The Body in the Dumb River

By: George Bellairs

Narrated by: Gordon Griffin

For the most part, the dead man received public sympathy. A decent, hardworking chap, with not an enemy anywhere. People were surprised that anybody should want to kill Jim.

But Jim has been drowned in the Dumb River, near Ely, miles from his Yorkshire home. His body has been discovered before the killer intended – disturbed by a torrential flood. It's up to Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard to trace the mystery of the murder to its source, leaving waves of scandal and sensation in his wake.

©1961 George Bellairs (P)2020 Soundings

Loved it

Really loved this one, good story, good cast of characters, well told. I love these British Library Crime Classics series and hope Audible does more of them.

greed and selfishment

This is a sad story of a man who found himself married into a family that looks down on him. They are greedy, each waiting for the other to die. They are class conscious even in their lack of money. Ruling over all is a self important vicious, corpulent sickly old tyrant who keeps his daughters as slaves to his needs while keeping them nearly penniless.

As Martin Edwards says: “Unpretentious entertainment”

My second Bellairs and I liked it just fine. Good characterization and description of the scenes. Littlejohn is fairly bland, but he gets the job done.

I found it a bit melancholy, though, as the victim was such a sympathetic fellow. And so was his lady friend. The rest of the cast not so much.