Showing results by narrator "Hugh Fraser" in All Categories

Summertime - as the temperature rises, so does the potential for evil. From Cornwall to the French Riviera, whether against a background of Delphic temples or English country houses, Agatha Christie’s most famous characters solve even the most devilish of conundrums as the summer sun beats down. Pull up a deckchair and enjoy plot twists and red herrings galore from the best-selling fiction writer of all time.

Brought to you by Penguin. The songlines are the invisible pathways that criss-cross Australia, ancient tracks connecting communities and following ancient boundaries. Along these lines Aboriginals passed the songs which revealed the creation of the land and the secrets of its past. In this magical account Chatwin recalls his travels across the length and breadth of Australia seeking to find the truth about the songs and unravel the mysteries of their stories.

Still in the formative years of his career, Hercule Poirot faces a most taxing case: who killed Lord Cronshaw? Was Coco Courtenay's death on the same night a mere coincidence? And did she deliberately take an overdose of cocaine?

Lucy Angkatell invited Hercule Poirot to lunch. To tease the great detective, her guests stage a mock murder beside the swimming pool. Unfortunately, the victim plays the scene for real. As his blood drips into the water, John Christow gasps one final word: "Henrietta". In the confusion, a gun sinks to the bottom of the pool. Poirot's enquiries reveal a complex web of romantic attachments. It seems everyone in the drama is a suspect, and each a victim of love.

To understand the strange goings on at The Pale Horse Inn, Mark Easterbrook knew he had to begin at the beginning. But where exactly was the beginning? Was it the savage blow to the back of Father Gorman's head? Or was it when the priest's assailant searched him so roughly, he tore the clergyman's cassock? Or could it have been the priest's visit, just minutes before, to a woman on her deathbed? Or was there a deeper significance to the violent squabble that Mark Easterbrook had himself witnessed earlier?

Lytcham Close, one of the oldest stately homes in England, is owned by the last remaining heir and ruled by his intolerable whims. Old Hubert demands complete silence when he plays music and times dinner exactly by a resounding gong. Rushing down at the sound of the second - or is it the first? - gong, Joan Ashby is about to find out that not only is dinner delayed, but something is going on that no one can explain. Everyone is thrown into disarray when Old Hubert never materializes and instead a new guest is announced: Hercule Poirot himself.

Thirteen guests arrived at dinner at the actor's house. It was to be a particularly unlucky evening for the mild-mannered Reverend Stephen Babbington, who choked on his cocktail, went into convulsions and died. But when his martini glass was sent for chemical analysis, there was no trace of poison, just as Poirot had predicted. Even more troubling for the great detective, there was absolutely no motive.

Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, like some monstrous swollen Buddha, sat the corpse of Mrs Boynton. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist was the only sign of the fatal injection that had killed her.

When Mr. Satterthwaite visits a new exhibit at the Harchester Galleries, there is one painting that bears an unusual likeness to a mysterious acquaintance of his, Mr. Quin. In one bold move he purchases the canvas on the spot, and in another invites the artist of "The Dead Harlequin" to dine with him that night, with an empty place at the table set for Mr. Quin. Dinner conversation soon turns to the setting of "The Dead Harlequin", the doomed and ghostly house Charnley, where many have perished under tragic circumstances.

Autumn is the season of misty mornings and cosy nights in, but as the leaves begin to fall the nights get longer and the shadows grow darker… Secluded cottages, eerie manors and ghostly hauntings and cursed tombs abound in this collection of 12 supernatural mysteries and murderous plots featuring Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Agatha Christie’s other favourite detectives.

Framed in the doorway of Poirot's bedroom stood an uninvited guest, coated from head to foot in dust. The man's gaunt face stared for a moment, then he swayed and fell. Who was he? Was he suffering from shock or just exhaustion? Above all, what was the significance of the figure four, scribbled over and over again on a sheet of paper? Poirot finds himself plunged into a world of international intrigue, risking his life to uncover the truth about "Number Four".

When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady. But when Mrs Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew, and Mrs Lancaster talks about "something behind the fireplace", Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in an unexpected adventure involving possible black magic.

Hugh Fraser is a man of many talents. He will probably be best known to you as an actor; he played Captin Hastings to David Suchet’s Poirot on over forty occasions. But he’s also been a musician and a composer and now, having narrated over 90 Agatha Christie audiobooks, he’s writing his own crime fiction. Hugh visits the Audible Studios to discuss his crime series, his pedigree as an audiobook narrator, and his time starring in the Inspector Maigret TV adaptations.

Major Hastings and Hercule Poirot are not interested in the mystery of the Spanish chest, which has been reported in the papers so often that it seems to be an entirely closed case. But, when Hastings persuades Poirot to attend a fabulous party given by Lady Chatterton, they discover someone sequestered upstairs who is desperate for their help. Will the contents of a dead man's pockets reveal to the inscrutable eye of Hercule Poirot who the culprit is?

Nick Buckley was an unusual name for a pretty young woman. But then she had led an unusual life. First, on a treacherous Cornish hillside, the brakes on her car failed. Then, on a coastal path, a falling boulder missed her by inches. Later, an oil painting fell and almost crushed her in bed. Upon discovering a bullet-hole in Nick's sun hat, Hercule Poirot decides the girl needs his protection. At the same time, he begins to unravel the mystery of a murder that hasn't been committed. Yet.

A classic Christie mystery. Read by Hugh Fraser who plays Hugh Fraser in the popular TV series. At a Hallowe’en party, Joyce – a hostile thirteen-year-old – boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the ‘evil presence’. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer…

Mrs McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion fell immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes revealed traces of the victim's blood and hair. Yet something was amiss: Bentley just didn't look like a murderer.

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course. But why is the dead man wearing his son's overcoat? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse.

All great crime writers have their favourite creations. Similarly, every great sleuth has his, or her, own preferred method of deduction. Take the charming Parker Pyne, who relies upon an intuitive knowledge of human nature to solve the 'Problem at Pollensa Bay'. Or Mr Satterthwaite, who seeks inspiration through his collaboration with the enigmatic Mr Quin in 'The Harlequin Tea Set' mystery. Then, of course, there's Poirot, whose measured analysis of motive and opportunity is tested to the full in 'Yellow Iris', when he receives an anonymous call about a matter of life and death.

The rather disgruntled pair of Tommy and Tuppence are sequestered in the Grand Adlington Hotel, having made a pig's ear out of their latest case. But, while mournfully sipping cocktails, with Tommy oddly dressed as a parson, they are gleefully accosted by their old acquaintance Mr. Bulger, who has London's most beautiful stage actress, Gilda Glen, in tow. Featherbrained and a little confused, Gilda takes Tommy for a real clergyman and scrawls out a desperate note to meet him away from the hotel. While Tommy and Tuppence mull over the note, in storms an old flame of Gilda's, claiming he wants to wring someone's neck.