Lestrade and the Deadly Game

By: M. J. Trow

Narrated by: M. J. Trow

The papers call it suicide. The deceased’s father doesn’t. And when Superintendent Lestrade investigates the death by duelling pistol of Anstruther Fitzgibbon, his suspicions are immediately aroused. One of Britain’s leading athletes, Fitzgibbon is the first victim in a series of murders which threatens to extinguish the torch of the Olympic Games in London, in that glorious summer of 1908.

When a hurdler of the ladies’ team falls victim to her own bust improver, fingers are pointed in all directions, and not the least of Lestrade’s worries is that he is dogged by an investigative journalist, whose husband is a jealous American detective with a short temper.

©2014 M. J. Trow (P)2014 Soundings

MJ Trow writes better than he reads

MJ Trow has created this series, based on Lestrade--the policeman who was never quite as smart as Sherlock Holmes (except in this series, he is). It is filled with interesting characters, and often a lot of humor. In this book, he is tasked to help to find who is murdering people while huge numbers of folks are flowing into London from around the world, for the Olympics. The premise of these books is good--and I enjoy the humor, the complexity of the plots and Trow's creativity in bringing this lesser known Sherlockian character into a greater role. And, as a positive--I suspect nobody but the author of a book could ever know exactly how he might want it to be read. But even though Mr. Trow has a soft and gentle voice--and gets all the jokes read just as they should be for getting a laugh, I find his voice to be a bit muffled--hard to achieve clarity. I strain and strain to listen, thus taking a good bit of the pleasure of the book away. I like these stories, and I like that Mr. Trow wants the public to know how he intends them to be read. Unfortunately, I just find that listening to his reading is quite challenging. I listen on my tablet. It's a good story--just bear that in mind, and worth the straining to hear. Perhaps an external speaker of excellent quality, where you can adjust various tonal qualities would deal nicely with this situation, but I just don't happen to have one.