The Mistpuddle Murders [AUDIO/2018.11.29]

★★★☆☆

  Something of a dilemma here with The Mistpuddle Murders -- I can't decide whether or not I would've liked it more with a longer runtime. I think narration works perfectly fine, even better than a full-cast rendition would (thanks to the colourful prose of Simon A. Forward's). As for the runtime itself, I suspect this was always going to work best as a Short Trip that doesn't outstay its welcome. It doesn't grip me 100% of the time, but whenever it does, it has me on a chokehold with all its giddy thrills of fictional talking animals coming to life and trying to solve a cute little murder mystery (something of a misnomer for some readers, I'm sure). You would not expect any of this to make its way onscreen, and that's the beauty of these Short Trips: with the hour-or-more-long mandate off the table, these short stories are given room to be as creative as they want and as long as they want as well. Sarah Sutton is having a blast reading it and giving all these animal characters different voices, and I don't blame her for enjoying such a fun little story. I suspect that with at least a bit more time to explore this world, I would've had no problem calling The Mistpuddle Murders a hidden gem -- but rest assured, it's still a bundle of light-hearted fun that'll keep you guessing until the very end... like all good murder mysteries do.