Mrs. McGinty's Dead » (Unabridged, 5 CDs, 6 hrs. and 8 min.)

Agatha Christie is nearly synonymous with upper-class British mysteries, for good reason. She set the standard for the genre in over 60 novels and dozens of short stories, also creating two classic detectives: the fastidious Belgian, Hercule Poirot, and English spinster Jane Marple. No one could match Christie's knack for weaving clues into her stories, then turning the whole thing inside out -- shocking her readers every time.

Mrs. McGinty is dead and everyone suspects James Bentley, her slightly shifty lodger. In fact, James is facing a trial for an almost certain open-and-shut case. But Superintendent Spence is suspicious enough to ask for Hercule Poirot’s assistance. Soon, the seemingly simple situation turns into a complex web of lies and hidden identities. Novelist Ariadne Oliver (Agatha Christie’s alter ego) joins the hunt to find the real murderer in this irresistible whodunit brought to life by popular Christie reader Hugh Fraser.

San Francisco Chronicle

The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.