-
Surfeit of Lampreys
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $10.84
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Death and the Dancing Footman
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A winter weekend ends in snowbound disaster in a novel which remains a favourite among Marsh readers. It began as an entertainment: eight people, many of them enemies, gathered for a winter weekend by a host with a love for theatre. They would be the characters in a drama that he would devise. It ended in snowbound disaster. Everyone had an alibi - and most had motives as well. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn, when he finally arrived, knew it all hung on Thomas, the dancing footman....
-
-
NOT PHILIP FRANKS READING!!!
- By Meep on 12-18-15
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Scales of Justice
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lives of the inhabitants of Swevenings are disrupted only by a fierce competition to catch the Old Un, a monster trout known to dwell in a beautiful stream which winds past their homes. Then one of their small community is found brutally murdered; beside him is the freshly killed trout. Both died by violence - but Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn's murder investigation seems to be much more interested in the fish.
-
-
Cumberbatch is a great narrator!
- By PJ on 08-01-12
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Death in a White Tie
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The season had begun. Débutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend Lord Robert Gospell at the scene. But someone else got there first...
-
-
Abridgment, Narration Highlight Weaknesses
- By Pam M on 01-09-13
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Artists in Crime
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It started as a student exercise, the knife under the drape, the model's pose chalked in place. But before Agatha Troy, artist and instructor, returns to the class, the pose has been re-enacted in earnest: the model is dead, fixed for ever in one of the most dramatic poses Troy has ever seen. It's a difficult case for Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn. How can he believe that the woman he loves is a murderess? And yet no one can be above suspicion.
-
-
Oh dear.
- By L on 02-07-13
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Chapter and Verse
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cryptic inscriptions in an antique Bible appear to record three gruesome deaths that took place in a quiet English village in 1779. Nearly 200 years later, a fourth person is found dead under similarly violent circumstances. As the investigation unfolds, suspicions are roused by the parallels with other events in the village’s history, and the book becomes key to unravelling a more than one mystery.
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
The Ngaio Marsh BBC Radio Collection
- Four Full-Cast Dramatisations
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Jeremy Clyde, Stephen Thorne, full cast
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of the BBC’s dramatisations of Ngaio Marsh’s most famous sleuth: Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Includes 'A Man Lay Dead', 'A Surfeit of Lampreys', 'Opening Night' and 'When in Rome'.
-
-
Love these radio plays
- By LAURA S. HERTZOG on 10-30-21
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Death and the Dancing Footman
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A winter weekend ends in snowbound disaster in a novel which remains a favourite among Marsh readers. It began as an entertainment: eight people, many of them enemies, gathered for a winter weekend by a host with a love for theatre. They would be the characters in a drama that he would devise. It ended in snowbound disaster. Everyone had an alibi - and most had motives as well. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn, when he finally arrived, knew it all hung on Thomas, the dancing footman....
-
-
NOT PHILIP FRANKS READING!!!
- By Meep on 12-18-15
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Scales of Justice
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lives of the inhabitants of Swevenings are disrupted only by a fierce competition to catch the Old Un, a monster trout known to dwell in a beautiful stream which winds past their homes. Then one of their small community is found brutally murdered; beside him is the freshly killed trout. Both died by violence - but Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn's murder investigation seems to be much more interested in the fish.
-
-
Cumberbatch is a great narrator!
- By PJ on 08-01-12
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Death in a White Tie
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The season had begun. Débutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend Lord Robert Gospell at the scene. But someone else got there first...
-
-
Abridgment, Narration Highlight Weaknesses
- By Pam M on 01-09-13
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Artists in Crime
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It started as a student exercise, the knife under the drape, the model's pose chalked in place. But before Agatha Troy, artist and instructor, returns to the class, the pose has been re-enacted in earnest: the model is dead, fixed for ever in one of the most dramatic poses Troy has ever seen. It's a difficult case for Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn. How can he believe that the woman he loves is a murderess? And yet no one can be above suspicion.
-
-
Oh dear.
- By L on 02-07-13
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
Chapter and Verse
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cryptic inscriptions in an antique Bible appear to record three gruesome deaths that took place in a quiet English village in 1779. Nearly 200 years later, a fourth person is found dead under similarly violent circumstances. As the investigation unfolds, suspicions are roused by the parallels with other events in the village’s history, and the book becomes key to unravelling a more than one mystery.
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
The Ngaio Marsh BBC Radio Collection
- Four Full-Cast Dramatisations
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Jeremy Clyde, Stephen Thorne, full cast
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of the BBC’s dramatisations of Ngaio Marsh’s most famous sleuth: Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Includes 'A Man Lay Dead', 'A Surfeit of Lampreys', 'Opening Night' and 'When in Rome'.
-
-
Love these radio plays
- By LAURA S. HERTZOG on 10-30-21
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
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.
