Death at Breakfast cover art

Death at Breakfast

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Death at Breakfast

By: John Rhode
Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

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

A classic winter’s crime novel by one of the most highly regarded exponents of the genre.

Victor Harleston awoke with uncharacteristic optimism. Today he would be rich at last. Half an hour later, he gulped down his breakfast coffee and pitched to the floor, gasping and twitching. When the doctor arrived, he recognised instantly that it was a fatal case of poisoning and called in Scotland Yard.

Despite an almost complete absence of clues, the circumstances were so suspicious that Inspector Hanslet soon referred the evidence to his friend and mentor, Dr Lancelot Priestley, whose deductions revealed a diabolically ingenious murder that would require equally fiendish ingenuity to solve.

©1936 Estate of John Rhode (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Cosy Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Medical Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Thriller Mystery
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Paddington Mystery cover art
The Theft of the Iron Dogs cover art
Murder at Everham Hall cover art
Death of an Author cover art
The White Priory Murders cover art
Mrs Pargeter's Principle cover art
The Cask cover art
Assassins cover art
The Cornish Coast Murder cover art
These Names Make Clues cover art
Smallbone Deceased cover art
A Third Class Murder cover art
The Widow of Bath cover art
Fell Murder cover art
The Wintringham Mystery cover art
The Legendary Women Detectives: 6 Classic Novelets cover art

Critic reviews

‘One always embarks on a John Rhode book with a great feeling of security. One knows that there will be a sound plot, a well-knit process of reasoning and a solidly satisfying solution with no loose ends or careless errors of fact.’
DOROTHY L. SAYERS in THE SUNDAY TIMES

‘Death at Breakfast is full of John Rhode’s specialties: a new and excellently ingenious method of murder, a good story, and a strong chain of deduction.’
DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘John Rhode well deserves his reputation as a constructor of almost flawless detective story plots. To read any of his tales is a very agreeable intellectual exercise.’
DAILY MAIL

What listeners say about Death at Breakfast

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 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

Highly recommended.

Excellent story and plot, and excellent narration. Looking forward to the next in the series.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Entertaining cosy murder mystery

The bumbling police officers were a little irritating at times - making heavy weather of the glaringly obvious. lt's not likely that Scotland Yard would entertain such keystone cops. The narration was faultless with each character portrayed very well indeed.Overall, l found this an easygoing and enjoyable audiobook and will probably listen to another title by the author in the future.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Ingenious!

Short on characterisation, but long on ingenuity. This is an excellent Golden Age mystery. As with other John Rhode books, it's fairly easy to work out whodunnit, but it's worth sticking with the story for the solution.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Well read, but tedious

Started with an interesting set up but way too long and repetitious. Surely no policeman could ever be quite so dense as to miss the true interpretation of the facts, which became blindingly obvious once all the suspects had appeared.

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

Slow and Stupid

This is a slow and tedious listen. The stupidity of the Superintendant is so blatant as to become really annoying. The narrator is fine, not much he can do with this endlessly drawn out story. But we devotees of detective fiction are used to being credited with a modicum of intelligence, and there is a limit to just how much sheer wilful incapacity to perceive the blindingly obvious we can tolerate. No use even as an insomnia cure, as it gets you so aggravated.

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

Disappointing

It’s nicely read but that’s the only positive. The police are made to look stupid. The plot was so obvious I found myself getting annoyed with the police for not seeing it and as for the assumptions made .... aaarrrgghh!

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful