
Bump in the Night
A Flaxborough Mystery, Book 2
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Narrated by:
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Simon Shepherd
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By:
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Colin Watson
About this listen
Tuesday nights have suddenly turned quite ridiculously noisy in the country town of Chalmsbury, where the good folk are outraged at having their rest disturbed.
It begins with a drinking fountain being blown to smithereens - next the statue of a local worthy loses his head, and the following week a giant glass eye is exploded. Despite the soft-soled sleuthing of cub reporter Len Leaper, the crime spate grows alarming.
Sheer vandalism is bad enough, but when a life is lost, the amiable Inspector Purbright, called in from nearby Flaxborough to assist in enquiries, finds he must delve deep into the seamier side of this quiet town's goings-on. Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson's tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay.
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What listeners say about Bump in the Night
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sharon
- 05-03-20
Highly recommend for fans of Catherine Aird
This novel is filled with classical, tongue in cheek British wit … fans of exquisite intellectual puzzles made substantial by excellent character development and fine plotting will enjoy this … I'd place the time frame somewhere in the 1950's - 1970's in a small village in England … not so saccharine as a "cozy", but, not violently blood soaked, although quite a few folks get murdered along the way. But, for me, it is the wit, the language, the clear sense of a refined, educated intellect writing a very fine mystery. There's nothing lightweight about this novel, it ranks with Agatha Christie's finest, and the characters rank with Catherine Aird's Crosby and Sloan. In other words, top marks all around if you like classic British mysteries.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Raylene
- 08-10-20
Ending unsatisfying.
Enjoy the Prubeck character and interesting plot but I had to listen to the ending several times Still can’t put it together.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sylvia
- 01-24-23
Not as good as the first book (which was great)!
The first book in the series was full of colorful characters and interesting settings and great narration. I had been excited to get into this second in the series. The ending is very clever. But the story did not have interesting settings and the characters were not very interesting. The book started off so promising. But then it kind of dragged on. Inspector Pirbright did not come in to the story till too far into the book for my tastes. He is the character i like best. It is possible that people who are more into intellectual mysteries might like this. But I prefer more color and mystery and interesting characters than this book had. The narrator is still very, very good. And the author writes very well. It's just that this story was a bit of a dud in my opinion.
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- peter
- 05-08-23
Good fun intelligent writing
This is a great series. Witty well plotted interesting characters and very well narrated. Definitely recommended.
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