The Case of the Famished Parson Audiobook By George Bellairs cover art

The Case of the Famished Parson

The Inspector Littlejohn Mysteries, Book 1

Preview

Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

The Case of the Famished Parson

By: George Bellairs
Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.75

Buy for $13.75

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Dr. James Macintosh, the bishop of Greyle, was a mysterious man. For a long time, nobody even knew his last name...until his body is found emaciated and battered having been pushed face-first off the edge of a cliff.

Inspector Littlejohn faces an incredibly peculiar case. How to explain the savage murder of a gentle bishop? Did he know too much about the secretive citizens of Cape Marvin? Or did it have something to do with the strange family he left behind in Medhope?

Above all, why was the bishop's body so undernourished that death by violence won out by only a few days over death by starvation?

About Inspector Littlejohn: Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is a shrewd yet courteous sleuth who splits his time between quaint English villages, the scenic Isle of Man, and French provinces. With a sharp tongue and a dry sense of humor, Littlejohn approaches his work with poise and confidence, shifting through red herrings and solving even the most perplexing of cases.

©1949 George Bellairs (P)2019 Tantor
Crime Fiction Traditional Detectives Fiction Mystery Detective Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Case of the Famished Parson

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    53
  • 4 Stars
    35
  • 3 Stars
    31
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    60
  • 4 Stars
    33
  • 3 Stars
    14
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    49
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    24
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful mystery

This is a great beginning to a new series! The characters are wonderful. The mystery is cracking. The narrator does a wonderful job.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Pretty good for a 'village mystery...'

This was fine... characters well-drawn, the crime puzzling and how it was unraveled kept you interested.
Hope there's more of this..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Always good. so glad they are in audible format.

A long forgotten writer that is better than most wtiting detective fiction today. Happy these are being published again

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Refreshing Change of Pace

At a mere 5 hours and 13 minutes (206 pages in the modern paperback edition), George Bellairs had to set things in motion pretty quickly. It was a refreshing change of pace from some Golden Age whodunnits that keep the first corpse on ice (so to speak) until somewhere around the fifth or sixth chapter, everything before that point being dedicated to setting atmosphere and establishing characters. As P. G. Wodehouse might put it, this story gets off the mark like a scalded cat.

And that pace doesn’t diminish; a quicker story means fewer narrative details to contend with—descriptions of landscapes, domestic interiors, interior monologues, etc.—so it’s easier to pick up on clues (though, as usual, I picked up the wrong ones). Not to say that, like the parson in the title, this story is all skin and bones. Bellairs manages to tell it very economically without stinting on that most attractive feature of the genre, comedy. Like Inspector Littlejohn, vintage detective stories are one of my favorite recreations, and for the same reason: “they appeal to his irrepressible sense of humor”.

At first I felt that Anthony Ferguson’s delivery was too direct and un-nuanced, but soon discovered he was a perfect fit for Bellairs’ style and sensibility.

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
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

How Much Detail Do We Really Need

... about things that don't beg description? Wouldn't have been bad if about 1/3 had been edited out. Plodding. Didn't finish this one - made me want to slap the author ... or the editor.

However, this would be a great book to use in a creative writing course; edit channeling White and Strunk.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I’ve read worse, but not often

I kept waiting for this book to live up to the reviews. Boring story, boring characters, boring narration. Won’t be wasting my time or money on further books by this author. I gave it two stars because, to be fair, I’ve read worse, but this one isn’t interesting enough to bother with again.

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
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stilted

Both performance and writing are a bit stilted. I never got to care about any of the characters. Odd anachronisms with both language and accents.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!