Murder in the Basement

De: Anthony Berkeley

Narrado por: Seán Barrett

When two newlyweds move into their new home, only to discover that a corpse has been buried in their basement a few months prior, a gruelling case is begun to trace the identity of the victim. With all avenues of investigation approaching exhaustion, a tenuous lead offers a chance for Chief Inspector Moresby and leads him to the amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham, who has recently been providing cover work in a school south of London. Desperate for evidence of any kind on the basement case, Moresby begins to sift through the manuscript of a satirical novel Sheringham had been writing about his colleagues at the school, convinced that amongst the cast of teachers hides the victim - and perhaps their murderer.

©1932, 2021 The Estate of Anthony Berkeley Cox, Introduction Martin Edwards (P)2021 Isis Publishing Ltd

Berkeley- Master Mystery Writer

Berkeley is one of my all time favorite mystery writers. Every book I have read of his I have enjoyed. My favorite is his “The Poisoned Chocolates Case”. I enjoy the English mysteries where reason and psychology solve the mystery over the American beat down with fists to extract truth. A battle of wits is more fun.

Really quite good

There are great characters and an interesting plot, along with a very tricky mystery. Worth the read!

S-l-o-w paced.

Rather tedious, with too much of the slogging work of following this that and the other to no avail. No one shines in this mystery.

Berkeley (kind of) Cheats!

While it is possible to put together the clues and guess the murderer, Anthony Berkeley’s denouement is sort of a cheat. This is an author to whom I usually give five stars so I was a bit disappointed. Still, the voice, pacing, and characters are classic Golden Age of Mystery so my time with this book was in no way wasted.

Unsatisfying Ending

I guess I'm too traditional, but I didn't like the way Berkeley reached the denouement.

Excellent, understated, engaging

This is an almost perfect piece of crime writing, in my opinion. Berkeley has a good red herring, a great cast of characters, and an excellent presentation of the facts. I really enjoyed the layout of the police procedures. The one thing I didn't like so much was his amateur detective swooping in at the end to clinch it. After listening to all of the hard work Moresby does to solve the case, you really feel he earns his win. But this is a minor issue and I otherwise loved listening to this both for the excellent story and the well chosen narrator.