-
-
Thumping Good Yarn
- By Kindle Customer on 10-28-21
By: E. C.R. Lorac
-
The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy
- By: James Anderson
- Narrated by: Cornelius Garrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Alderley, a magnificent mansion in the heart of the West Country where a grand house party is taking place. The preparations have been made, the guests have been invited, and the staff are on hand. What could possibly go wrong? Let the entertainment begin. The theft of the diamond necklace and the antique pistols might all be explained, but the body in the lake - that really was a puzzle. 'Don't expect me to solve anything,' Inspector Wilkens announced modestly when he arrived to sort out the unpleasantness.
-
-
the title says it all
- By connie on 05-03-13
By: James Anderson
-
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
-
The Affair of the Mutilated Mink
- By: James Anderson
- Narrated by: Cornelius Garrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Earl of Burford can't believe his luck. Rex Ransom, his favourite star from the 'talkies', and his hot-shot producer, Haggermeir, want to film their next feature at Alderley, the family's seventeenth-century country estate. Somewhat less enthusiastic is the Countess, who finds herself hosting an impromptu house party for the incoming Hollywood crowd.
-
-
More James Anderson please!
- By paula on 04-03-13
By: James Anderson
-
The Affair of the Thirty Nine-Cufflinks
- By: James Anderson
- Narrated by: Cornelius Garrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Understandably, Lord Burford had some misgivings about hosting another house party at Alderley, his beautiful country mansion. After all, the previous two could at best be described as disastrous, since a couple of their guests were bumped off during their stay on each occasion. But with family members travelling down for the funeral of an elderly relative, the Earl really had no choice but to offer them accommodation.
-
-
Relaxing entertainment
- By Hilary on 11-12-11
By: James Anderson
-
A Quiet Life in the Country
- A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 1
- By: T E Kinsey
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they've just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life. But it is not long before Lady Hardcastle is forced out of her self-imposed retirement. There's a dead body in the woods, and the police are on the wrong scent. Lady Hardcastle makes some enquiries of her own, and it seems she knows a surprising amount about crime investigation...
-
-
A nice cozy read!
- By BikeVON on 11-30-16
By: T E Kinsey
-
Brat Farrar
- By: Josephine Tey
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family’s sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick’s mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick’s early life, up to his 13th year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself.
-
-
Great all around
- By Catherine on 10-23-11
By: Josephine Tey
-
Heathcliff Lennox - France 1918
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst -Phillips
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spring, 1918. The Great War is at a crucial stage, the Germans are making one last push into France, and the Allies are struggling to hold them back. Battle lines are shifting, and men, and their machines, are being sent up and down the front to shore up defenses. Major Heathcliff Lennox, and his batman Greggs, are told to report to their new HQ. They set off on a sunlit day to fly the distance, but the enemy is never far away, and disaster strikes. They're sent crashing to the ground behind enemy lines, where life, death, and love await.
-
-
Another great Heathcliff Lennox
- By Katydid65 on 06-04-21
-
Murder at the Spring Ball
- A 1920s Mystery (Lord Edgington Investigates, Book 1)
- By: Benedict Brown
- Narrated by: George Blagden
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1925. After years shut away from the world, former detective Lord Edgington of Cranley Hall plans a grand ball to celebrate his 75th birthday. But when someone starts bumping off members of his scheming family, the old man enlists his teenage grandson to help find the killer before one of them is next. The mismatched duo must pick the culprit from a gaggle of preening playboys, scatter-brained spinsters, and irate inspectors in this Agatha-Christie-style whodunnit that will have you racing to spot the killer.
-
-
Not that great
- By Julie on 01-23-22
By: Benedict Brown
-
Smallbone Deceased
- By: Michael Gilbert
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Horniman, Birley and Craine is a highly respected legal firm with clients reaching to the highest in the land. When a deed box in the office is opened to reveal a corpse, the threat of scandal promises to wreak havoc on the firm's reputation - especially as the murder looks like an inside job. The partners and staff of the firm keep a watchful and suspicious eye on their colleagues, as Inspector Hazlerigg sets out to solve the mystery of who Mr Smallbone was - and why he had to die.
-
-
Pretty Much Perfect
- By John on 12-16-19
By: Michael Gilbert
-
No Place to Hide
- Cherringham. A Cosy Crime Series - Mystery Shorts 41
- By: Matthew Costello, Neil Richards
- Narrated by: Neil Dudgeon
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ed Finnlay - computer programmer and devoted father of two - goes missing, there's not a lot the local police can do. After all, Ed himself told them he would be gone... for quite some time. As the weeks go by with no news, his wife reaches out to Jack and Sarah for help. But they soon learn that there are odd secrets about this missing husband and that he might not only be gone, but also in serious danger. Can Jack and Sarah do what seems impossible.
