Inspector French and the Sea Mystery cover art

Inspector French and the Sea Mystery

Inspector French Mystery, Book 4

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Inspector French and the Sea Mystery

By: Freeman Wills Crofts
Narrated by: Phil Fox
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About this listen

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the fourth Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.

THE BODY THAT CAME FROM NOWHERE

Off the coast of Burry Port in south Wales, two fishermen discover a shipping crate and manage to haul it ashore. Inside is the decomposing body of a brutally murdered man. With nothing to indicate who he is or where it came from, the local police decide to call in Scotland Yard. Fortunately Inspector Joseph French does not believe in insoluble cases – there are always clues to be found if you know what to look for. Testing his theories with his accustomed thoroughness, French’s ingenuity sets him off on another investigation . . .

©1928 Estate of Freeman Wills Crofts (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers Crime Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Thriller

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Critic reviews

‘Inspector French is as near the real thing as any sleuth in fiction.’ SUNDAY TIMES

“A detective novel by Mr. Wills Crofts is always an event to those who know … Mr. Crofts is among the few muscular writers of detective fiction. He has never let me down.”
HAROLD NICOLSON, DAILY EXPRESS
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This the 4 book following the Starvel Hollow case, finds the author and his inspectors skill growing. The detail in caricatures, places and narrative are superbly crafted. inspector French goes about his work with such realistic detail, with clear human undertaking and limitations, making him so believable. You can see late creations of Morse etc being infected by Wills Crofts art form.

Freeman Wills Croft at his best

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I've never heard this narrator before, but I enjoyed his performance immensely. Well done.

Very enjoyable

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This is a series focused on the sort of everyday police work that leads to solving murders, and I actually enjoy that very much. We get to follow French as he pursues every scrap of information and utilises all the resources under his command. The narrator's dry style suits this type of story to a T; Phil Fox' voice is perfect.

My only complaint is that in each of the three books I've listened to, I've been disappointed with the solution. In grounding the story so much in reality, Crofts cannot give us the brilliant, illuminating aha-moments that you get with for instance Christie. The journey to get there is fun though.

A good time

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Third of these I have listened to. Take the series in order but they do stand alone. Well read, easy to follow and gripping stories. I am looking forward to the others.

Absolutely brilliant

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Wills Crofts is very good at impossible situations which he resolves with breathtaking timings.
The narrator was very good. The ending was most satisfying.

Excellent of its type

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I love these stories with their meticulous focus on the details of the mystery and the actions of Inspector French to try and puzzle them out. If you're looking for in depth development of the characters and their relationships then these stories aren't for you, but I find the step by step unravelling of the mystery, in a time when landline telephones and telegrams were the most rapid forms of communication, great fun. Phil Fox is a very good narrator, pacing his delivery well and voicing the different characters sufficiently to tell them apart, but without going over the top. I'm looking forward to more in this series.

Great detective puzzles

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this was brilliant please can we some more has good as this was thank you

Great story

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