Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Murder Has a Motive

Author: Francis Duncan

Narrator: John Curless

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-02-18

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine must solve a small-town mystery before the next victim takes their final bow.

When Mordecai Tremaine emerges from the train station, murder is the last thing on his mind. But he has never been able to resist anything in the nature of a mystery - and a mystery is precisely what awaits him in the village of Dalmering. Rehearsals for the local amateur dramatic production are in progress. When the star of the show is found dead, the spotlight falls on Mordecai, whose reputation in the field of crime-solving precedes him. With a murderer waiting in the wings, it is up to Mordecai to derail the killer's performance - before the curtain closes on another victim.

Author bio: Francis Duncan was the author of more than 20 crime novels published between 1937 and 1959.

Members Reviews:

Murder has a Motive and knows it too well

This is a nice old fashioned detective story. After a dinner with a self-professed murderer Lydia Dare is found murdered. She happens to be a member of a theatre group. As things progress the murderer seems to be part of this group. There are secrets, hidden relationships and a mysterious play. Nobody seems to know what is what except for a small and unremarkable man: Mordecai Tremaine. He is a cross between miss Marple and Mr Satterthwaite with her sharp mind and his sensitive nature. Slowly he unravels the darkness that seems to have attached itself to this small group of people.

Iâm in two minds about this book. I liked the old-fashioned setting: the village, the theatre group, the slow unravelling of the riddle. Anyone who expects to have found a second Christie is to be deceived. That he is not. Whereas Christie paints characters larger than life, the characters in this book are rather grey, including Mr. Tremaine. Furthermore the writing style is rather precious and self-conscious, everything is spelled out especially the darkness that dwells in Dalmering and is felt by some people. And then the culprit, well that wasnât a riddle at all. From the beginning it was clear to me who she/ he was. But I had a nice listen.

Slow moving

At first, I found it annoyingly slow then suddenly I realized I couldnât put it down. The transition between molasses slow and intensely relentless was very subtle and well done. One minute I was ready to quit because of the annoying repetition about the atmosphere and the detectiveâs quirks, and the next I was wondering how he would get himself out of the tangle and make it clear to everyone else.

I guessed quite early who did it, but I wasnât sure. Duncan gave so many clues, true and false, that he made me doubt my own conclusions.

Now if you donât like being told instead of shown whatâs going on this isnât the book for you. Especially, in the beginning, we are told directly over and over again exactly what the atmosphere is and what the significance of every statement is. That got a bit tiresome, but eventually, that stops.

Unfortunately, it wasnât as clean as I had hoped. The language was clean until the last third or so. Then there were quite a few âmildâ curse words. There was also an adulterous relationship. Itâs handled delicately, but it is sort of winked at.

I received this as a free ARC from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark.