The Shadows of London

The Joseph Bridgeman Series, Book 2

By: Nick Jones

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A time traveler’s work is never done.

Likable antiques dealer Joseph Bridgeman is back in the present and dreaming of a quiet life. But when a mysterious and enigmatic time traveler arrives in his shop, Joe learns that his first trip was just the beginning and this time, the rules of the game have changed.

Blackmailed into accepting a new mission, Joe is flung back to 1960s London where he comes face-to-face with a ruthless gangster and witnesses the brutal murder of an innocent woman. Joe knows better than most that death can be reversed and the final chapter is sometimes where the story actually begins. Emotionally involved, he has no choice but to act, and quickly. With the help of Vinny, his vinyl-loving sidekick, Joe once again sets out to change the course of history. Sounds simple enough...but when it comes to time travel, nothing is ever as it seems. Who is the old time traveler working for? And who decides what can and can’t be changed? 

In a thrilling twist, Joe discovers that the victim is critically important to the future, and what starts out as a straightforward mission soon becomes a race to unravel a mystery - one that threatens the very timeline he fought so hard to protect. Joe must dig deeper than ever, master his newfound skills, and save the woman before the past catches up with him for good.

Turns out time doesn’t heal after all. It just adds salt.

©2021 Nick Jones (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Didn't want it to end!

I anxiously awaited the release of this book and then when i saw it was in the "included" it absolutely made my day! I loved the first book and as soon as it was over I was researching the author and disappointed that book 2 was coming in a few months. I usually only start a series when it's a few books in.
The story is different than other sci fi time travel books it has heart and feelings. The book kept my attention from the start, it wasn't predictable. i highly recommend.
Also -- Ray Porter is one of my favorite narrators, so good. I've exposed myself to many books because I enjoy his narration for fiction books.. you'll love him!!

Even better than the first book!

I was surprised and pleased that this book was even better than the first book in the series. The author did a wonderful job in continuing to develop Joe and Vinny's characters. I look forward to the next book in the series!

Great Narrator!!!

A great story needs to be told by a great narrator. I was suffering from the Nick Pirog books withdrawal symptoms ( completed 3am series and Thomas Prescott series and The speed of souls). And when I saw the books Nick Pirog recommended, immediately I added “And Then She Vanished” and The Shadows of London, great books and Ray Porter’s different tones of voices allows me to visualise how WPbrown, Vinny etc looks like. I am going to find more of Ray Porter’s works :)

Really bad

I understand why this book is free on Audible.

There are so many plot holes in this book. Things happen with no real explanation.

Ray Porter’s narration which is usually excellent suffers with this novel as the plot is so disconnected.

Kept me listening

I can’t put my finger on it but somehow it really worked to keep me interested. The narrators accent kept slipping and there’s no explanation as to why he tried to do an American in the first place. The story had holes and the main character was frustratingly simple. The supporting characters were one dimensional and at times just basic cliches. Put all that together and you should have a terrible book. However, it was actually far from terrible! I have to recommend giving this a listen but I just can’t explain why.

Naive short sighted traveler blackmailed

Story depends on main male character naïveté and lack of foresight to generate a story bridge based on lack of past comprehension and reasoning.

5 Stars

Nick Jones creates the backdrop, Ray Porter fills in all the wonderful colors and my memory and imagination add the flourishes. Vinny! I love Vinny! Again, I could read this book myself and enjoy it but Ray Porter takes you to places you can never go on your own. Thank you man!

Need another, please :)

Just as good as book 1 and left perfectly for a 3rd book. The subject matter wasn't what got me here. Ray Porter, narrator, did. But these 2 books were really good and I look forward to the next. Good story, add time travel, you're in.

Had enough. . .

The storyline itself is interesting and intriguing.. but the main character is a fool, which is always a pet peace of mine - makes what could be a really impressive story just slow and annoying, and almost anxiety provoking sometimes. On top of it all, I’m still not sure if the narrator has an accent - although I cannot blame them - I am notoriously bad with accents. What I will say though, is his woman character voice was.. less than desirable. Overall, Not bad. But I’d rather spend my credits elsewhere.

Waste of time

If you liked the first book, then just quit there. This story completely throws away any character growth and the “rules” of time travel that we spent a whole book learning. The sheer stupidity of the character, who I remind you is supposed to be intelligent and insightful, is just to the point of wondering if every time you time jump you lose some brain matter. This book isn’t even worth the time to finish. The new maybe villain maybe ally “temporal nick fury” that we meet at the end of the first book just makes this feel like a shameless attempt for the author to be able to option this as a movie series or tv show. The technological McGuffin that is introduced to justify the main character having any clue what they are doing in the past just makes this seem like bad LITRPG with video game logic.

Oh, and one of the main plot points that we waste massive amounts of time trying to force, the cover story that is concocted to explain why the MC doesn’t know about his current life, would completely invalidate most of the legal documents that he seems to be trying to create. Also, if he tumbled down a hill on his mountain bike yesterday, why does no one comment on how he seems completely unscratched? It’s like the author has never gone mountain biking, or learned anything at all about mental capacity to enter into an agreement. It’s not the MCs deal, it’s the entities deal, so even that isn’t correct. Sloppy writing, character becomes less interesting, waste of time and data storage.

Enjoyable story, annoying delivery

Enjoyable story and concept, but I find this series frustrating at times. The narrator is clearly a good voice actor, but just not sure why there’s an American narrating a very English character and the many terrible takes on regional accents. Sadly none of the female characters in this series have any depth, which is really tedious, all fitting neatly into innocent/temptress/mother/wife etc, and certainly no interaction between each other. Saying that, I made it to the end and I’ll probably listen to more in the series and it’s an easy listen and a fun concept.

Great but

it's set in England and is a great story but has an American narrator which spoils it

Poorly executed narration!!

Within minutes of starting this book I realised that no matter how good the story was the narrator was spoiling it!! An American actor playing an English character and then attempting a succession of poorly executed Regional accents is not for me!! I stuck with it and the storyline definitely had potential but eventually I caved in to the awful narration!!

Good sequel

I like these time travel adventures. Even if the American narration of a British book is a bit annoyed with the tried and failed accents.

Irritating narration and ?plot hole (spoiler)

Well I said in my review for the first book that I could get past the American narrator but for some reason I found it hugely more annoying in this one. The women in particular are painful to listen to and the strange ‘mates’ sound weird.

Also and this is a spoiler:








Please correct me if I am wrong but why does Vinny remember everything that happened before Joe went back and changed history? