Dead Beside the Thames

The Casebook of Barnaby Adair Series, Book 9

De: Stephanie Laurens

Narrado por: Napoleon Ryan

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns with a confounding case that sees her favorite sleuths acting to save a friend wrongly accused of murder.

When a detested viscount is found murdered by the banks of the Thames and Charlie Hastings becomes the prime suspect, Barnaby and Penelope Adair join forces with Stokes to discover the real story behind the unexpected killing.

Charlie Hastings is astonished to find himself accused of murdering Viscount Sedbury. Admittedly, Charlie had two heated altercations with Sedbury in the hours preceding the man’s death, but as Charlie is quick to point out to Stokes—and to Barnaby and Penelope—there are a multitude of others in the ton who will be delighted to learn of Sedbury’s demise.

As Penelope, Barnaby, and Stokes start assembling a suspect list, Charlie’s prediction proves only too accurate. Yet the most puzzling aspect is who on earth managed to kill Sedbury. The man was a hulking brute, large, very strong, and known as a vicious brawler. Who managed to subdue him enough to strangle him?

As the number of suspects steadily increases, the investigators are forced to ask if, perhaps, one of their suspects hired a killer capable of taking Sedbury down. With that possibility thrown into the calculations, narrowing their suspect list becomes a futile exercise.

Their pursuit of the truth leads them to investigate the many shady avenues of Sedbury’s life, much to the consternation of Sedbury’s father, the Marquess of Rattenby. Rattenby does not want Sedbury’s distasteful proclivities exposed for all the world to see, further harming the other family members who Sedbury has taken great delight in tormenting for most of his life.

In the end, the resolution of the crime lies in old-fashioned policing coupled with the fresh twists Barnaby and Penelope bring to Scotland Yard’s efforts.

And when the truth is finally revealed, it raises questions that strike to the very heart of justice and what, with such a victim and such a murderer, true justice actually means.

©2024 Savdek Management Proprietary, Ltd. (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing

Nasty Viscount

Although, being born in a noble family, his personality was a thug and destructive in his dealings with others. He would purposely go out of his way to harm others or attempt to control them.  He wound up dead. Barnaby and Penelope were assigned the case to help Stokes and a friend, Charlie, who had an incident with the Viscount And now was a suspect. Barnaby and Panella want to clear Charlie’s name.
Good story with great narration.

Sharp and humane

I always love the stories of Barnaby Adair, his wife Penelope and the Stokes couple. This one has the added plus of a righteous ending. What's not to like.
An excellent performance by Napoleon Ryan.

Love this series!

Glad to hear the latest installment of the Barnaby Adair series -such fun to listen to and Napoleon Ryan does not disappoint!

Charlie Hastings HEA

September 7, 1840, German St, London
This story begins with Inspector Stokes arriving at Charlie Hastings’ door to question him about his whereabouts on Saturday night/Sunday morning. It seems he was the last one seen having an altercation with the odious Viscount Sedbury who has been fished out of the Thames.
What do you do when your victim is so very vile and needed to be killed?
You fall in love!
Just kidding!
There are so many people Sedbury has abused from the Haute Ton to the Waterfront, that Stokes, Barnaby & Penelope are overwhelmed with suspects. It takes all their efforts along with Charlie Hastings, 2 of the victims’ brother and a sister, teams of the Metropolitan Police, and Foundling House graduates who are in houses, sweeping streets, running errands, etc. Together they check alibis to eliminate suspects, track down a Jarvey driver, track down Sedbury’s whip, where he went in the water, where he had a fight, and who he fought with. I like the way the suspect was handled in the story. The Marquess’ little speech was a bit spotty and didn’t quite read as authentic. Too bad so many people had to suffer because the Marquess couldn’t rein in or stop the Viscount. But the buoyant reaction of the Ton to the resolution was a happy thing, indeed.

Wasn’t Brenher available to narrate this series?
I don’t enjoy Ryan’s voicing of female characters and he makes both Penelope & Barnaby sound so very insipid. It got really annoying when he kept saying Barney instead of Barnaby.
Are these books ghost written now and they’re not worth quality narration?

female voices difficult to listen to.

I enjoy the semi detective story lines in this series and have read most of Stephanie Laurens various series over the years. The female characters by this reader are too high pitched for me and were distracting.

Good solid story, but....

felt like there was parts missed or cut. was this an abridged book?
For me the narrator was nit doing himself any favours with his voice changes for various characters. He had a pleasant voice, but the high pitched squeaky one he chose for Mrs Adair grated, just felt wrong and it would have worked much better if he had continued with his normal voice, just my opinion.
I normally love this author, but the combination of the 2 factors left my main feeling as disappointing.