Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery (A Paul Temple Mystery) Paperback – International Edition, 5 Nov. 2015

Toby Stephens as Paul Temple , always a joy to listen to and relax to . This full length novel by Francis Durbridge is fast paced and exciting , full of surprises as are all the Paul Temple series . Curl up , relax and enjoy !

This is the second Paul Temple audiobook I have listened to after the Geneva mystery and I have to say that I preferred this one.It has an intriguing start prompted by a kidnapping and a mysteriously labelled coat. The ensuing investigations lead to fantastically described London socialising, country villages, funfairs and creepy old houses.There is also a strong mystery story here and a genuine whodunit/whoisit right up until the final chapter. It is again beautifully read by Toby Stephens.The whole feel of it is of the 1920s but it is actually set much later (when concorde is flying). This can make it a little confusing as there are some older style characterisations that don't necessarily fit. Rough new money industrialists from the 'north country' with no manners and women whose first priority is to fix their make up after being kidnapped! But once I put aside any irritation with this I just enjoyed it for what it is - leisurely mystery solving by the rich middle classes.

I have the series and enjoy it immensely. I read the sometimes on Sunday nights through headphones so i cant hear too much with neighbours ( I live in a GF flat.) It is a chic time with the characters and the 'Get Up To' situ's that come with Paul Temple.

Paul Temple and Margo Mystery is entertaining and diverting, but no more than that.Set in the 1980s even then this must have seemed a dreadfully old fashioned mystery story. The characters appear to have come straight out of the golden age detective fiction of the 1940s. Temple is a part-time amateur sleuth, part-time professional detective fiction writer, ably assisted by his wife, Steve, who seems to largely spend her time spending his money. They even have a comic Cockney live-in servant. Forensic science appears unheard of.The story itself shows its origins in a radio serial. It has plenty of cliffhanging excitement - kidnapping, bombs, locked buildings set on fire - but increasingly little that actually feels like it threatens our heroes. Such incidents are scattered through the story in a way that appears to reflect the need to fit them into weekly instalments, rather than to build tension through a novel. Problematically, the level of threat the central characters face declines over time, from direct assaults on their safety and lives to nothing, and the tension of a decently constructed first third is allowed to slip away.The decreased threat to the investigators as they get closer to the solution and the heart of a dangerous gang, also points to more serious problem: the story doesn't actually make a great deal of sense. Events appear to have been dictated far more by the need to create a mystery - or provide clues - than by any convincing reason for the characters to act that way. A fairground fortune teller, for instance, gives a warning so cryptic it is virtually incomprehensible at one stage, for instance, for no obvious reason. Whole subplots exist in virtual isolation to the rest of the story. And at the end, when Temple provides a summary of what happened he gives no clue as to how he deduced some of it, presumably because sometimes the only way he could was by way of a lucky guess.Toby Stevens reads extremely well. He has sufficient verve and enthusiasm to cover a number of the story's flaws. The story itself at least rattles along with some pace. For me, it covered some long car journeys satisfactorily.

I am a fan of Paul Temple and love the radio repeats. This is one of my favourite adventures. It is a little more meaty than some of the others and has interesting twists and turns.

The book was well received and given the thumbs up by the recipient.

Paul Temple has been going as a radio detective since 1938 and "Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery" was adapted for radio by Francis Durbridge in 1986.There has been some attempt to update these stories of upper class Paul and his wife Steve from the 1930s, Paul returns home on Concorde - which would set the scene in the late 60s or 70s - but Durbridge was an old fashioned gentleman, who seems to have only included the bits of the modern world that he liked, so that the overwhelming feeling is of a 1930s timewarp, where Steve is expected to hand round the tea and be decorative and rescued while Paul does the investigating. Indeed when he sent her off to investigate a dress shop with the stipulation that she buy only one dress I said something very rude at the player. Harriet Vane would have made mincemeat of Paul and bought her own damn dresses, but Steve is meek and mild and the epitome of what 1930s man considered proper in a wife.However, if you take these as 30s set stories and ignore Steve's subordinate role then this is a good mystery only slightly marred by the resolution being as a result of people telling Temple things rather than him deducing. I was still baffled by the end of the second disk despite the fact that the body count had started to rise. A thoroughly entertaining listen in the car and like another reviewer I found myself sitting outside the house waiting for the disk to end.Toby Stephens is a superlative reader, his voices and accents distinctive enough that you know without being told which character is talking and he's particularly good on the female voices, you do forget that it is one person reading the whole thing and start to think that its a radio play.Overall, very good indeed.

Really pleased to be able to find this audio cassette. Arrived very quickly. Happy with purchase.