The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries Audiobook By Otto Penzler - editor cover art

The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

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The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

By: Otto Penzler - editor
Narrated by: Rachael Beresford, Stephen Bowlby, Dan Calley
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Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler—"detective fiction's best editor and champion" (The Washington Post)—returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants.

Behind the velvet curtains of horse-drawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. With his latest title in the Big Book series, Otto Penzler is cracking cases and serving up the most thrilling, suspenseful Victorian mysteries.

This collection brings together incredible stories from Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Guy de Maupassant, among other legendary writers of the grand era of the British Empire. So brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries.

©2021 Otto Penzler (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Detective Mystery Traditional Detectives Fiction Imperialism Exciting
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Not only is this entertaining, but I learned so much about many of my favorite authors.

So many stories

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Great collection of stories. Kudos to editor. Abysmal narration by the male narrator. If audible ever charges for this particular version, do yourself and the stories a service. Buy and read the book for yourself.

Great stories butchered by narration.

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My spouse and I (+ dog) listened to these together during the holidays usually early morning and bedtime. Most of the stories were good only a few were meh.

Good to listen to over the holidays

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For one credit there’s a lot of listening here and wide swath of authors from the Victorian age from both English and international authors. Some of the stories are well known but with so many to choose from there were many new to me. Likewise, several different narrators voice the stories which keeps the narration from getting monotonous. The main problem I had was finding which stories are contained here and even after I bought it the chapters are unlisted so I had to find the google book preview of the hard copy and the contents are as listed:

Introduction by Otto Penzler
One Night in a Gaming-House 3
"Waters"

The Biter Bit 11
Wilkie Collins

Hunted Down 30
Charles Dickens

The Wife-Killer 44
James M'Govan

My Adventure in the Flying Scotsman
52
Eden Phillpotts

The Mystery of a Handsome Cad 66
Moll. Bourne

The Jewelled Skull 72
Dick Donovan

The Greek Interpreter 84
Arthur Conan Doyle

The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step 96
C. L. Pirkis

The Opal of Carmalovitch 111
Max Pemberton

An Oak Coffin
120
L. T. Meade & Chifford Halfax

The Stanway Cameo Mystery 136
Arthur Morrison

The Divination of the Zagury
Capsules 149
Headon Hill

Five Hundred Carats 160
George Griffith

The Vanishing Diamonds 170
M. McDonnell Bodkin

Hagar of the Pawn-Shop 184
Fergus Hume

The Robbery in Phillimore Terrace 205
Emmuska Orczy

CRIME STORIES

Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess,
219
J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The Advocate's Wedding-Day
240
Catherine Crome

Levison's Victim 248
M. E. Braddon

The Pavilion on the Links 259
Robert Louis Stevenson

The Knightsbridge Mystery 289
Charles Reade

The Three Strangers 311
Thomas Hardy

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime 335
Oscar Wilde

The Mystery of the Strong Room 345
L.. T. Meade & Robert Eustace

The Hammerpond Park Burglary 360
H. G. Wells

The Ides of March 366
E. W. Hornung

The Story of the Lost Special
378
Arthur Conan Doyle

The Episode of the Tyrolean Castle 390
Grant Allen

The Diamond Lizard 400
George R. Sims

A Prince of Swindlers 414
Guy Boothby

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

The Little Old Man of Batignolles 484
Émile Gaboriau (French)

The Deposition 512
Luigi Capuana (Italian)

Vendetta 518
Guy de Maupassant (French)

The Confession of a Woman
522
Guy de Maupassant (French)

The Swedish Match 525
Anton Chekhov (Russian)

Sleepy 538
Anton Chekhov (Russian)

Well-Woven Evidence 542
Dietrich Theden (German)

The Nail 445
Pedro de Alarcón (Spanish)

The Invisible Eye 458
Erckmann-Chatrian (French)

God Sees the Truth, but Waits 469
Leo Tolstoy (Russian)

The Moscow Theater Plot 475
Alfredo Oriani (Italian)

AMERICAN STORIES
The Purloined Letter 553
Edgar Allan Poe

A Thumb-print and What Came of It 565
Mark Tirain

My Favorite Murder 574
Ambrose Bierce

The Lady, or the Tiger?
580
Frank Stockton

The Corpus Delicti 585
Melville Davisson Post

A Difficult Problem 603
Anna Katharine Green

The Suicide of Kiaros 616
L. Frank Baum

Great value

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Although I’ve read many other Victorian authors and many mysteries, this particular mix was not satisfying or memorable. Not a one made me go search out their author’s other works as I’ve had happen with other collections from Otto Penzler. It was suitable for putting me to sleep, however.

Not my cup of tea

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