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Death in Fine Condition

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Death in Fine Condition

By: Andrew Cartmel
Narrated by: Olivia Dowd
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About this listen

Cordelia knows books. An addict-turned-dealer of classic paperbacks, when she's not spending her days combing the charity shops and jumble sales of suburban London for valuable collector's items, she's pining for the woman of her dreams and nimbly avoiding her landlord's demands for rent.

The most elusive prize of all, her white whale, has surfaced—a set of magnificent, vintage Sleuth Hound crime novels. Gorgeous, and as rare as they come. Just one problem. They're not for sale. Still, that won't stop a resourceful woman like Cordelia… One burglary later, the books are hers. Unfortunately, the man she's just robbed turns out be one of London's most dangerous gangsters, and now he's on her trail and out for blood.

Cordelia's best laid plans to pay the rent and woo the object of her affections start to fall apart, and she realises she may have placed herself in the crosshairs of a villain torn straight from the pages of her treasured novels.

©2022 Andrew Cartmel (P)2022 W. F. Howes Ltd Amateur Sleuths Cosy Detective Mystery Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Fiction Suspense

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All stars
Most relevant
I tried to warm to Cordelia but I couldn’t. I thinks she’s almost as loathsome and self-centred as her brother in her own way. I love the Vinyl Detective and it was interesting to bump into familiar characters, though I didn’t like Cordelia’s fixation with Agatha, especially as she was unaware of what was going through Cordelia’s head. I’m most of the way through this (3 hours left) but I’ve just had enough, I really don’t care what happens to Cordelia.

I just didn’t like the main character

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I’ve read a few of the authors “Vinyl Detective” stories and was surprised to find the change of both writing style and character. A simple tale, light but fun and beautifully described. A great beach read

An interesting change of style and gender

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Others have said it well, but it did feel like a long short story. So much detail inside the mind of one central character, and not loads of plot.
Ended up liking her though and the relationship with Edwin.
Great idea to use same cosmology as Vinyl Detective. Let's hope for even more cross over in the next one.

Amusing but detailed

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I have loved all of the vinyl detective series, and revisited them more than once. I started this twice, got a few chapters in and gave up. I finally got through to the end on my final attempt. The story was based on a similar theme, this protaganist is a book detective (thief) and Stinky's sister. the story seemed very drawn out, without much going on. it was nice to see the familiar faces of Tinkler, Clean head and Stinky but the narrator made them come across as very different characters.
I did start to enjoy it more towards the end, and had already downloaded Ashram Assassin, so will give it a go. If this was the first Cartmel book I had listened to I probably wouldn't have ever read anything else by him.

A bit of a disappointment

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I love the Vinyl Detective. This was boring in comparison. I cared little for Cordelia’s bath time habits, and the story waffled a lot - a bit like the Scandi- Noir novel that was so reviled. It holds promise but needs more story and less rambling

A bit dull

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