Lestrade and the Sign of Nine

By: M J Trow

Narrated by: M J Trow

It is a puzzle that has faced Scotland Yard from the beginning - whose was the limbless body found among the foundations? And in the murderous world of Sholto Lestrade, one question is invariably followed by another - what do a lecherous rector, a devious speculator and a plagiarist novelist all have in common? Answer: they're all dead - each of them with a bloody space where his head used to be.

And six others are to join them before our intrepid inspector brings the perpetrator to book. Lestrade braves haunted houses, machine-gun bullets and two Home Secretaries in his headlong hunt for the truth.

©2000 Regnery Publishing, Inc. (P)2009 Soundings

listen marred by racist humour

This could have been a very entertaining Victorian detective farce with a chance to chuckle at Holmes for a change, but the good humour was spoiled early in the listen by scattered, weaker and shabbier lines playing off ethnic stereotypes and mild homophobia (Holmes: "We're looking for two men; Watson: Speak for yourself, sir!") ; THEN the author really crossed a line in the last 30-45 minutes with a denouement dependant on men in blackface, frequently referred to as "coons" and another word I won't reproduce. This was set in Victoria England where such language and attitudes would have existed, but this is not a work of literary realism -- and I saw no social satire as the point of the situations - If the author was attempting satire, he wasn't successful in those parts.

Narration: I was prepared to like the author's style because he brought so much life to the voices, that is, if he slowed down and used a decongestant rather than sniffling through the last quarter; however, I could not support the author of such humour by purchasing more of his work.