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    Death in Devon
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    Death in Devon
    Unavailable
    Death in Devon
    Audiobook7 hours

    Death in Devon

    Written by Ian Sansom

    Narrated by Mike Grady

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    CREAM TEAS! SCHOOL DINNERS! SATANIC SURFERS!

    Join our heroes as they follow up a Norfolk Mystery with a bad case of … DEATH IN DEVON.

    Swanton Morley, the People’s Professor, sets off for Devon to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley’s daughter Miriam and his assistant Stephen Sefton pack up the Lagonda for a trip to the English Riviera.

    Morley has been invited to give the Founder’s Day speech at All Souls School in Rousdon. But when the trio arrive they discover that a boy has died in mysterious circumstances. Was it an accident or was it – murder?

    Join Morley, Sefton and Miram on another adventure into the dark heart of 1930s England.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateMar 12, 2015
    ISBN9780007543793
    Unavailable
    Death in Devon
    Author

    Ian Sansom

    Ian Sansom is the author of 10 books of fiction and non-fiction. He is a former Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a former Writer-in-Residence at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in Belfast. He is currently a Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3 and he writes for The Guardian and The London Review of Books.

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    Reviews for Death in Devon

    3.5/5

    10 ratings6 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I am with Kate Vane the earliest negative reviewer on Amazon. Morley is just too awful and his awfulness overshadows anything interesting that happens in the book.I received a review copy of "The County Guides - Death in Devon" by Ian Sansom (HarperCollins UK, HarperPress/4th Estate/The Friday Project) through NetGalley.com.
    • 3/5
      The mysteries of Ian Sansom are an acquired taste. I acquired that taste by the end of the first book in his Mobile Library series, but after reading a second book in his County Guides series, “Death in Devon,” I am not there yet.Set in England in the 1930s, the series features Swanton Morley, a writer who seems to know everything, or at least pretends to, and his young assistant, Sefton, who acts as Watson to his Holmes, This time they go to a boys' school in Devon, where Morley is the featured speaker at an event that brings parents and wealthy donors to the school. One of the boys is found dead, apparently from an unfortunate accident. This death hardly seems to dampen festivities. Nor does it keep Morley from gathering information for his next county guide.Sansom mysteries are, like those of Alexander McCall Smith, more character-driven than plot-driven, Sansom's characters are, however, less interesting. They talk too much, especially Morley, who soon bores readers even more than he bores other characters. He dominates every conversation, expounding trivia about every subject. Whenever he hits upon an idea that might make a topic for yet another book, he tells Sefton to make a note.It isn't even clear in “Death in Devon” who the novel's true hero might be. While Morley acts the part, it is Sefton who first realizes that something is terribly wrong at this school and that what's wrong has more to do with adults than students. To get Morley to take an interest in the bizarre events going on about them, he must manipulate his boss to move in the necessary direction. At this point, of course, Morley assumes it was his idea all along. And it is Morley's own daughter, Miriam, who is most in danger.If less humorous than the Mobile Library series, the County Guides series does have comic elements. The cases at least are more serious than missing library books. Yet one must read through most of “Death in Devon” to realize there even is a mystery, let alone a mystery worth turning another page to get to the bottom of.
    • 1/5
      Marley is overbearing and really overshadows what happens in the story line and the characters to me are boring.I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, receives an invitation to be the guest speaker at All Souls school in Rousdon, where a friend of his is the headmaster. Sensing an opportunity to write a book on Devon in his series The County Guides, Morley, along with his assistant Stephen Sefton and his daughter Miriam, sets off south in the Lagonda. But the rural idyll doesn't last long before a tragic accident occurs (or was it?) and sinister goings-on are revealed. Business as usual, then.I can see why readers' opinions are split on this series, as the character of Swanton Morley is quite insufferable at times, but it is Sefton who pulls the book out of the fire with his rather laconic remarks and wry sense of humour. Stephen Sefton is everything Swanton Morley isn't - and vice versa - though Morley's way of thinking and erudition are clearly having an effect on his long-suffering assistant. I do agree that the mystery could have been developed better as it was rather delegated to the sidelines, and it was not difficult at all to discover the culprit behind the disappearances and other creepy events. Sansom writes with a keen sense of the absurd, and the plot and characters can't possibly be taken seriously, though I feel the person that's portrayed most realistically is Sefton, who grounds the narrative and the plot.
    • 2/5
      I've read and enjoyed a few Ian Sansom novels. Ring Road succeeded in both gently mocking and celebrating small-town life and had real poignancy. The mobile librarian cosies are light and amusing. So Death in Devon - my home county - should have been ideal for me. But the book is a real disappointment.The set up is that Sefton, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, is working as secretary and assistant to an eccentric polymath and prolific author named Swanton Morley. Along with Morley's daughter, Miriam, they set off to Devon to research the latest in Morley's county guides series, and visit the public school where his friend is headmaster. And just happen upon a crime.Morley is supposed to be the larger-than-life character who dominates the story but the problem for me is he is intensely irritating. We hear his opinions on everything from Dickens to apple pressing to surfing, sometimes through wearisome dialogue, at other times as Sefton quotes (at length) from Morley's supposed works. There is endless scene setting with little happening. There is constant cerebral name-dropping of Thirties cultural figures.I can sort of see that the author is referencing Sayers and her contemporaries - the plot that is marginal to the story, the way that working-class characters are either invisible or shifty, the drone of pseudo-intellectual conversation - but for a parody to work it has to be funny and sharp and this is neither. It's baggy and boring.It's a shame because there is potential here. There are hints at times that Sansom might be trying to take on the Golden Age and show what lay behind it. Sefton recalls the brutality of school bullying and racism - from teachers as well as pupils. He also refers to his traumatic experiences in Spain. He shows sensitivity and insight into Morley (which of course is never reciprocated) and is a sympathetic character.The book has some interesting themes but they don't feel fully developed. Could do better.-I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.
    • 5/5
      Professor Swanton Morley drives to Devon with 2 friends in his Lagonda on a tour of the English Riviera.
      Whilst there he discovers that a child who was a pupil at a school he is visiting has died in mysterious circumstances.
      This is Devon in its heyday of the 40's.
      A history lesson mixed with tales of the occult.
      Great fun!
      I was given a digital copy of this novel by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.