Customer Reviews

The Stately Home Murder (An Inspector C. D. Sloan Mystery)

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3 star:		(1)
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I read this book long ago, and a have a fond memory of it, and its Inspector C.D. Sloan, but that's not why I'm writing.

PLEASE NOTE: If you don't want to know the solution to this mystery, don't read the review entitled "Two Murders, One Book." The solution is revealed in the review.

Catherine Aird is a very delightful and witty writer; she and her readers (whatever they end up thinking of the book) deserve to be allowed to enjoy the process of discovering whodunnit together, without having their sport spoiled.

Enjoyed this mystery very much. Easy to read and interesting plot. I will seek out more from this author to read.

Many years ago, I saw actor Robin Bailey in a tv miniseries on Mystery! called Charters and Caldicott. He played Charters. I became a fan of his and Michael Aldredge's immediately. Of course since he's British and I'm in the States, I could rarely see any of his TV work, but I've collected his audio tapes/CDs for a long time.

There's a cliche about Richard Burton's beautiful voice - he could spellbound people just by reading the phonebook. Robin Bailey is in that class.

Now, Stately Home Murder is a slight mystery, with lots of extraneous detail to pad it out. But in listening to Bailey's voice, as he essays dozens of accents, both male and female...it is just a lot of fun to listen to.

I highly recommend the audio version of this book.

BP
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Robin Bailey does a fine job of performing a good Catherine Aird mystery: appropriate and easily distinguishable voices, no difficulty in creating credible voices for both sexes, and quite good characterizations. Catherine Aird's book lends itself to a droll style both interesting and amusing. The mystery is piquant: who stuffed the body into a suit of armor (after killing it). Inspector Sloane is able to unravel the mystery with the dubious help and asides from his junior and superior officers, while carrying on a running monologue with his alter ego.
All-in-all, a sligh,t but amusing, diversion worth listening to.

The Stately Home Murder (Rue Morgue Classic British Mysteries) I fully expected to enjoy this book because of my love for British mysteries. This is the first book I've read by Catherine Aird; although I have others that I still intend to read.

I found this book a very difficult and laborious read. It was dull and contained far too many unnecessary details that took away from the pleasure of reading it. Some of the characters seemed too complex and didn't really add to the stories plot.

I kept reading the book looking for the story line to pick up and was disappointed to find out that the "Butler really did it".