The Arcanum

De: Thomas Wheeler

Narrado por: Ralph Lister

It is 1919 and the Great War has come to a close. But in the shadows of the world’s major cities, the killing has just begun. In this perilous time, as the division between order and chaos grows increasingly slim, a select group of visionaries have taken it upon themselves to ensure the safety of humanity. They are known as the Arcanum.

In London’s stormy Hyde Park, Konstantin Duvall, the Arcanum’s founder, has been killed in a suspicious accident. Dismayed, the group’s longest-lived member, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, determines to avenge Duvall’s death - and uncover the secret left in his wake. For the dead man possessed the world’s most powerful - now missing - artifact: the Book of Enoch, the chronicle of God’s mistakes, within whose pages lie the seeds for the end of everything.

From the scene of the crime, Conan Doyle embarks on a path that leads him to the sleazy underworld of New York City’s Bowery and a series of deceptively disparate - but decidedly connected - murders. And as he calls upon the scattered members of the Arcanum for aid, he also finds himself embroiled in a story of war as old as time itself. Not of a struggle between countries, but between darkness and light. Peopled with the 20th century’s most famous - and infamous - figures, here is an extraordinary tale in which the stakes go beyond the realm of humankind - into the divine.

Cover design by Jamie S. Warren Youll

©2004 Thomas Wheeler (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Ugh

I was barely halfway through this and then I just couldn’t stand it anymore. With a cast of characters including John Watson and Houdini and Lovecraft, I was hoping for a story along the lines of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Maybe I didn’t get far enough …

Chapter one started out pretty well, but the plot moved forward glacially after that, with Watson going about trying to rally the old gang. At least, that’s what I think was happening.

The story opened in London. Somehow then we were in New York (I think), then New Orleans (I think). It’s as though the printed book might have had locations mentioned in the chapter, but if so, those weren’t read to the listener. So essentially there's no clue where the story is taking place until about halfway through a chapter, when some tidbit of information is dropped to “clue” the reader in. I kept wondering, Wait, how did they get there? Where are they now? Who are they talking about?

It is confusing.

I like the idea of the mystery involving historical characters, and the author has clearly researched them, as the story takes readers on short diversions to add details of these people's lives. Unfortunately that takes over in the worst way possible. We really learn how nasty people can be, how some are drunkards, others epileptics, people are insane and lay in piss. Yes, some people have hard lives, but this doesn’t add value to the story and comes across as characters feeling sorry for themselves, even if that isn’t the intent. O, woe is I.

I am hours into the story and the only mystery is: When is the story going to start? And I’m tired of hearing about piss and vomit.