A Man Lay Dead is a British murder mystery of the classic British murder mystery format. Lots of potential suspects at a weekend party/get-together at some fancy mansion, everything is, "just so ghastly," and all the women are, "so dreadfully frightened." Meh. Nothing special here, really, but it also wasn't terrible. It was just your typical British murder mystery.I listened to the audiobook as narrated by James Saxon. There were a couple of Russian characters in this book, and I have to say that Saxon's Russian accent sounded like a cross between a Russian and Count Dracula. It was comical, actually, but it was also the only time the book was able to really capture my attention.