A Very English Murder cover art

A Very English Murder

A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery, Book 1

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

A Very English Murder

By: Verity Bright
Narrated by: Karen Cass
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

An absolutely gripping cozy murder mystery

Move over Miss Marple, there’s a new sleuth in town! Meet Eleanor Swift: distinguished adventurer, dog lover, dignified lady…daring detective?

England, 1920. Eleanor Swift has spent the last few years travelling the world: taking tea in China, tasting alligators in Peru, escaping bandits in Persia and she has just arrived in England after a chaotic 45-day flight from South Africa. Chipstone is about the sleepiest town you could have the misfortune to meet. And to add to these indignities - she’s now a Lady.

Lady Eleanor, as she would prefer not to be known, reluctantly returns to her uncle’s home, Henley Hall. Now Lord Henley is gone, she is the owner of the cold and musty manor. What’s a girl to do? Well, befriend the household dog, Gladstone, for a start, and head straight out for a walk in the English countryside, even though a storm is brewing....

But then, from the edge of a quarry, through the driving rain, Eleanor is shocked to see a man shot and killed in the distance. Before she can climb down to the spot, the villain is gone and the body has vanished. With no victim and the local police convinced she’s stirring up trouble, Eleanor vows to solve this affair by herself. And when her brakes are mysteriously cut, one thing seems sure: someone in this quiet country town has Lady Eleanor Swift in their murderous sights....

If you enjoy witty dialogue, glamorous intrigue, and the very best of Golden Age mysteries, then you will adore Verity Bright’s whodunit, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey, and Downton Abbey!

©2020 Verity Bright (P)2020 Bookouture
Cosy Historical Mystery Fiction Detective Witty England

Listeners also enjoyed...

Death Among the Diamonds cover art
Murder at the Dolphin Hotel: A Gripping Cozy Historical Mystery cover art
Murder Offstage cover art
Cleopatra Fox Mysteries Boxed Set, Books 1-3 cover art
The Scottish Ladies' Detective Agency cover art
A Quiet Life in the Country cover art
The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds cover art
Mystery on Hidden Lane: An Utterly Gripping Cozy Mystery Novel cover art
Murder on the Golden Arrow cover art
Murder at the Manor: A 1920s Cozy Mystery cover art
The Bookshop Murder cover art
Evie Parker Lady Sleuth Mysteries Books 1 & 2 cover art
An English Garden Murder cover art
Moriarty Meets His Match cover art
Mystery in Provence cover art
Murder at the Spring Ball cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I really enjoyed the narration with the quirky voices. The story was intriguing and loved the relationship between the Lady Swift and her butler.

Fun

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

I love cosy type stories but some seem to be stamped out of a mould. I was therefore worried about trying a new (to me) author. I need not have worried. It is fresh, and like the authors name, bright! Has the qualities of a cosy without the mass produced feel. I love the main character Lady Eleanor she is like most of us full of contradictions making her very believable. I can't wait for my next credit to get her next book. Oh and narration was great too.

Wonderful Fresh Cosy Mystery

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

Fun from the start, a few terms not strictly applicable to that timeline, but a good cosy story that rolls along nicely. Perfect antidote to a rainy day.

Nice 2020's take on 1920's detective story

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

Just discovered these and they are very well written with well developed characters. I love the setting in time and place and the audio book is so well performed. I am so looking forward to working my way through all these audio books during 2023! Thank you!

A Brilliant Series

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

This is just the thing to relax with on a cold evening. Quite a good story, and well read, but the protagonist seems to be poorly drawn. She is supposed to have travelled around the world, but doesn't know East from West, and in this adventure, misses some clues and misinterprets others. If you ignore that, though, it's a good listen.

Pretty good mystery

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

It's like the authors (a couple using a pen name) have never really read any golden age fiction or done any real research into the period. For example, they have the heroine going to the mayor as a local bigwig, when at the time it would have been the local magistrate/JP. Who would have been of her class, unlike a local mayor. The mayor would have been a minor local functionary, if a tiny town even had one. They would have had a parish council. All this kind of thing runs though Agatha Christie et al books.

And silly errros like the butler suggesting she wear her mother's clothes for a lunch at a neighbouring big house. Her mother who vanished at some time when she was a young teen at the oldest. No one would wear clothes from over 15 years ago out in polite society in 1920.

Also the heroine is as dumb as a stick, the writing is flabby, and the plot meanders about. All in all, a decent editor with some knowledge of what 1920s Britian was actually like could have improved this.

So if you like Golden Age fiction, and have paid any kind of attention to the books, this one is going to frustrate you.

I wanted to like it, but...

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

I enjoying this very much. Nice humour. Voice of reader goes with story line. I was disappointed that the next book isn't available yet.

Enjoyable listen

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

This is a great whodunit, with lots of characters you discover alone the way. With many failed starts Lady Eleanor Swift fumbles until she devised a plan to catch the killer. Read brilliantly with loads fun and character by Karen Cass. 👌👍

A Very English Murder

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

I like the humour throughout the story and this gets better as the series goes on. The narration gets at little irritating at a couple of points however it’s the first book and this also gets better as the series continues - saying that, Karen Cass has a lovely voice.

Fun and easy listening

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

A very good listen, easy to pick up the thread again after a break. A good story line, with an interesting twist. Looking forward to the next book. Definitely recommend.

A very good listen

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

See more reviews