Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingEnter Pale Death
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreOne morning before dawn at her regal country estate, Lady Lavinia Truelove is crushed to death by a horse. Classified as "death by misadventure," this appears a gruesome accident, but Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands suspects foul play—a misgiving he is struggling to separate from his personal grievances toward Sir James Truelove, who is Lady Lavinia's widower and the influential academic patron of Dorcas Joliffe, whom Joe one day hopes to marry. As Joe's investigation yields surprising secrets about one of England's most powerful families, he discovers how little he knew about not only the gilded lives of the moneyed but also his relationship with Dorcas. Is Joe prepared to risk a future with the girl he loves to uncover the truth behind Lady Truelove's death?
Barbara Cleverly is a former teacher and a graduate of Durham University who now lives in Cambridge. Her debut, The Last Kashmiri Rose, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2002.
Matthew Brenher, originally from London, now lives in Los Angeles. His theatrical background includes performances in no fewer than twenty Shakespearean productions, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, and the title role in Henry V. In Los Angeles, he played Claudius in Hamlet, Cassio in Othello, Antony in Antony & Cleopatra, Antipholous of Syracuse in Comedy of Errors, and Orsino in Twelfth Night. Other theater includes: Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Trigorin in The Seagull, Alistair in Shaw’s The Millionairess, Jerry in Pinter’s Betrayal, the title role in Dracula, and George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, for which he was awarded best performance by a lead actor/drama by Stage Scene LA 2009–2010. He’s performed in new plays, most recently in A Bitter Fruit for Palestine, Vulcan in Love’s Mistress at the famous Globe theater in London, and Petko in an acclaimed production of The Mapletree Game. On television, he played “Mad” Marcus for six months in the now defunct British soap Brookside. Other television includes: Rules of Engagement, Bodyguards, The Blind Date, Starhunter, The Grid, Eastenders, and Nostradamus. Films include Execution, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Stay Shy, and The Boy Who would Be King. He works in commercials and industrials and is an accomplished voice-over artist.
Reviews
"[C]olorful and richly historical.”
“While there is an intriguing mystery at the heart of Enter Pale Death—one that is set up within the first few pages—one stays for the social intrigue and the historical setting, which Cleverly has nailed to the last nuance…Cleverly moves things along at a leisurely pace, but it’s all to give readers time to note the surroundings, which, like the mystery upon which the book is built, are first rate. Even if you don’t reflexively reach for historical mysteries, you should give Enter Pale Death a shot.”
“Cleverly’s excellent twelfth whodunit featuring Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Joe Sandilands offers her sleuth a number of genuinely baffling crimes to solve…Cleverly manages to pull everything together logically, with more than a few surprises.”
“Joe Sandilands, Scotland Yard detective and self-described troublemaker, knows he’s entering quicksand when he explores an anonymous letter’s allegations that Lady Lavinia Truelove’s supposed accidental death was foul play connected to a decades-old murder on her Suffolk estate…Sandilands’ many fans, and readers who love Downton Abbey, Rennie Airth, and Charles Todd, will revel in this elegant, intricately woven mystery set in the early twentieth century.”
“Cleverly delivers a witty, atmospheric, and well-conceived slice of British crime…Her marvelous descriptions of country lore and an evocative Suffolk countryside setting provide a taste of all things British and may send curious readers scurrying to the library to learn more about the ancient traditions in this most ancient of lands.”
“Narrator Matthew Brenher sounds wonderfully at home in 1930s London and in the country house of Sir James Truelove…Brenher effortlessly negotiates the subtle class nuances among the servants and local police and the less subtle differences among their masters. Cleverly’s plotting keeps the listener guessing to the end.”
Expand reviews