Audio Books : Mystery and Suspense : Other quality : English
All from cassette tapes and unabridged.



Semi-estranged married couple Virginia and Felix Freer solve murder mysteries in this engaging cozy British series.

#1. Last Will and Testament [1978], 5 hours 51 mins, read by Diana Bishop, 40kbps / 22kHz Mono (thanks to meixiang)
After five years, Virginia Freer's charming, lying, light-fingered con-man husband was back. He had come, as usual, for money, but Virginia was too preoccupied to mind. The death of an elderly friend was posing problems, for there was something suspicious about her will. Virginia's friend, Mrs. Arliss, had had a penchant for changing her will, but the bequests in her last one were surprising - was it actually her last? The Virginia learned that the money bequeathed was non-existant. When the most valuable remaining legacy vanished and three people died violently, the relationships of those connected with the testator were complicated ... their motives equally so!

#2. Frog in the Throat [1980], 5 hours 49 mins, read by Diana Bishop, 32kbps / 22kHz Mono
When Virginia Freer went to spend a weekend with her friends the Boscotts the last person she expected to meet was the lying, light-fingered charmer who was her husband. She and Felix had been separated for several years. And the last thing she expected to encounter was murder. Yet within a few hours of the party given to celebrate the engagement of a local poet and a best-selling historical novelist, the novelist's sister arrived distraught on the Boscotts' doorstep to announce that she had found her shot dead in their bungalow next door. But when Virginia, Felix and the Boscotts reached the scene they found that something very strange had happened to the corpse...

#3. Thinner Than Water [1981] , 5 hours 36 mins, read by Jane Asher, 64kbps / 44kHz Mono
Virginia Freer and her charming con-man ex-husband Felix were witnesses at Gavin Brownlow's wedding. Both marriages have since foundered and now Gavin is getting married again, this time to the girl next door. Virginia and Felix are witnesses at the second ceremony and return from the reception to find themselves involved in a murder, corruption in local government and burglary.

#4. Death of a Minor Character [1983], 6 hours 20 mins, read by Patricia Gallimore, 32kbps / 22kHz Mono (thanks to Telpointer) (This copy has some minor tape hiss)
Virginia and Felix Freer, separated but still semi-attached, are both present at the ill-fated party - Virginia because the hostess is an Australian friend returning home, and Felix because he happens to live in the flat below hers. Among the guests, Virginia discovers, are people who have a connection to an antique dealer neighbour of hers. Within a couple of days both Virginia and Felix find themselves involved with murder: Virginia in the small town where she lives; Felix in London, where another guest, on the face of it unconnected to anyone else at the party, is found mysteriously dead in an adjoining flat. Felix is convinced that the murders must be linked. But before long, he is caught up in something highly dangerous....

#5. I Met Murder [1985], 5 hours 33 mins, read by Frances Jeater, 32kbps / 22kHz Mono (This copy has some minor tape hiss)
Whenever Felix, Virginia Freer's light-fingered husband, reappeared in her life, it seemed that murder did too. This time it concerned Holly, orphaned daughter of a famous actress, who has disappeared, believed kidnapped. But there was something odd about the kidnapping. Narrator Frances Jeater lures us into schemes of kidnapping, murder and entwined relationships when the orphaned daughter of a famous actress is offered refuge following her mother's death. Jeater voices the ex-husband, the frustrated wife and the mysterious Holly with explicit distinction.

#6. Woman Slaughter [1989] , 5 hours, read by Frances Jeater, 32kbps / 22kHz Mono
This sixth title in the series brings yet another unexpected visit from Virginia's estranged husband Felix, a rogue she loves but can't live with. Felix, characteristically, arrives at the start of strange doings, set off by the hit-and-run death of Virginia's elderly neighbor. The victim's frail wife is hospitalized after surgery and, when she returns home, Virginia arranges for the widow's household help. Next, the murders of two women throw the community into an uproar, and force Virginia to suspect Felix, despite her conviction that his idiosyncratic ethical sense would never permit him to commit serious crimes. As she might have guessed, Virginia's secretive spouse has been using his talent for deceit in an effort that pays off with the arrest of the killers. The tale is lively with intrigue and urbane wit.

#7. Sleep of the Unjust [1990], 7 hours 7 mins, read by Jacqueline King, 64kbps / 44kHz Mono (thanks to Geriatrix)
Hollywood actor Andrew Appleyard, in England for the wedding of his cousin and former Fiancee inexplicably committed suicide.More inexplicicably still, he left two conflicting suicide notes and fragments of a third in another hand.Virginia Freer,a wedding guest and her husband Felix had seldom been faced with amore distressing puzzle- but it took Felix to work out that the roots of the tragedy lay deeper in the past and that an extremely calculating and cold-blooded killer was at work.
* Note: This copy is from old worn cassettes and the sound quality is only mediocre, but the narration is reasonably clear. I am grateful to have it.
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#8. Beware of the Dog [1992], 6 hours 4 mins, read by Diana Bishop, 48kbps / 32kHz Mono (thanks to Shauna)
When Helen Lovelace dies peacefully at the age of eighty-eight, her affable grandnephew Nicholas Duffield, recently returned from Australia, and his stunning cousin, Kate Galvin, arrived from America for the funeral, stand to share a substantial inheritance. When Kate is murdered in her bed, suspicion naturally falls on Nicholas. Helen's longtime housekeeper and companion refuses to believe that the gracious young man could have committed the crime and implores her neighbor, Virginia Freer for help.

* Note that these rare recordings are from cassette tapes that are in some cases quite old, thus the sound quality may not be pristine, but they are reasonably hiss free and clear.
* No CD or Electronic Download versions of any of these titles are available to my knowledge.
* The author only wrote eight titles in this excellent series.


Enjoy and Seed!!