GreatClassicMysteriesTwelveUnabridgedTales

by BBC

Enjoy the great detectives of the Golden Age of classic mysteries in this unique collection of audio whodunits. Newly recorded for this original anthology, the crimes, criminals, and sleuths depicted here set the standard for decades to come, and remain as entertaining today as they were when first published. This collection includes the following - "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe - "Hunted Down" by Charles Dickens - "Silver Blaze" by Arthur Conan Doyle - "Cheating the Gallows" by Israel Zangwill - "My First Experience with the Great Logician" by Jacques Futrelle - "The Queen's Necklace" by Maurice Leblanc - "The York Mystery" by Baroness Orczy - "The Detective Detector" by O. Henry - "The Blue Cross" by G. K. Chesterton - "The Second Bullet" by Anna Katherine Green - "Naboth's Vineyard" by Melville Davisson Post - "The Gioconda Smile" by Aldous Huxley

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Anthologies

1 pages, Audio CD

First published October 12, 2010

About the author

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff. Its main responsibility is to provide impartial public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
The BBC have also published many books based on their programs or other films and shows.

Reviews

[Jess Manners · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories were kinda fun, but overall it didn’t really work for me…I tend to be pretty bad about remembering characters’ names when I listen to books, but at least there’s enough time in full length novels to eventually catch up. Here, I’d find myself still feeling unsure of who the victim was by the time the killer was revealed. Also, mysteries need more length, and more heft (more characters, more clues, more red herrings, etc) to really land…also also, a lot of these were written well before the genre had been smoothed out, and, while we all know I love exposition, a lot of these felt like they were exclusively exposition…or the pacing felt off, or the mysterious element was missing entirely…
Oh well! At least I now know that the mysterious incident of the dog in the night time didn’t have anything to do with the hound of the Baskervilles! (Whoops…)

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a collection of 13 short stories which are all mysteries, so I have a mixed review. I enjoyed some and some others not as much. I listened on audio and thought the different narrators were all pretty good; no one really bothered me.
My favorites of the stories were these and I give them all 5 stars:
Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle
Cheating the Gallows by Israel Zangwill
The Blue Cross by G. K. Chesterton
The others probably were all 3 star stories.

[Andrew Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is my ratings for the books in this collection:

The Purloined Letter (Poe): 3/5
Hunted Down (Dickens): 1/5
Silver Blaze (Doyle): 5/5
Cheating the Gallows (Zangwill): 4/5
My First Experience with the Great Logician (Futrelle): 4/5
The Queen’s Necklace (Leblanc): 5/5
The York Mystery (Orczy): 3/5
The Detective Detector (O Henry): 2/5
The Blue Cross (Chesterton): 5/5
The Second Bullet (Green): 3/5
Naboth's Vineyard (Post): 3/5
The Giaconda Smile (Huxley): 2/5

[Christin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to hear these classic stories. I was disappointed in some of them. I would not listen again.

[Andrea Latham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many great classic mysteries I read years ago and some classics I just listened on this audiobooks with good characters.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed these short mysteries and rekindled my affinity in particular for several of the authors magical abilities’ with words.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixture of great to awful stories. I really disliked the first one but glad I continued. There were some really good ones and I've picked a few authors to find more of their books.

[Fr. Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an Audible buy.
First of all, I love the mystery short story. Some of these stories were absolutely fantastic. "The Purloined Letter" by Poe was a great surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed both the writing and the reading. Although I am not a fan of Dicken "Hunted Down" had a brevity to it that allowed him to shine. I have read the Holmes mystery "Silver Blaze" which Chesterton considers it Doyle's greatest and indeed it has a most peculiar result. Israel Zangwill's "Cheating the Gallows" was easily figured out but nonetheless gripping story. "My First Experience with the Great Logician" was a bit much although certainly had its French charm. "The Queen's Necklace" by Maurice LeBlanc was one of the pearls (pardon the pun) of the group. It was both equally mysterious, singularly solved, and wonderfully written. Baroness Orczy's "The York Mystery" was also easy to solve but it was enjoyable nonetheless. "The Detective Detector" was bland and uniteresting. It would have fit better into a fuller narrative as a means to show the greatness of the thief. There could have been a better turn for it as well. This is followed by what some think is Chesterton's greatest "The Blue Cross." It does show the paradox of Fr. Brown very well, a great introduction to a great character. "The Second Bullet" by Anna Catherine Green did a great job with the female detective. She showed both feminine charm and beauty under which was uncanny deductive intellect. I hope there are more of this character. "Naboth's Vineyard" by Melville Davisson Post was different than the previous. It was certainly the most American of the stories. The perspective of the child was unique and provided a great view for narration. It also showed an understanding of Democracy in early America. "The Gioconda Smile" by Aldous Huxley was unbearable and predictable.

[Ob-jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed these mystery short-stories from the late 1800s. The writing styles from that time were so rich and full of interesting adjectives. My favorite short-story was a Sherlock Holmes mystery about a murder within a community of people who took care of race horses. The outcome was so surprising and the plot was entertaining and funny. As a result of reading that short story, I have bought part one of the Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes written by Arthur Conan Doyle. There was also a story about a robbery of a famous necklace and the culprit turned out to be quite a surprise. Good stuff.

[Paula Elder]

Great Classic Mysteries is a perfect description for this audiobook. The first story is The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe; then there are stories by Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, O. Henry, and others. Some of these are my favorite characters and stories. Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin (the star of the world’s first detective stories) and Chesterton’s Father Brown are here. For someone who is interested in early mysteries, including one of the first detective stories ever written, this is a great listen.

[WhatShouldIRead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven selection of mysteries. Some of them were good, others not so much. Some authors I've never heard of and enjoyed, others I've heard of and didn't enjoy. But with a selection of short stories by different authors in different time periods, that is usually the case.

[Cathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of pure gems and real snoozes.

audiobook note: Similarly, some of the narrators are brilliant (Bronson Pinchot! Who knew?) and others ruin the stories.

[Ptaylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this audiobook as much as I thought I would. I'm not sure if it was the quality of the CD, the stories, or the readers' voices.

[Kelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun "reads". I'm a sucker for an old fashioned mystery, and these stories were just that. Not bad to pass the time while commuting to/from work.