-
-
always a treat
- By Kathryn Scarborough on 05-30-22
By: Matthew Costello, and others
-
Jumping Jenny
- By: Anthony Berkeley
- Narrated by: Seán Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a costume party with the dubious theme of 'famous murderers and their victims', the know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham is settled in for an evening of beer, small talk and analysing his companions. One guest in particular has caught his attention for her theatrics, and his theory that she might have several enemies among the partygoers proves true when she is found hanging from the 'decorative' gallows on the roof terrace. Noticing a key detail which could implicate a friend in the crime, Sheringham decides to meddle with the scene.
-
-
Suspenseful
- By pat on 08-16-22
By: Anthony Berkeley
Publisher's Summary
The Lampreys revel in their eccentricity and entertain their guests with complicated charades. But when one game goes wrong and rich Uncle Gabriel is found murdered in a most grizzly manner, the only person capable of solving the crime is Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn.
More from the same
What listeners say about Surfeit of Lampreys
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Yvette
- 04-30-12
Good ... But what did they leave out?
I enjoyed this book, but I only got this version because there was no unabridged version available. This is an interesting book, with some wonderfully creapy bits toward the end. It is also very well read by Anton Lesser.
My only problem is that I just keep wondering "what did they leave out?". I want the unabridged version. I have looked around for it in other places, I and I just can't find one. I would really appreciate it if Audible could get, or produce, an unabridged version of this book.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer R. Golden
- 08-15-12
AN OLD FAVORITE FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF MYSTERY
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Nagio Marsh is perhaps on one of the least well-known of the Golden Age mystery writers, but her plots are always well-knitted and her characters intriguingly quirky. They don't come any more eccentric than the Lamprey family, from whom the title comes, and her device of inserting the shrewd, but unsophisticated New Zealander allows for telling commentary on both the other charaters and English society in a gentle manner. The murder is suitabley gruesome and mysterious,. The murderer is not at all obvious and yet clearly indicated in hindsight, a feat easier to read than to write. I certainly recommend this book as one of the author's best.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
Marsh's estimable hero, the upper-class, oh-so-suave Roderick Alleyn, does become a little tiresome, but the fault is in the writing. Alleyn needs a few faults and foibles to be truly lovable. The performance itself is workmanlike and enjoyable.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katherine
- 03-16-19
Lampreys in the worst sense of the word
Summary - narration is fantastic, the story was not great.
I was researching Ngaio Marsh's life online, and came across the definition of "lamprey." Lampreys are parasitic jawless fish with ugly mouths filled with circular rows of teeth. They live by attaching themselves to larger marine life, and using their teeth to latch on and dig flesh and blood out of their victim. They are revolting, disgusting creatures.
What a great analogy for the Lampreys. This family is presented as being charmingly eccentric English aristocrats. But I found them simply annoying - snobby with an appalling sense of entitlement. Nobody has an actual job. Instead, they lurch from economic crisis to crisis. When they are wealthy, they carelessly splurge and gamble, without a care for tomorrow or any thought of making their wealth last. When they are poor, they depend on an inheritance from a rich auntie or gifts from an older brother to keep them solvent. Parasites!
Now, as yet another economic crisis looms, they are waiting for the older brother to show up and lend (*cough cough* I wonder how many of these "loans" have ever been repaid?) them 2,000 pounds (a LOT of money in those days - probably on the order of $100,000 today!). Now, granted, the brother is an unpleasant, disagreeable fellow. But in no way is he obligated to help his feckless relatives out. This does not prevent any of the appalling Lampreys from insulting him behind his back, while assuming that it is the brother's duty to come to their rescue.
And then there is the mystery. Well, it's classified as a mystery. But it is definitely a second-rate murder mystery compared to any one of Agatha Christie's books.
This is the second book by Ngaio Marsh that I have listened to, but I won't be giving her another chance.
The only thing that saves this audiobook, and the only reason I gave it 2 stars, is due to the amazing narration by Anton Lesser. He creates distinctive characters of any age, any regional accent, and both genders with only the genius of his voice. I can only wish that Mr. Lesser had better material to work with here.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 04-03-12
What a mystery should be
Wonderful story. Quaint lovable characters. Lots of suspects and a few red herrings. Everything a good mystery should be, and executed nicely as well.
-
Overall

- Liz
- 08-03-09
Not a Surfeit of Lampreys
I am not a great fan of Ngaio Marsh's novels - though I am not sure why. They are always intelligent and well written, if not very taxing.
So why did I download this one? I had heard the Radio 4 drama and quite liked it. It was an abridged version - so it wouldn't be too long if I didn't like it. But the main reason was that Anton Lesser was the narrator.
I have to say that narration brought the whole novel to life for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Give it a try and I am sure you will enjoy it.
4 people found this helpful