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Thorndyke Novels 5-8

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Thorndyke Novels 5-8

By: R. Austin Freeman
Narrated by: Graham Scott
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Thorndyke Novels 5-8

By R. Austin Freeman

Narrated by Graham Scott

Four more full-length adventures of R. Austen Freeman's great 'scientific investigator', Dr John Thorndyke: First, young Helen Vardon marries a man she detests in order to save her father from imprisonment; but her selfless act only precipitates a still greater disaster, and puts her under suspicion of murder. Then, in The Cat's Eye, Thorndyke unravels both an apparent robbery gone wrong and the still more complex mystery of Miss Blake's family inheritance and the cat's eye pendant. In The Mystery of Angelina Frood a woman in hiding from her drug-addled husband mysteriously vanishes into the fog. And in The Shadow of the Wolf, a husband disappears immediately after apparently sending an incriminating letter to his solicitor; but Thorndyke soon begins to question the whole chain of events.

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Graham Scott vividly brings to life the various characters theough the nuances of their accents. Dr Thorndyke's intellectual, knowledgeable and incisive reasoning is portrayed with a cool detachment that takes its orifins from the descriptions of his resolve to pursue justice and not merely a convenient conviction. Yet the humanity of the man also ahines through. i thoroughly enjoy both the stories and the storytelling. Some of the situations seem unusual in their premises, but motives are explained, no matter that they may seem a strange way of thinking or reacting. These are stories of their time, when the Empire still existed, and was only just beginning to be shaken, and standards of speech in the book are generally high, with occasional references to other nationalities in the euphemisms and idioms of the day according to the education and prejudices of the depicted character. Dr Thorndyke and his medical colleagues once or twice use what was then correct medical/scientific terminology for other nationalities, but they do so in terms which are not intended to incite hatred, rather to state what was perceived then as simple facts. i heard similar sentiments expressed by my grandfather during the 1970s, in much less respectful tones, yet with the same "statement of fact" assumptions. Although I do not agree with the assumed fact, I recognise its historical setting and accept the rare occurrence in the Thorndyke series for what it is: a portrayal of how it was, and that Thorndyke himself, and his medical colleagues, are not portrayed as suffering malicious prejudice.

Great narration of these original HowCatchEm storiws

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The first story, Helen Vardon’s Confession, is very slow and not my cup of tea. The other three stories are enjoyable and well-read.

Enjoable

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Weak selection and not great narration.

Narrator, in my opinion, isn’t good at women which is an issue since one book is all from the PO of a woman and another has a dominant central character who is female. So half the book. Plus there’s a policeman he uses a really really irritating voice for and a hero for whom he uses a crusty old man’ voice.

All this is subjective - You may enjoy it. But find it frustrating.

I contacted Audible over 10 years ago asking them to get these into their catalogue and there are some novels/novellas that I think out shine Conan Doyle.

I wish they’d put a really top notch narrator (Samuel West I’d listen to reading a phone directory) good production values and a select the tales that aren’t the most dated and least interesting……

Opportunity missed…. Hopefully to be put right? In the meantime I’m going to return this. Something I’ve only done a handful of times in almost 20 years 😱

I love the Thorndyke books - but these are far from the best

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