Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing

By: Maryla Szymiczkowa, Antonia Lloyd-Jones - translator

Narrated by: Moira Quirk

Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

“An ingenious marriage of comedy and crime.” (Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel laureate and author of Man Booker International Prize winner Flights)

A charming, witty, and deliciously spooky mystery, inspired by the work of Agatha Christie, following a bored socialite who becomes Cracow’s most cunning amateur sleuth.

Cracow, 1893. Zofia Turbotyńska—professor’s wife and socialite—is bored at home, with little to do but plan a charity auction sponsored by the wealthy residents of a local nursing home and the nuns who work there.

But when one of those residents is found dead, Zofia finds a calling: solving crimes. Ridiculed by the police, who have declared the deaths of natural cause, she starts her own murder investigation, unbeknownst to anyone but her loyal cook Franciszka and one reluctant nun. With her husband blissfully unaware of her secret, Zofia remakes herself into Cracow’s greatest—or at the very least, most surprising—amateur detective.

Full of period character and charm, Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing proves that everyone is capable of finding their passion in life, however unlikely it may seem.

©2015 Maryla Szymiczkowa, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I can’t stop smiling!

I hope you soon add more selections from this author and the excellent translator, and voice performer. Changing any of the three would surely be tampering with excellence. For me, listening to this audible selection has been pure joy.

Great light historical novel!

As a light historical/mystery book, this was a real delight! It had a nineteenth century flavor in its writing style, plus a light touch of humor and irony that really made it so fun to read. Plus, the mystery puzzle had a nice twist as well. Kudos should go to Ms. Szymiczkowa and Ms. Lloyd-Jones for their writing and translation.

I thought the narrator did a nice job, with a crisp tone of voice and good characterizations. I have noticed a tendency for British productions to use a representative sampling of the accents of the British class system to represent characters from other European countries and that does sound a bit weird to my American ears, but that is more a criticism of the producer than the narrator.

I actually listened to this book from my library, then decided to buy it to do a positive review, and I think I'll want to read it again. I spent a spring in Poland in a college overseas study program in the late 1970's and this book brought back the absolute delight in touring the Krakow area.

Brilliant!

If E. F. Benson and Agatha Christie conspired to write a story together, this would be the highly entertaining result of the collaboration...Queen Lucia combined with Miss Marple. It's quite simply the best audiobook I've heard in a long, long time! (I listened at 1.15 speed which made for a brisk, crisp narration that lent itself well to the story. Any slower and the accents would come across as cumbersome, I think.)
Easy 5 big stars!
You won't regret the listen if you're a fan of intelligent, slightly mocking humor combined with tricky murder mysteries!