Hand in Glove

By: Ngaio Marsh

Narrated by: Jeremy Sinden

The April Fool’s Day had been a roaring success for all, it seemed - except for poor Mr. Cartell, who had ended up in the ditch - forever. Then there was the case of Mr. Percival Pyke Period’s letter of condolence, sent before the body was found - not to mention the family squabbles.

It was a puzzling crime for Superintendent Alleyn....

©1962 Original Text of 1962 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." ( Times Literary Supplement)

"Neat, dexterous.... Miss Marsh’s freshest and most enjoyable performance for years." ( Sunday Times)

"Light, entertaining and disastrously readable." ( Guardian)

The audiobook would have been better if Saxon narrated

The story was entertaining. The swallowing of the narrator was noticeable and a distraction, especially near the end.

Poor Performance

Ngaio Marsh, herself, clearly articulated how to pronounce Alleyn's name. She said it sounded like "Allen". The narrator kept pronouncing his name as "Allyen", which was irritating. He also used poor stage voices for key characters. Inspector Fox, for example, sounded like a female fairy rather than the gruff character written.

Good story, Dreadful narrator

Great character development as always, good story with interesting plot twists, but the narrator is not very good. I’m glad to see that the next one goes back to one of the usuals for this author’s work.

Don’t you hate a narrator who miss pronounces the main characters name?

Not the worst Ngaio Marsh But close. The narrator was just all wrong, mispronouncing Inspector Allen‘s name and making Inspector Fox sound like one of Bertie Wooster’s set. I’m going to have to read this one to see if I like it any better

Story has surprises.

i love Ngaio Marsh's work, but the narrator kept slurping. Was very distracting. Surprising ending ..

Aces in Spades

Very interesting. Ngagio Marsh is so clever in painting a picture for your viewing pleasure.

Good story

Character development good. Story moves along at a good pace. Kept looking for the character Elaine, which is how the narrator pronounced the name Alleyn. Will continue listening to this series. Purchase about one per month.

Who is Elaine?

As many reviewers mentioned, the mispronunciation of the main character’s name was distracting. I found myself wondering who Elaine was once or twice. Also, Fox sounded more like a young Oxford graduate instead of large and older than Alleyn. Had the narrator (or director) done a little research before recording, it would have solved both these issues. Finally, you often hear the narrator swallow. It’s like he’s eating or drinking while narrating. Sometimes it seems to fit the scene, other times it’s distracting. Not the *worst* Marsh recording on Audible (go listen to Death in a White Tie- great story, horrible audio), but definitely second worst. Pretty good story though.

perfect reader for this book

rest in piece Jeremy Sinden, and Nagaio Marsh. thank you for this wonderful book. what the other country-cousin reviewers fail to comprehend is that the story centers around a dear old fusspot of an aristocrat (or not as the case turns out, but still a sweetiepie). Therefore Jeremy Sinden is perfect

Good mystery, but narrator made too many mispronunciations

Narrator has a good voice but mispronounced the main character's name, another major character, and a standard word found in any dictionary. That's a lack of narrator's preparation and definitely an inadequate editor!
Alleyn pronounced correctly has been explained in Ngaio Marsh's previous books, it's said like Allen/Alan. The y is silent!
Plus, the narrator also messed up pronouncing Desirée which is not a rare name.
Also, unguent gets mispronounced by this narrator.
Regrettable, as all those errors are distracting/annoying to us listeners.

Why didn't any editor or staffer catch those errors and correct narrator?

Thus I couldn't give this audiobook 5 stars due to the narrator's too frequent errors.