The Woman in Their Stories | The Belgian Detective Mystery Audiobook

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Sussex, the first of November, 1931. A colourless sky after a night of rain, a square Georgian house above a small valley, and in a little pavilion among the beech trees, a benefactor dead with an ornamental dagger in his chest.

The local inspector has sent for the Belgian Detective because nobody at Ferncombe House agrees about anything — except the death. A business partner says he watched the fatal struggle from the laurels. A young music teacher says he did it himself, to save her. The housekeeper says she saw the widow take the dagger from the study.

And the widow, Celia Merriweather, meets them at a drawing table with graphite on her hand and a question of her own. Three people have told the police what she wanted last night. She asks only one thing: that nobody invent an innocent woman who happens to resemble her.

She has drawn a plan of the pavilion. And something in one witness's account will not fit the building.

ℹ️ FOR LISTENERS This is an original mystery written by Nocturnal Tales, inspired by a listener's suggestion (thank you, Sabrina) and by the conflicting testimonies of Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "In a Grove", one of the stories behind Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon. The plot, characters and text are entirely our own creation, and all characters and events are fictional. The historical epilogue at the end discusses the literary and cinematic background. No affiliation, endorsement, or official connection is implied.

💬 QUESTION FOR THE COMMENTS Four witnesses, four different women standing beside the bench. Which account persuaded you first — and what finally made you question it? 🕵️

🕒 CHAPTERS 00:00 - Introduction 01:29 - Chapter One - The Question She Brought 09:47 - Chapter Two - The Pavilion 17:12 - Chapter Three - An Honourable Man 25:26 - Chapter Four - A Door and a Drawing 32:34 - Chapter Five - The Rescue 41:36 - Chapter Six - What the House Heard 48:17 - Chapter Seven - The Woman Who Arranged It 56:07 - Chapter Eight - The Dead Man’s Record 1:04:22 - Chapter Nine - The Empty Chair 1:13:32 - Chapter Ten - Her Account 1:24:17 - Chapter Eleven - A Witness Who Stayed 1:32:27 - Chapter Twelve - No One to Rescue 1:41:07 - Chapter Thirteen - The Last Account 1:50:27 - Chapter Fourteen - What She Kept 1:57:37 - Historical Epilogue - The Stories Behind the Story 2:02:58 - Closing

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🧾 CREDITS Written by Nocturnal Tales. Narrated by Nocturnal Tales.

🔖 TAGS / KEYWORDS Belgian detective mystery audiobook, Rashomon inspired mystery, unreliable witnesses, conflicting accounts, country house murder, Sussex 1931, Arthur narrator mystery, golden age mystery audiobook, classic whodunit audiobook, full-length mystery audiobook