Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy

  • Inspector French Mystery, Book 3
  • By: Freeman Wills Crofts
  • Narrated by: Phil Fox
  • Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (67 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
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.
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.
Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy cover art

Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy

By: Freeman Wills Crofts
Narrated by: Phil Fox
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

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

Buy Now for £13.00

Buy Now for £13.00

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.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Cask cover art
The Groote Park Murder cover art
The Man in the Queue cover art
Death of an Author cover art
These Names Make Clues cover art
The Theft of the Iron Dogs cover art
A Man Lay Dead cover art
Murder on the Lusitania cover art
The Cornish Coast Murder cover art
Smallbone Deceased cover art
Two-Way Murder cover art
Fell Murder cover art
Charles Paris: A BBC Radio Collection cover art
A Third Class Murder cover art
Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow cover art
Pietr the Latvian cover art

Summary

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the third Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed 'The King of Detective Story Writers'.

Three Corpses for Inspector French

A chance invitation from friends saves Ruth Averill's life on the night her uncle's old house in Starvel Hollow is consumed by fire, killing him and incinerating the fortune he kept in cash. Dismissed at the inquest as a tragic accident, the case is closed - until Scotland Yard is alerted to the circulation of bank notes supposedly destroyed in the inferno. Inspector Joseph French suspects that dark deeds were done in the Hollow that night and begins to uncover a brutal crime involving arson, murder and body snatching.

©1927 Estate of Freeman Wills Crofts (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Freeman Wills Crofts is the only author who gives us intricate crime in fiction as it might really be, and not as the irreflective would like it to be." ( Observer)
"A detective novel by Mr. Wills Crofts is always an event to those who know.... Mr. Crofts is among the few muscular writers of detective fiction. He has never let me down." (Harold Nicolson, Daily Express)

What listeners say about Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    42
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    42
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    34
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great fun, lots of twists and turns

What made the experience of listening to Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy the most enjoyable?

lovely old fashioned puzzle detective story, setting several red herrings along the way. The denouement was not a surprise, but still a very jolly listen, and devoid of any gruesome post mortem details that one finds in many contemporary crime novels.

What other book might you compare Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy to, and why?

Any one who likes Golden Age of Detective novels will probably enjoy this

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

Great

A classic whodunnit which twists its way to a satisfying conclusion. The world of Crofts' 1920's Scotland Yard and its Inspector French may not be real but the puzzling tale is so good that any disbelief is easily suspended.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

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

FRENCH on form again

Another Inspector French mystery that keeps you guessing till the end.
Typical derailed Police work a d convoluted plot with good narration.
Won't disappoint French fans

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

A good time

This is a series focused on the sort of everyday police work that leads to solving murders, and I actually enjoy that very much. We get to follow French as he pursues every scrap of information and utilises all the resources under his command. The narrator's dry style suits this type of story to a T; Phil Fox' voice is perfect.

My only complaint is that in each of the three books I've listened to, I've been disappointed with the solution. In grounding the story so much in reality, Crofts cannot give us the brilliant, illuminating aha-moments that you get with for instance Christie. The journey to get there is fun though.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!