
The Cask
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $27.58
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Gordon Griffin
About this listen
From the Collins Crime Club archive, the seminal first novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’ and recognised as one of the ‘big four’ Golden Age crime authors.
The unloading of a consignment of French wine from the steamship Bullfinch is interrupted by a gruesome discovery in a broken cask leaking sawdust and gold sovereigns. But when the shipping clerk returns with the police, the cask and its macabre contents have gone. Following the clues to Paris, Inspector Burnley of Scotland Yard enlists the help of the genial French detective M. Lefarge to check motives and alibis in their hunt for evidence of a particularly fiendish murder.
This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by Freeman Wills Crofts himself in a unique preface from 1946 about The Cask’s origins.
©2019 Freeman Wills Crofts (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
-
Inspector French’s Greatest Case
- By: Freeman Will Crofts
- Narrated by: John Rayburn
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A late-night murder of a diamond merchant’s veteran employee in London’s Hatton Gardens has Scotland Yard calling on Inspector French to investigate. When French gets there he finds not only the victim but missing diamonds and money from an open safe. There are meager clues as the Inspector follows a trail to mainland Europe and back. There are many false clues and several suspects with much of the searching leading to nothing but dead ends. We can listen as French sorts it all out, finding the missing diamonds and nabbing the murderer.
-
-
Unlistenable
- By E. Plimsoll on 04-15-24
-
The Groote Park Murder
- Detective Club Crime Classics
- By: Freeman Wills Crofts
- Narrated by: Crawford Logan
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a signalman discovers a mutilated body inside a railway tunnel near Groote Park, it seems to be a straightforward case of a man struck by a passing train. But Inspector Vandam of the Middeldorp police isn’t satisfied that Albert Smith’s death was accidental, and he sets out to prove foul play in a baffling mystery which crosses continents from deepest South Africa to the wilds of northern Scotland, where an almost identical crime appears to have been perpetrated.
-
-
The Soundest Builder of Them All
- By John on 07-22-19
-
The Theft of the Iron Dogs
- By: E. C. R. Lorac
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While hot on the heels of serial coupon-racketeer Gordon Ginner, Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard receives word of an intriguing incident up in Lancashire – the summer cottage of local farmer Giles Hoggett has been broken into, with an assortment of seemingly random items missing which include a complete reel of salmon line, a large sack, and two iron dogs from his fireplace. What first appears as a simple break-in quickly spirals into a mystery of contested land grabs for fishing between farmers, made all the more enticing to MacDonald when a body is then found in the river.
-
-
Well written but Unexciting
- By Geoffrey on 10-23-24
By: E. C. R. Lorac
-
The Josephine Tey Collection: 6 Alan Grant Novels; Brat Farrar; & Miss Pym Disposes
- The Man in the Queue; A Shilling for Candles; The Franchise Affair; To Love and Be Wise; The Daughter of Time; The Singing Sands; Miss Pym Disposes; Brat Farrar
- By: Josephine Tey
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 61 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Josephine Tey Collection includes unabridged recordings of Tey's 8 major novels in one audiobook, including all 6 of the novels in the Inspector Alan Grant series.
-
-
Thank you Audible - best spent credit ever
- By Lynn on 05-14-23
By: Josephine Tey
-
The Wintringham Mystery
- Cicely Disappears
- By: Anthony Berkeley, Tony Medawar
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew—who recognises Stephen from his former life—decides that an after-dinner séance would be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!
-
-
Charming Light-hearted mystery
- By Carolyn on 10-04-21
By: Anthony Berkeley, and others
-
Death of an Author
- By: E. C. R. Lorac
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivian Lestrange - celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse - has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself looking for publicity, it appears that crime is afoot when Lestrange's housekeeper is also found to have disappeared. Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim.
-
-
Modern classic mystery
- By AlmanacJEA on 06-11-23
By: E. C. R. Lorac
-
Inspector French’s Greatest Case
- By: Freeman Will Crofts
- Narrated by: John Rayburn
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A late-night murder of a diamond merchant’s veteran employee in London’s Hatton Gardens has Scotland Yard calling on Inspector French to investigate. When French gets there he finds not only the victim but missing diamonds and money from an open safe. There are meager clues as the Inspector follows a trail to mainland Europe and back. There are many false clues and several suspects with much of the searching leading to nothing but dead ends. We can listen as French sorts it all out, finding the missing diamonds and nabbing the murderer.
-
-
Unlistenable
- By E. Plimsoll on 04-15-24
-
The Groote Park Murder
- Detective Club Crime Classics
- By: Freeman Wills Crofts
- Narrated by: Crawford Logan
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a signalman discovers a mutilated body inside a railway tunnel near Groote Park, it seems to be a straightforward case of a man struck by a passing train. But Inspector Vandam of the Middeldorp police isn’t satisfied that Albert Smith’s death was accidental, and he sets out to prove foul play in a baffling mystery which crosses continents from deepest South Africa to the wilds of northern Scotland, where an almost identical crime appears to have been perpetrated.
