The Dead Woman of Deptford

A Victorian London Murder Mystery (Inspector Ben Ross Mysteries Series, Book 6)

De: Ann Granger

Narrado por: Gareth Armstrong, Julia Barrie

The sixth gripping Victorian crime mystery in Ann Granger's Inspector Ben Ross series.

On a cold November night in a Deptford yard, dock worker Harry Parker stumbles upon the body of a dead woman. Inspector Ben Ross is summoned from Scotland Yard to this insalubrious part of town, but no witness to the murder of this well-dressed, middle-aged woman can be found. Even Jeb Fisher, the local rag-and-bone man, swears he's seen nothing.

Meanwhile, Ben's wife Lizzie is trying to suppress a scandal: Family friend Edgar Wellings has a gambling addiction and no means of repaying his debts. Reluctantly, Lizzie agrees to visit his debt collector's house in Deptford, but when she arrives she finds her husband is investigating the murder of the woman in question.

Edgar was the last man to see Mrs Clifford alive, and he has good reason to want her dead, but Ben and Lizzie both know that a case like this is rarely as simple as it appears....

©2016 Ann Granger (P)2021 Tantor

Another gripping mystery

Really love this series of Inspector Ben Ross ,lots of twists and turns and surprise endings .

Decent mystery, tedious side families

It was another interesting mystery. Toward the middle, though, it stalled as it veered away from the mystery and focused more time on extended family and the subcharacters thereof. I occasionally got lost on who was whom. And I fast-forwarded through most of Patience’s parts. I would have preferred the book to be shorter than so much time spent on Patience and Edgar—two uninteresting people doing uninteresting things. Both narrators were very good in their own rights, but not a good match together. It would have been much better if the male narrator had read the whole thing. There was a discrepancy in their volume and speed. The male narrator had a strong voice that carried and stayed the same volume. The female narrator was very good but too soft, slower, and tended to drop her voice to a whisper. I rewound her parts a lot because I couldn’t hear what she was saying. And whenever the book switched narrators, I adjusted the volume and the speed. Not a deal breaker, but certainly not as convenient a listening experience as the previous narrators provided.

Hated the new narrators

Although I usually enjoy Gareth Armstrong's reading in the Simenon books, he does a terrible job of doing Ben's accent. He sounds just like the upperclass toshes that they make fun of. The female reader lacks the correct timbre and has trouble acting the part. What happened to the old narrators? I love this series, but I will not buy the last books due to this narration.