Try free for 30 days
-
The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $25.86
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
The Red Lacquer Case
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sally Meredith's young life has been full of adventure. As a suffragist, she fought for women's right to vote. She drove an ambulance in France during the war. And she's already had a proposal and a broken engagement. But the past few years have been deadly dull, taking care of a cranky relative and now living alone in a quiet village. So when her eccentric uncle Fritzi arrives with the tale of his most recent invention - a deadly gas that nations are striving to get hold of - she's intrigued.
-
The Annam Jewel
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelve-year-old Peter Waring is an orphan with an assortment of relatives who don't quite know what to do with him. But Peter's concern is for Rose Ellen, the little girl his mother took in before she died, and for whom none of his relations feel any responsibility. They are however intrigued by Peter's legacy. His father had hidden The Annam Jewel, a mysterious and priceless object that Peter will inherit on his 25th birthday. But Peter's first task is to rescue Rose Ellen from the wretched institution where she has been sent.
-
Hue and Cry
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The engagement of effervescent Mally Lee to handsome, well-connected Roger Mooring is not going well. They quarrel constantly and Mally's idea is to spend time apart and delay the wedding. She has no money of her own and hopes to find a job, which materializes when Sir George Peterson hires her to be a governess to his daughter. She happily heads to London and all is well until Sir George and his odious secretary, Paul Craddock, accuse her of the theft of a diamond brooch and an important paper.
-
The Black Cabinet
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is a black Chinese cabinet decorated with figures that once ignited little Chloe Dane's imagination. It was in the drawing-room of her family home, Danesborough. Later, it held secrets that shamed and sickened her. Poor but honest Chloe hasn't been to Danesborough for years and believed she was the last of her family. So when a distant cousin introduces himself and declares that she will be his heir, she finds herself in the huge house again. And she wants none of it.
-
Anne Belinda
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sir John Waveney has inherited Waveney Hall. A veteran of the Great War himself, his inheritance has come because of the deaths in action of his two distant cousins, leaving him as the next male heir. He hopes to make the acquaintance of his two remaining cousins, Lady Jenifer Marr and Anne Belinda. But Lady Marr proves very vague about her twin sister's whereabouts. Is she traveling with a friend or (as has been intimated) has she been incarcerated in a mental institution? No one seems to actually know, and several people seem bent on frustrating John's attempts to find her.
-
The Amazing Chance
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a mute, burly German peasant is helping British soldiers move a fallen tree, he's struck on the head. When he regains consciousness he calls out to the astonished Major Manning, using his nickname "Monkey"—in perfect English.
-
The Red Lacquer Case
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sally Meredith's young life has been full of adventure. As a suffragist, she fought for women's right to vote. She drove an ambulance in France during the war. And she's already had a proposal and a broken engagement. But the past few years have been deadly dull, taking care of a cranky relative and now living alone in a quiet village. So when her eccentric uncle Fritzi arrives with the tale of his most recent invention - a deadly gas that nations are striving to get hold of - she's intrigued.
-
The Annam Jewel
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelve-year-old Peter Waring is an orphan with an assortment of relatives who don't quite know what to do with him. But Peter's concern is for Rose Ellen, the little girl his mother took in before she died, and for whom none of his relations feel any responsibility. They are however intrigued by Peter's legacy. His father had hidden The Annam Jewel, a mysterious and priceless object that Peter will inherit on his 25th birthday. But Peter's first task is to rescue Rose Ellen from the wretched institution where she has been sent.
-
Hue and Cry
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The engagement of effervescent Mally Lee to handsome, well-connected Roger Mooring is not going well. They quarrel constantly and Mally's idea is to spend time apart and delay the wedding. She has no money of her own and hopes to find a job, which materializes when Sir George Peterson hires her to be a governess to his daughter. She happily heads to London and all is well until Sir George and his odious secretary, Paul Craddock, accuse her of the theft of a diamond brooch and an important paper.
-
The Black Cabinet
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is a black Chinese cabinet decorated with figures that once ignited little Chloe Dane's imagination. It was in the drawing-room of her family home, Danesborough. Later, it held secrets that shamed and sickened her. Poor but honest Chloe hasn't been to Danesborough for years and believed she was the last of her family. So when a distant cousin introduces himself and declares that she will be his heir, she finds herself in the huge house again. And she wants none of it.
-
Anne Belinda
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sir John Waveney has inherited Waveney Hall. A veteran of the Great War himself, his inheritance has come because of the deaths in action of his two distant cousins, leaving him as the next male heir. He hopes to make the acquaintance of his two remaining cousins, Lady Jenifer Marr and Anne Belinda. But Lady Marr proves very vague about her twin sister's whereabouts. Is she traveling with a friend or (as has been intimated) has she been incarcerated in a mental institution? No one seems to actually know, and several people seem bent on frustrating John's attempts to find her.
-
The Amazing Chance
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a mute, burly German peasant is helping British soldiers move a fallen tree, he's struck on the head. When he regains consciousness he calls out to the astonished Major Manning, using his nickname "Monkey"—in perfect English.
Publisher's Summary
Patricia Wentworth began writing crime novels in 1923 with the debut of The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith. It was an auspicious beginning to a 40-year career during the era known as the Golden Age of mystery writing.
Jane is broke, she's just lost her job and her landlady has kicked her out. When an amorous young man approaches her on a park bench it soon becomes clear that he has mistaken her for her cousin Renata. Their mothers were identical twins and even though Jane has never met her, Renata's fiance insists they too are identical. He's desperate.
It seems Renata sleepwalked into a meeting of her father's friends and overheard their criminal plans. She's lied about hearing anything but they doubt her story and are holding her prisoner. The plan is that Jane switch places so he can get his love to safety.
Jane's only other option is the workhouse, and being a plucky young woman ripe for adventure, she agrees. But she's no fool and informs a former beau who works at Scotland Yard of the scheme. Henry March is appalled but agrees to be her outside contact in case of trouble. Her first challenge turns out to be hiding her natural intelligence while impersonating the somewhat dim Renata.
All the ingredients of an English mystery novel are in place: a country mansion with hidden panels, laboratories and caves; dastardly villains bent on destroying civilization; a daring, clever girl determined to unravel the conspiracy; and not one, but two budding romances.
Written during the decade in which women gained the vote, Jane Smith is a heroine of her time. Far from waiting for the hero to come save her, Jane is determined to solve the mystery before Henry does!