Great Classic Mysteries

Thirteen Unabridged Stories

By: Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Israel Zangwill, C. L. Pirkis, Jacque Futrelle, Maurice Leblanc, Baroness Orczy, O. Henry, Aldous Huxley

Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Kim Hicks, Simon Vance, Kate Fenton, Bill Wallace, Robert Fass

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Enjoy the great detectives of the Golden Age of classic mysteries in this unique collection of audio whodunits. Newly recorded for this original anthology, the crimes, criminals, and sleuths depicted here set the standard for decades to come, and remain as entertaining today as they were when first published. Includes:

• The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe
• Hunted Down by Charles Dickens
• Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Cheating the Gallows by Israel Zangwill
• The Redhill Sisterhood by C. L. Pirkis
• My First Experience with the Great Logician by Jacques Futrelle
• The Queen's Necklace by Maurice Leblanc
• The York Mystery by Baroness Orczy
• The Detective Detector by O. Henry
• The Blue Cross by G. K. Chesterton
• The Second Bullet by Anna Katherine Green
• Naboth's Vineyard by Melville Davisson Post
• The Gioconda Smile by Aldous Huxley

Fantastic narrators including Simon Prebble, Kate Fenton, Bill Wallace, and Robert Fass breathe new life into these stories.

Public Domain (P)2010 BBC Audio

Who dunnit?

I loved it! Mystery upon mystery; the unexpected! What a variety! As a mystery lover, I couldn't ask for more. A good book; two purring cats; and a mug of tea, a wonderful way to spend my day! Thanks a bunch!

Good, but the

Great stories. Had to skip one or two because of one terribly mechanical-sounding lady American narrator.

Best mystery anthology I've heard

As with all anthologies, the quality varies. There are several that are outstanding. The worst is pretty good. The narrations are all good. There were several that I skipped because I'd heard them in other collections, but most of these are not easily found. I recommend these to those who love mysteries.

Great vulime.

I loved every old story. Also all the narrators. Could not get enough. Mysteries have become duller with DNA and all.

Inspired by real events?

I wonder how many of these classic stories were inspired by real events or people of the day?

Okay Stories.

There are only really only two stories that are good in this collection. The rest are mehh

Great stories ruined by obnoxious Audible format

First-time Audible user: I bought this collection to listen to in the car (via burned cds). I was very excited about the possibility of listening to 30-min-long stories, one at a time. However, Audible's bizarre formatting of the chapters/ tracks, presumably an attempt to complicate pirating, means that it's impossible to navigate sensibly through the collection. The Audible computer software allows you to "skip" to the next chapter of a story, or skip several times to go to the next story, but this functionality disappears on any other cd player. I ended up having to listen to the last few minutes of the prior mystery - ruining any surprises it might have contained - in order to hear a particular mystery from its beginning.

If you are planning to start exactly at the first story and then listen to each and every one perfectly in order, it would only be a minor annoyance that trying to navigate will drop you into the middle of a sentence. However it is impossible to skip a story, or to select one that sounds particularly interesting, without either missing its beginning or spoiling whichever mystery came before. Very disappointed. A collection of short mysteries is a particularly poor choice for listening to away from your Audible-software player.

(Also, if I want to carry them around in the car there's a good chance they'll get damaged or scratched - which shouldn't be a big deal, except that I'll have to get "special permission" to burn any replacements. It's like I don't even own it.)

ok

Oddly set up on Audible. Chapters are not titled - some contain the full story, however, some stories span multiple chapters. Would have been helpful to have more detail in the description and chapters. Some chapters without acknowledgement Tonya narrator.

Index of Audio Stories by 'Chapter' breakdown.

The chapter Index is below my comments.
* Enjoyable short stories.
* Some language is difficult to understand, occasionally, due to some narrator's accents and the vocabulary of the time in which a story was written.
* My favourite stories were 'Cheating the Gallows', and 'The Great Logician'.
* I particularly enjoyed that most stories were short enough to listen to completely in one sitting. And the fact that this audio collections material was 'light' listening for me, made it great to listen to while completing other tasks.
* It was somewhat annoying that I couldn't find an index breaking down the seperate stories exact locations within the audiobook, anywhere; so I've taken it upon my self to do so here/below (for anyone else who would find that info helpful).
....
Index of the Short Stories by Audio 'Chapter' breakdown:

• The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe (Chap 1)

• Hunted Down by Charles Dickens (Chap 2)

• Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle (Chap 7)

• Cheating the Gallows by Israel Zangwill (Chap 8)

• The Redhill Sisterhood by C. L. Pirkis (!? I could not locate this story?! )

• My First Experience with the Great Logician by Jacques Futrelle (Chap 15)

• The Queen's Necklace by Maurice Leblanc (Chap 16)

• The York Mystery by Baroness Orczy (Chap 17)

• The Detective Detector by O. Henry (Chap 20)

• The Blue Cross by G. K. Chesterton (Chap 21)

• The Second Bullet by Anna Katherine Green (Chap 22)

• Naboth's Vineyard by Melville Davisson Post (Chap 23)

• The Gioconda Smile by Aldous Huxley (Chap 24)
.....
Happy Listening!
.
Ps. if anyone locates 'The Redhill Sisterhood', I'd appreciate them contributing/sharing that info. Thx.

Bakers dozen

13 delightful mysteries have fun listening and enjoy each and every one at this time if you dare.