A Pocket Full of Rye: A Miss Marple Mystery

Miss Marple looks into the death of Rex Fortescue, who was poisoned while drinking a cup of tea in his office at Consolidated Investments, and discovers a variety of associates and family members with motives, including a wife believed to have married Rex for his money.

It hardly seems possible for anyone to best Hugh Fraser's savvy audio performance of Christie's Hickory Dickory Dock, but Rosalind Ayres produces an amazing range of voices and accents to create her own one-woman full-cast audio book. After the death by poisoning of wealthy Rex Fortescue, others in the household are murdered in ways that mimic a Mother Goose rhyme. Ayres's Miss Marple is well-mannered, polite and even diffident. Ayres seems to be mocking stereotypes of British accents. Percival, the elder son, is stuffy and nasally clogged. Lancelot, the younger son, is ironic and cavalier. Ayres can slip effortlessly from one accent to another, as when the lofty voice of Rex's secretary collapses into the low-class accent of an East Ender after she discovers her boss's body. The greatest mystery in this 1953 novel is why any mid-century father would name his children Lancelot and Percival. Though the story lacks action and enough Jane Marple for Ayres to develop, her performance is a delightful romp for any Christie fan.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Miss Marple mystery brings out the best in Rosalind Ayres. She can be male or female to such a degree that one forgets who's narrating. Yewtree Lodge is full of unsavory types, any one of whom could have murdered business tycoon Rex Fortescue. When two more guests are murdered, Miss Marple gets involved because one of the victims, Gladys Martin, was once her maid. Ayres is wonderful with all her voices--from Miss Ramsbottom, the elderly aunt upstairs, to Mary Dove, the overly composed housekeeper. Her best impersonation is Gladys, adenoidal and pathetic, the memorable voice of the innocent led astray by evil. B.H.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine