Death in the Fifth Position cover art

Death in the Fifth Position

An Edgar Box Mystery

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Death in the Fifth Position

By: Gore Vidal, Edgar Box
Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

In Death in the Fifth Position, dashing P.R. man Peter Sargent is hired by a ballet company on the eve of a major upcoming performance. Handling the press seems to be no problem, but when a rising star in the company is killed during the performance - dropped from thirty feet above the stage, crashing to her death in a perfect fifth position - Sargent has a real case on his hands. As he ingratiates himself with the players behind the scenes (especially one lovely young ballerina), he finds that this seemingly graceful ballet company is performing their most dramatic acts behind the curtain. There are sharp rivalries, sordid affairs, and shady characters. Sargent, though, has no trouble staying on point and proving that the ballerina killer is no match for his keen eye and raffish charm.

©1952, 2011 Gore Vidal (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Private Investigators Suspense Thriller & Suspense Urban
All stars
Most relevant  
I really enjoyed the story. I have never read any Gore Vidal books but this has peaked my interest. Loved the characters created by Mikael Naramore's marvellous voice.

Crime Novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
GORE Vidal's alter-ego is a completely self-obsessed opportunist who, frankly, isn't very likeable. I'm not referring to Edgar Box - the pseudonym chosen by black-listed Vidal for the three lucrative potboilers in this series - but rather his protagonist, Peter Cutler Sargeant II.
Sargeant, aged around 27 in this first instalment , is a self-employed New York PR executive hired by the Grand St Petersburg Ballet Company on the eve of a major US tour. McCarthyism is in full swing and the former deputy art critic for the New York Globe is told there are concerns of a public backlash following accusations that the choreographer of this season's new ballet is a Communist.
Vidal writes fluidly, and the pace is fairly brisk. As the body count increases, we are treated to a breezy whodunnit that is worth six-and-half hour's of anyone's time.
But crime fans who like their protagonists with at least one redeeming quality may find themselves out of luck with Sergeant.
We're led to believe he is dashing and he clearly possesses the pedigree to insert himself comfortably into the higher echelons of society (as is seen more clearly in the following two novels).
Sergeant's casual approach to everything (except money) is indicative of Vidal's own privileged upbringing. When it comes to his treatment of women, this is borne of its time (1952) though there is some reason to believe Vidal's own promiscuity (in his memoire he boasted about having more than 1,000 sexual encounters with both sexes by the age of 25) may have been influential, here.
But there are few cracks in the porcelain edifice and he really has no charm.
Sergeant would have been more interesting, in my view, had Vidal given him a battle-scarred Second World War backstory. My go-to example. here, is the complex Roger Sterling in Mad Men; an outwardly bon viveur who, in reality, has been driven to nihilism by his experiences against the Japanese in WW2. No such luck, however. Vidal goes out of his way to tell us Sergeant had a non-eventful war, thus leaving readers to accept mere ennui as his guiding light.
That said, Death in the Fifth Position is a treat.
And, here, special mention must go to Mikael Naramore, whose masterful narration hits all the right notes in bringing Sergeant to life.

Entertaining Whodunnit & Excellent Narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.