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Bodies from the Library

Selected Lost Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Masters of the Golden Age

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Bodies from the Library

By: Tony Medawar, Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, A. A. Milne, NIcholas Blake, Christianna Brand, Philip Bretherton
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About this listen

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together a selection of tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922.

At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public’s imagination and saw the emergence of some of the world’s cleverest and most popular storytellers.

This audio anthology brings together the majority of forgotten tales from the book Bodies from the Library, from the 1920s to the 1950s, by masters of the Golden Age including Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne,

Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her ‘Grand Tour’ of the British Empire.

With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C. Bailey, J.J. Connington and John Rhode, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science – when murder was a complex business.

©2018 Half-Eaten © Nikesh Shukla; Thicker Than Blood © Erin Kelly (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Thriller Traditional Detectives Mystery Suspense Short Story
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Critic reviews

"A veritable treasure trove of classic short stories. The star line up includes Agatha Christie, Cyril Hare and Georgette Heyer, but the best of the bunch are the second rank authors." (Daily Mail)

What listeners say about Bodies from the Library

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24 Carat Golden Age

WOW! Absolutely blown away by this audiobook. If you love the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, then this is a must. Wonderful stories read by a brilliant narrator. One of my favourite audiobooks!

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5 people found this helpful

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Very good short stories

Very entertaining murder mystery short stories. I enjoyed all of them! Made me want to hear more.

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1 person found this helpful

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Very well chosen selection

The author bios in between each of the stories are just as interesting and really make this a book worth buying.

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7 people found this helpful

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Great thrillers

Really entertaining detective stories. Many by masters of the genre. Thoroughly enjoyable+ you are introduced to the writer in their context.

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Absolutely loved it

This is an excellent collection of short stories by prominent writers, well written and thoroughly engaging. Despite my decades long interest in detective fiction of the golden age, I had not read any of these before.

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New and Old

a few old stories I had never read and so were fresh to my ears, So overall very good stories to listen too good cast too

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A very good anthology

It is a great shame that one story from the paperback edition is not included and neither the publisher not Audible draw this to the purchaser’s attention.

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Fantastic

Really great idea and book.

Collecting storys from authors of the golden age of mystery, ones that maybe haven't been heard before or only published in one or two places many years ago.

It's a great way to find authors you haven't heard of before and to listen to some of the lesser known works by other more famous authors.

The summary of the authors lives and works is also really interesting as it's given me insight into them and also made me realise just how prolific in different areas a lot of them were.

Highly recommended and will be getting the others in the series, and listening to again and again.

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Great Stories delivered in style

What a find - rare stories and a fabulous performance by Philip Bretherton. He voiced the characters really well- made them come alive and made the whole experience really enjoyable. Thoroughly recommend this audio book. The information about the individual authors was interesting too

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Excellent

This is a must listen if you enjoy detective stories I will be looking up all the authors and reading(listening) as many as I can. Thoroughly recommended

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