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Singing in the Shrouds

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Singing in the Shrouds

By: Ngaio Marsh
Narrated by: James Saxon
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About this listen

 On a cold February night the police find the third corpse on the quayside in the Pool of London, her body covered with flower petals and pearls. The killer walked away, singing. When the cargo ship, Cape Farewell, sets sail, she carries nine passengers, one of whom is known to be the murderer. Which is why Superintendent Roderick Alleyn joins the ship at Portsmouth on the most difficult assignment of his professional career...
Singing in the Shrouds was first published in 1958.©1958 Original Text of 1958 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio Classics Cosy Crime Thrillers Fiction Mystery Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Crime Thriller Detective Suspense

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Critic reviews

"Ngaio Marsh at her intelligent best." (Times Literary Supplement)

"Superlatively good." (Sunday Times)

"Astoundingly good...moments of pure hilarity set among moments of real fear. Masterly." (Daily Express)
All stars
Most relevant  
I used to like James Saxon's style of narration of the Alleyn stories but now not so much. His narration is in the older style with very over the top voices, not just accents. These certainly make the characters distinctive but feel jarring now and make a second listen less appealing.

There are many excellent narrators recording now who can manage to make the characters crystal clear but are still a joy to hear more than once and I prefer their versions.

This is an unusual Alleyn story and setting. Marsh builds the tension extremely, the story is very unsettling and the unmasking is well done.

Sinister setting

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Enjoyed the entire story immensely, but then I am a huge fan of Ngaio Marsh. The narration by James Saxon was, as always, super.

Excellent narration

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This was well narrated and
built up an interesting atmosphere on the docks and on the boat where the action takes place. But, the story was a bit thin, so not one of my favourite Marsh novels.

Atmospheric but a bit obvious

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Another great story with excellent narration. I prefer Nadia May/Wanda McCaddon (and have purchased books based on the fact that she narrates them!) but James Saxon creates great characters. A book to listen to again.

Shipboard thrills

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Perhaps not the best Ngaio Marsh story, but still enjoyable and well read. Characters were engaging.

Very enjoyable murder mystery.

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All round, excellent classic detective murder-mystery by one of the acknowledged Queens of Crime!

Rich language, superbly crafted ‘who-dun-it’ Satisfying exposeé

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Where does Singing in the Shrouds rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This was a different format for a marsh novel set almost entirely on board ship. Unfortunately the narrator over does all of the characters to the extent that it is almost pantomime.

What did you like best about this story?

The story is excellent and the end is a good twist

Would you be willing to try another one of James Saxon’s performances?

No

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Spoilt by the narration

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I am of the opinion that Ngaio Marsh was a far superior crime writer to Agatha Christie, and, while this is not her greatest novel, it still beats the vast majority of the better known writer's work. Her character, Roderick Alleyn, who, like Ngaio Marsh herself, suffers from frequent mispronunciation of his name, is an understated, sophisticated, and very likeable chap. Marsh never made the mistake of giving him gimmicky personality traits, neither did she make a fool of herself and fall in love with her fictional creation, as Dorothy L Sayers did with her sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey.
This story, which, like all of Marsh's books, begins with a superb opening scene (which I imagine in black and white) that creates a wonderfully evocative atmosphere, is unusual in that the motive for murder is an unpredictable one. It is, however, still possible, as with her other works, for the reader to work out who dunnit. Marsh always plays fair with her audience.
The action takes place on board a ship used primarily for freight, but carrying just nine passengers (with the addition of Alleyn) which, as with all Golden Age detective fiction, gives the perfectly restricted environment.

The reader is the late James Saxon, who is so versatile and adept at creating a whole cast of individual character voices, it is easy to forget it is just him. He was obviously an accomplished actor who was, perhaps, handicapped by his extremely boyish looks. It's a really great shame that he died at a relatively young age, and would never know that he would be so admired by a host of audiobook fans.

A perfect combination

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Ngaio Marsh apparently had some rather unfortunate views connected to human sexuality. At least, such views are more or less openly expressed by Alleyn, his colleagues, and/or other main characters in most of her books. Sometimes it is very subtle, and in some of her best novels it hardly appears at all, but Singing in the Shrouds is one of the worst offenders. In a nutshell, female sexuality is disgusting if the woman is older than, say, 25 or if she is not very pretty; male sexuality on the other hand is the most normal thing in the world – provided that there is no hint of homosexuality because that turns a person into a non-person.

There are some rather fun passages and the crime investigation is pretty good. Overall I'd place this in the bottom third among Marsh's 32 novels, but not at the very bottom.

James Saxon drives me insane with his ridiculous voices and especially the slight half-laugh that he developed more and more throughout the Alleyn books (it's not there in for instance his lovely narration of Death in a White Tie).

Not one of her best

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This my first listen to Ngaio Marsh, I hope that it's not my last, she's a great author.

The story was innovative and intricate in parts but, it was wholly let down by the narrator! To save his life, he cannot do characterisation! Many times you could not tell who was speaking and, as for the voice he adapted for one female character in particular, it was appalling!

I'm just about to buy another book. I hope that he isn't the narrator. But if he is, I'm going to give him one last chance.

Listen to the sample before buying, the book is great so, if you can tolerate his narration, go for it!

Enjoy!

Story Great - Narration Poor

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