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

I was quick to order and delighted to listen to this latest BBC reissue of one of the Paul Temple radio serials. This one is as good as any of them. Their prolific creator, Francis Durbridge, has Temple and his wife Steve investigating a crime involving drugs and women’s coats, thereby giving the wonderful Marjorie Westbury, who plays Steve, rather more to do than is usual.Older listeners will want to settle comfortably in the best chair as soon as the theme (Coronation Scot) begins. Younger listeners might find that crime serials on radio from the 1960s had most of the best features of today’s TV equivalent together with much more charm.Each episode is heard in its entirety here (some Paul Temple reissues have joined them all together), the eight episodes occupying 4 CDs. The sound quality is satisfactory for its era. One’s ear soon adjusts to a plain AM signal. I found that some treble boost helped.BBC Audiobooks are warning that this (seventh) Paul Temple mystery is the penultimate one that will be reissued. This one ends with Paul announcing that he and Steve will now take a holiday in Jamaica, news that prompts Sir Graham Forbes to say, “Come back soon. London isn’t the same without the Temples.”

Paul and Steve, his lovely wife, are once again plunged into an adventure when Steve is kidnapped for a few hours. Yet again, our famous duo are stumbling upon dead and dying bodies who live just long enough to utter a few cryptic words before expiring. They do not move around too much in this one, but Steve plays a much more active role. There is the usual collection of favourite characters in Charlie, Sir Graham and the inevitable stallwart Scotland Yard Super.I do not want to go into the plot, but this is the usual high standard and our intrepid heroes are again at the pointed end of criminal master-minds. The fans will not be disappointed as this glorious series takes us back to days when there was perhaps a stereotypical sort of gentility.Loved it from the moment "Coronation Scot" resounded right until the end. Am I right in thinking that this may have been about the final appearance for Peter Coke (Cook?) and Marjorie Westbury? What a pity.

Reolacing broken cassette

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.

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

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.

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 !

Brought back lots of happy memories, also still a good read.No sex or exsessive violence simply a good detective story.