The Ten Teacups cover art

The Ten Teacups

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The Ten Teacups

By: Carter Dickson
Narrated by: John Telfer
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About this listen

'There will be ten teacups at number 4, Berwick Terrace, W.8, on Wednesday, July 31st, at 5 p.m. Precisely. The presence of the Metropolitan Police is respectfully requested.'

The note was delivered to New Scotland Yard, its words evoking a cold murder case and its unsolved mystery of the ten teacups found beside the body. Scrambling to prevent a second killing, the police set up a watertight cordon at Berwick Terrace. But gunfire rings out from the top floor at 5 p.m. on the 31st, and the corpse of one of the celebrity tenants is found in a locked room, shot twice from behind, a smoking gun by their side and on the table – ten teacups. The killer has vanished into thin air, an impossibility which calls for the masterful sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale to enter the fray.

First published in 1937, this classic mystery shines on today as one of the great masterpieces of the impossible crime genre.

©1937 The Estate of Clarice M. Carr (P)2025 Soundings Crime Fiction Mystery Traditional Detectives Crime Funny

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All stars
Most relevant
I really didn’t enjoy this locked room story. I found it ridiculously contrived and tedious. It was well read to be fair

Contrived and tedious

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I enjoy the antics of John Dickson Carr's bevy of eccentric detectives, and H M Merrivale is, despite his slovenly bulk, one of the spriteliest. I like his odd and varied characters rather than the sometimes overly twisty locked room plots.

enjoyable if convoluted.

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The only talent connected to this novel is John Telfer's reading. The story is totally lacking in credibility. Clearly Carter Dickson was having an off day because he has written some very good books.

Utterly ridiculous from start to finish

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