-
-
The Soundest Builder of Them All
- By John on 07-22-19
-
The Theft of the Iron Dogs
- By: E. C. R. Lorac
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While hot on the heels of serial coupon-racketeer Gordon Ginner, Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard receives word of an intriguing incident up in Lancashire – the summer cottage of local farmer Giles Hoggett has been broken into, with an assortment of seemingly random items missing which include a complete reel of salmon line, a large sack, and two iron dogs from his fireplace. What first appears as a simple break-in quickly spirals into a mystery of contested land grabs for fishing between farmers, made all the more enticing to MacDonald when a body is then found in the river.
-
-
Well written but Unexciting
- By Geoffrey on 10-23-24
By: E. C. R. Lorac
-
The Josephine Tey Collection: 6 Alan Grant Novels; Brat Farrar; & Miss Pym Disposes
- The Man in the Queue; A Shilling for Candles; The Franchise Affair; To Love and Be Wise; The Daughter of Time; The Singing Sands; Miss Pym Disposes; Brat Farrar
- By: Josephine Tey
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 61 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Josephine Tey Collection includes unabridged recordings of Tey's 8 major novels in one audiobook, including all 6 of the novels in the Inspector Alan Grant series.
-
-
Thank you Audible - best spent credit ever
- By Lynn on 05-14-23
By: Josephine Tey
-
The Wintringham Mystery
- Cicely Disappears
- By: Anthony Berkeley, Tony Medawar
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew—who recognises Stephen from his former life—decides that an after-dinner séance would be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!
-
-
Charming Light-hearted mystery
- By Carolyn on 10-04-21
By: Anthony Berkeley, and others
-
Death of an Author
- By: E. C. R. Lorac
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivian Lestrange - celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse - has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself looking for publicity, it appears that crime is afoot when Lestrange's housekeeper is also found to have disappeared. Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim.
-
-
Modern classic mystery
- By AlmanacJEA on 06-11-23
By: E. C. R. Lorac
-
Death Makes a Prophet
- By: John Bude
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welworth Garden City in the 1940s is a forward-thinking town where free spirits find a home - vegetarians, socialists, and an array of exotic religious groups. Chief among these are the Children of Osiris, led by the eccentric High Prophet, Eustace K. Mildmann. The cult is a seething hotbed of petty resentment, jealousy and dark secrets - which eventually lead to murder. The stage is set for one of Inspector Meredith's most bizarre and exacting cases.
-
-
Stereotypes
- By Katherine on 05-11-19
By: John Bude
-
The Body in the Dumb River
- By: George Bellairs
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the most part, the dead man received public sympathy. A decent, hardworking chap, with not an enemy anywhere. People were surprised that anybody should want to kill Jim. But Jim has been drowned in the Dumb River, near Ely, miles from his Yorkshire home. His body has been discovered before the killer intended – disturbed by a torrential flood. It's up to Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard to trace the mystery of the murder to its source, leaving waves of scandal and sensation in his wake.
-
-
greed and selfishment
- By Sally A. Jackson on 04-22-22
By: George Bellairs
-
These Names Make Clues
- By: E. C.R. Lorac
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of the Graham Coombe, the celebrated publisher of Murder by Mesmerism. The clues of the hunt have been devised by Coombe's thriller-writer friends, disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms. The fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when 'Samuel Pepys' is found murdered in the telephone room in bizarre circumstances.
-
-
Fun story.
- By peter on 03-12-22
By: E. C.R. Lorac
-
The Cornish Coast Murder
- By: John Bude
- Narrated by: Ben Allen
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The reverend Dodd, vicar of the quiet Cornish village of Boscawen, spends his evenings reading detective stories by the fireside - but heaven forbid that the shadow of any real crime should ever fall across his seaside parish. But the vicar's peace is shattered one stormy night when Julius Tregarthan, an ill-tempered magistrate, is found at his house in Boscawen with a bullet through his head. The local police inspector is baffled by the lack of clues.
-
-
A Good Old Fashioned Who Done It
- By C. Rosser on 05-12-16
By: John Bude
-
The Paddington Mystery
- Detective Club Crime Classics
- By: John Rhode
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Harold Merefield returned home in the early hours of a winter morning from a festive little party at that popular nightclub, the Naxos, he was startled by a gruesome discovery. On his bed was a corpse. There was nothing to show the identity of the dead man or the cause of his death. At the inquest, the jury found a verdict of ‘death from natural causes’ - perhaps they were right, but yet?
