Short Mystery Story Collection 001

LibriVox Short Mystery Story Collection #1

by Gesine (Book Coordinator), P.G. Wodehouse, Robert Eustace

Death at the Excelsior by P. G. Wodehouse
The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel by Robert Eustace
The Game Played In The Dark by Ernest Bramah
Her Letters by Kate Chopin
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell
The Lost Duchess by Anonymous
The Moabite Cipher by R. Austin Freeman
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
The Safety Match by Anton Chekhov
A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery

Audiobook

First published January 13, 2008

Reviews

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve listened to a lot of these LibriVox collections, and think they are often quite good, but they can sometimes feel like a mixed bag. This one really feels like that. There are some very good stories, but also stories that are not as interesting.

It begins with P.G. Wodehouse’s Death at the Excelsior. It’s a nice mystery, but I’m glad he stuck mostly with humor where he excelled.

The second story is The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel by Robert Eustace and L.T. Meade, and I thought that was a good mystery.

Then comes the third one, The Game Played In The Dark by Ernest Bramah, which I didn’t connect with on any level. I’m not sure why, but it just didn’t work for me.

The forth story is Her Letters by Kate Chopin. It’s not what I would usually call a mystery, but it is one of the most interesting story in this collection.

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell is the fifth story, and is a very strong one. An interesting story where the author doesn’t really tell the reader what happened, but implies in it such a way that the reader gets it any way.

I thought The Lost Duchess by Anonymous began quite nicely, but the end drags on way too long. The characters are trying to figure it out long after the reader gets it.

I enjoyed The Moabite Cipher by R. Austin Freeman. It’s a good mystery in the Sherlock Holmes tradition.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce is a truly great piece of literature.

The next to last story is by Anton Chekhov, and is called The Safety Match. Most of the time I adore Anton Chekhov, but I can’t say I like this story. One of the main characters is so annoying that it destroyed the cleaver plot for me.

The last one is A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s a classic Sherlock Holmes tale, and a good one.

All in all a pretty interesting collection. The audio quality of it varies a little bit from story to story, but it is free so one can’t really complain about that without being ungrateful.

[Gillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Some humorous and/or interesting; others requiring more perseverance...