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Mr Cadmus

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Mr Cadmus

By: Peter Ackroyd
Narrated by: Jilly Bond
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Two apparently harmless women reside in cottages one building apart in the idyllic English village of Little Camborne. Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, cousins, have put their pasts behind them and settled into conventional country life. But when a mysterious foreigner, Theodore Cadmus – from Caldera, a Mediterranean island nobody has heard of – moves into the middle cottage, the safe monotony of their lives is shattered.

The fates of the two cousins and Mr Cadmus, and those of Little Camborne and Caldera, become inextricably enmeshed. Long-hidden secrets and long-held grudges threaten to surface, drawing all into a vortex of subterfuge, theft, violence, mayhem . . . and murder.

 Action & Adventure Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense
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Critic reviews

"Mr Cadmus is a treat of a tale. To a "polite" English village add a sprinkling of sinister. The result? Cosy and twisted, comic and gothic, with a show-stealing parrot" (JESS KIDD)
"Entertaining and wildly unpredictable, with a soupçon of the supernatural"
"Murderous intrigue plays out against a backdrop of curtain-twitching small-town banality in this playful black comedy"
"Follows the mysterious Mr Cadmus who hails from a Mediterranean island nobody has heard of and turns life in the idyllic English village of Little Camborne upside down"
"Blackly comic . . . as the body count mounts, Ackroyd’s novel moves beyond Midsomer Murders territory and into the realm of the truly weird"
"Praise for Peter Ackroyd: Extraordinary, amazing, vivid, convincing. [Ackroyd's] view of life questions the role not just of the novel but of art and history, memory, time and much else"
"A novel remarkable for [its] power, ingenuity and subtlety"
"Chillingly brilliant . . . sinister and stunningly well executed"
"Narrator Jilly Bond performs this audiobook, which moves from charming to dark to over the top as Theo's intentions and motivations for moving to England become clear. Bond nicely presents the humorous moments, and her characterizations of the women are fitting, capturing their different demeanors."
All stars
Most relevant
Started slowly and seemed dull but in lieu of anything else I gave it a second go and then rather enjoyed it. A few ‘continuity’ slip ups in the story and the West Country accents were, as ever, really annoying but a good bedtime listen.

Worth persevering with

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A great start, wonderful cast of characters, and excellent writing but the story became increasingly unsatisfactory and the ending was deeply disappointing. Shame after such a good start. I listened on Audible and found the reading awful, which did not help. Cadmus sounded smarmy and unliveable, and the two women were given ‘comedy’ voices, which were at odds with the very good dialogue.

Overall Disappointing

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