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Death in Ecstasy
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Series: Roderick Alleyn, Book 4
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
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Summary
The poison was cyanide, slipped into the sacred wine of ecstasy just before it was presented to Miss Cara Quayne at the House of the Sacred Flame.
The victim was a deeply religious initiate who had trained for a month for her last ceremony. She was also a very beautiful woman.... The suspects were the other initiates and the high priest. All claimed they were above earthly passions. But Cara Quayne had provoked lust, jealousy - and murder.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Gen S
- 08-07-20
Good plot ruined by an awful narrator
Good story ruined by an over-the-top narrator. He read the book like it was one long farce. I know that the author was not always politically correct, but I felt the narrator could have tempered this by his performance, but instead, I felt he was poking fun at the characters and, ergo, belittling the author's writing. It was really off-putting.
1 person found this helpful
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- Seagull
- 16-02-18
Enjoyable
I enjoy most of Ngaio Marsh's books, and as far as plot-lines go, this one doesn't disappoint. It's atmospheric, ingenious and well written. However - a warning: It does contain attitudes to homosexuality which are offensive but which were, alas, common to the times in which it was written.
1 person found this helpful
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- Keithj
- 16-03-16
Spoiled by the strange voices used by the narrator
I enjoy the Alleyn stories but enjoyed this less through the irritating narration. It gave impression that the narrator was not taking it seriously. Too many characters were caricatures and several sounded more like Julian and Sandy from Round The Horne than real people.
1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 18-07-21
For Alleyn Fans ...
Alleyn is in nearly every scene - unlike some of the later books in the series. One of Ngaio Marsh's best so far. On a technical point: not sure if it was due to listening while unable to sleep but I had to tweak the listening speed down slightly in the latter part of the book - worked a treat.
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- Ebru AW
- 19-01-18
Old-fashioned, light-hearted sleuthing
The kind of crime that we’re used to from old-fashioned Holmes and detectives who play their part. The characters are a little cartoon-like and the accents are way too stereotypical but so what? I enjoyed listening to it.
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- John
- 27-03-17
Tedious narrator
I know this gentleman is hired quite often to read in this series.....
However,... Someone needs to tell him to swallow his saliva regularly and more often... He waits until he's almost drowning in it , then gulps it away...
Ugh... Shudder... Most distressing..
5 people found this helpful
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- Nicole B.
- 02-05-22
Another Gem by Ngaio Marsh
When it comes to gentlemen detective stories Ngaio Marsh writes her mysteries with the right amount of dark undertones and humour. James Saxon narrated Marsh's characters to life and was just delightful overall to listen to.
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- peter
- 03-09-21
A fine and amusing story.
In this novel NM let’s her sense of humor shine thru. The usual mix of suspects and highly engrossing back stories but lots of laugh moments. It’s also time to ‘out’ Rattisbone the ever recurring solicitor. He appears without fanfare or comment in many books but in this novel a character asks Alleyn “do you know this person?” And Alleyn replies “slightly” - of course they have shared many a story and Rattisbone deserves much better of his creator. Loved the story as usual.
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- Susan J.
- 12-04-18
Boring book
This book was so boring that I couldn't finish it. The characters were stereotypes of little interest and the plot nonexistent.
1 person found this helpful