crimes and very good characterization, and this is no exception. Her humor is dry, understated and one of the reasons I liked to read her as a teenager. Many of her titles are a play on words, like "Little Knell" and "A Religious Body." Hadn't read her in years, then I inherited my mother's paperbacks of just about all her books. I read them all one right after the other they held up to a second and third reading really well. Which leads me to the quibble...she's given a character name that shouldn't be here. Oh well. He's still the same sort he was in Last Respects. Obviously a solid English name and doesn't spoil the story a bit.

Aird's a little like Agatha Christie as a writer about crime in the English village. She's a better writer than Christie, thourh. She is better with characterization--her characters behave more like real people. Christie tended to write rather flat, cartoonish, if easily identifiable characters--sometimes her villians often seem a bit two-dimensonal and overdramatized, her heroines (particularly in some of the earlier ones) oversentimentalized. I don't reread Christie unless I NEED a book and there's nothing else.

Partly I guess it's the passing of years and changes in writing technique. I enjoyed some Christies in elementary and junior high school but don't think I would have "gotten" as much of the humor in Aird back then. Christie was good with puzzles, of course, and was very productive over her career. And her estate has managed her "brand" wonderfully.

Aird's writing overall is more complete and more complex. The tags that identify her characters seem more naturally woven into the story (Sloan's roses, Crosby's driving, Leyes' attempts to use material from some evening class or other in possibly apposite reasoning). Her puzzles are satisfying without being too outrageous or silly and she does get a lot of good sharp jabs at human nature. Recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Aird is an uncommonly great writer of mysteries..., October 22, 2005

By 

K. L Sadler "Dr. Karen L. Sadler" (Freedom, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Little Knell (Us) (Hardcover)

Aird's mysteries are so short and so to the point, that when you reach the end of her book, you are going to say "I want more" like Oliver Twist. Unlike some writers who continue to write when there is nothing more to be said, Aird knows how to get to the heart of the matter without wasting words or space. And she does it with a large dollop of humor.

In this book it is obvious that Britain is having its own problems with illegal drugs, and in this one mystery Aird manages to say a few things and demonstrate the awfulness of the toll that drugs take on individuals and on society, that absolutely tear at your heart. Similar to what I told my kids and continue to tell those I teach, you cannot take the chance of trying a drug 'just this once' because you cannot know if you have an addictive personality. With some drugs, it only takes that once, and many people never find their way out of this horrible lair...

I've looked up to britain for years because of the way they handle law and police work for the most part. It breaks my heart that they too must deal with this modern day epidemic.

Poor Sloan. He has a curmudgeon for a boss, and gets stuck continually with Crosby who sounds like a poster boy for most boys (and men) between 15 and 25, who are enamored of beautiful cars and speeds. Crosby never gets to go as fast as he wants to, and Sloan probably steps out of his car after their arrival with a desire to kiss the ground and wobbly knees after dealing with Crosby's driving.

Someone made the mistake of opening a sarcophagus in order to replace the original occupant with a more recently deceased girl who happened to know a bit too much. The sentence passed on the murderer did not come from the courts but happened much more quickly...and his punishment was very fitting considering. Why do wealthy people, always seem to need more wealth no matter what means they have to take to get it?

I got two more Aird books to read...can't wait.

Karen Sadler