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Murder as a Fine Art

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Murder as a Fine Art

By: Carol Carnac
Narrated by: Mark Meadows
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About this listen

When a civil servant at the newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts is found crushed beneath a monstrous marble bust after dark, it appears to be the third instance in a string of fatal accidents at the department.

Already disturbed by rumours of forgeries and irregularities in the Ministry’s dealings, Minister Humphry David is soon faced with the possibility that among his colleagues is a murderer – though how the bust could have been made an instrument of death is a masterstroke of criminal devilment.

Taking charge of the case, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard enters a caustic world of fine art and civil service grievances to unveil a killer hiding in plain sight.

©1953 The Estate of Carol Carnac (P)2025 Soundings Crime Crime Fiction Mystery Traditional Detectives
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I am a great fan if ECR Lorac (and her Carnac offerings generally) but this is one of her less successful works. I found the storytelling dull and lacking in interest, the characters less well drawn than normal and the plot dull.

Not Loracs best

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I’m not sure this author is my cup of tea but it was an interesting story based around a murder within the Ministry of Fine Arts. The writers language and verbosity may be usual for the time it was written but when I listened to it I was pulled out of the story & had to reach for a dictionary. I could’ve winged it but I wanted to understand what the minister and detective were alluding to.
The main detective seemed to be an intelligent and insightful man but was described as an ‘average Scotland Yard man’. That was about all the description I can recall about him. In fact most of the characters throughout the story were sketched pretty thinly. Perhaps I’m used to Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh who use a riot of colourful characters within their stories. I found most of these characters somewhat grey but perhaps that would be more accurate for a 1951 government Ministry.
The story catches your interest from the beginning with a seemingly impossible murder for unfathomable reasons. The investigation goes on for quite some time and I must admit that by the middle chapters I was wishing for something to happen. Perhaps this was intended so that the ending had more energy or excitement to it.
I repeat, I’ve read Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Ngaio Marsh and they tend to have bodies dropping like flies, murders & poisoners galore and impossibly fabulous characters so perhaps this writer preferred a more realistic narrative.
I enjoyed the denouement and the detective explains the why, how and who in detail which was helpful but I think I’ll relax with a book which doesn’t require a dictionary next time.

Interesting if overly verbose Golden Age Detective story

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