The Black Spectacles cover art

The Black Spectacles

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
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.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Black Spectacles

By: John Dickson Carr
Narrated by: Kris Dyer
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

About this listen

A sinister case of deadly poisoned chocolates from Sodbury Cross's high street shop haunts the group of friends and relatives assembled at Bellegarde, among the orchards of 'peach-fancier' Marcus Chesney. To prove a point about how the sweets could have been poisoned under the nose of the shopkeeper, Chesney stages an elaborate memory game to test whether any of his guests can see beyond their 'black spectacles'; that is, to see the truth without assumptions as witnesses. During the test - which is also being filmed - Chesney is murdered by his accomplice, dressed head to toe in an 'invisible man' disguise. The keen wits of Dr Gideon Fell are called for to crack this brazen and bizarre murder. This classic novel is widely regarded as one of John Dickson Carr's masterpieces and remains among the greatest impossible crime mysteries of all time.

©1939 The Estate of Clarice M. Carr (P)2023 Soundings
Mystery Private Investigators Traditional Detectives Detective Fiction Crime Murder

Listeners also enjoyed...

Crook o' Lune cover art
A Third Class Murder cover art
Thorndyke: Novels 1-4 cover art
Heads You Lose cover art
Wicked Spirits: Mysteries, Spine Chillers and Lost Tales of the Supernatural cover art
Mr Fortune—Books 1-3 cover art
The Magic Casket cover art
Murder at the Dolphin Hotel: A Gripping Cozy Historical Mystery cover art
Shadows of the Dead cover art
Murder at Everham Hall cover art
How Briggs Died cover art
Murder at the Fitzwilliam cover art
Assassins cover art
Murder at Little Minton cover art
Murder at Madingley Grange cover art
The Black Abbot cover art
All stars
Most relevant
There's been a lot of hit and misses lately in the British Crime Classic releases , this one is definitely a hit for me.

Loved it

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

An enjoyable few hours listening. A bit drawn out in the middle but like other Dickson Carrs keeps you on your toes.

Enjoyable

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

I really enjoyed the story and, as always, lived Kris Dyer’s reading of the book.

Great

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

The narrator ruined this book. Sadly no more from this famous author as Kris Dyer reads them

Dreadful narrator

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