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1 h 2 min, published on Spotify on 8 September 2026. A free sample plays on the listing; the full audiobook is sold through Spotify.
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Forensic detective mystery · 1923 · Dr Thorndyke story
The Funeral Pyre
A body in a burning hayrick. A dental plate far from the ashes. Thorndyke asks who really died.
- Running time
- 1 h 2 min
- Format
- Complete story
- On Spotify since
- 8 September 2026
- Narration
- Digital voice · full cast
About the story
What happens
A hayrick burns on the Dartford marshes in the small hours. By morning the ashes have given up a skull, a clay pipe, and beads of gold from a melted watch-chain — enough to name the dead man as a City broker who insured his life for three thousand pounds less than a year ago. His insurers, who do not pay out on suicide, send down fiction's original scientific detective to watch the inquest.
Thorndyke arrives with a research-case and a spirit-lamp, and spends the morning taking plaster casts: of footprints in tidal mud, and of a dental plate picked up two hundred yards from the fire. None of it quite fits the story everyone has agreed on.
Where to listen
Editions of The Funeral Pyre
Free illustrated reading edition
Download the carefully made PDF
A thoughtfully typeset reading companion using Piggy Story Studio's original, studio-owned illustrations. It is optimised for a clear download without sacrificing reading quality.
YouTube · Complete audiobook · Full-cast illustrated
The complete full-cast audiobook, told in original illustrations rather than text on screen. 1 h 3 min, free to watch.
YouTube · Complete audiobook · Read-along
The complete audiobook with the full text on screen and the spoken line highlighted as you listen. 1 h 2 min, free to watch.
Keep listening
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