-
-
Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea, But I Enjoyed It
- By John on 11-22-18
By: John Rhode
-
The Crime at Black Dudley
- By: Margery Allingham
- Narrated by: Paul Panting
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Albert Campion, an eccentric but intelligent and resourceful man, becomes involved in a mysterious crime in Black Dudley, an isolated country estate owned by the wealthy and secretive Dudley family. A grand gathering is taking place at the house, but not all will leave.
-
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
- A Miss Marple Collection
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Marple: The Complete Story Collection gathers together in one magnificent volume all of Agatha Christie’s short stories featuring her beloved intrepid investigator, Miss Marple. It’s an unparalleled compendium of murder, mayhem, mystery, and detection that represents some of the finest short form fiction in the crime fiction field, and is an essential omnibus for Christie fans.
-
-
Classic Miss Marple - uneven narration
- By Lyric G. Eads on 11-09-22
By: Agatha Christie
-
Death of Mr. Dodsley
- By: John Ferguson
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mr. Richard Dodsley, owner of a fine second-hand bookshop on Charing Cross Road, has been found murdered in the cold hours of the morning. Shot in his own office, few clues remain besides three cigarette ends, two spent matches and a few books on the shelves which have been rearranged. In an investigation spanning the second-hand bookshops of London and the Houses of Parliament - since an MP's new crime novel Death at the Desk appears to have some bearing on the case - John Ferguson's series sleuth MacNab is at hand to assist Scotland Yard in an atmospheric fair-play bibliomystery.
-
-
By the book
- By S. Langlais on 09-28-23
By: John Ferguson
-
Death of a Bookseller
- By: Bernard J. Farmer
- Narrated by: Nick Rawlinson
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An honest policeman, Sergeant Wigan, escorts a drunk man home one night to keep him out of trouble and, seeing his fine book collection, slowly falls into the gentle art of book collecting. Just as the friendship is blossoming, the policeman's book-collecting friend is murdered. To solve the mystery of why the victim was killed, and which of his rare books was taken, Wigan dives into the world of 'runners' and book collectors, where avid agents will gladly cut you for a first edition and then offer you a lift home afterwards.
-
-
Great plot twist!
- By MolllyT on 11-22-22
-
He Who Whispers
- By: John Dickson Carr
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Miles Hammond is invited to a meeting of the Murder Club in London, he is met instead with just two other guests and is treated to a strange tale of an impossible crime in France years before; the murder of a man on a tower with only one staircase, under watch at the time at which the murder took place. With theories of levitating vampires abounding, the story comes home to Miles when he realises that the librarian he has just hired for his home is none other than Fay Seton, a woman at the heart of this bizarre and unsolved past murder.
-
-
Wonderful!
- By lh on 11-04-23
-
The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes
- By: Arthur Conan Doyle
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 70 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here in one recording is every Sherlock Holmes story ever written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Originally appearing in serial form, these famous stories are here presented in the order in which they were first published beginning in 1887. Included in this definitive, award-winning collection are four novels and 56 short stories, a total of 60 titles. The 56 short stories are aggregated into five named collections, just as they were originally published in book form.
-
-
More collections like this, please!
- By Myusollo on 07-22-14
-
The Secret of Chimneys
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Jonathan Waters
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When James McGrath needed someone to take a memoir to a publisher and to return letters to the woman who wrote them, he chooses his friend Anthony Cade, who agrees to take on the two jobs. But on Anthony's first night in London, the letters are stolen from his hotel room. He soon finds himself embroiled in a web of intrigue, conspiracy, and secrets that leads all the way to the top levels of government.
-
-
Excellent
- By Anne's Kindred Spirit on 06-29-23
By: Agatha Christie
Critic reviews
"The soundest builder of them all." (Raymond Chandler)
"Deservedly a first favourite with all who want a real puzzle." (Times Literary Supplement)
What listeners say about The Cask
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 06-14-19
The Cask
Wonderfully well crafted mystery ! For readers who appreciate the "How it was done " type of mystery.....this will be a detailed delight .....and the reader does a masterful job.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Suzi Robinson
- 11-03-22
An oldie but a goodie
There isn't much to add about a book written a hundred years ago that still entertains. Well worth both the money and time. This is my second listen and I look forward to the next in a couple years.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ltufromberkeley
- 10-19-21
1912 was prior to modern mysteries
This story has more in common with Wilkie Collins than Holmes. Obviously written in serial installments, the pacing is archaic. But it is a good story. Recommended for those willing to accept the above limitations.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marie
- 07-17-19
couldn't finish
way too long and repetitive. while the narrator does a good job in general with the narrative sections, all his male characters, even the youngish ones, sound elderly.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful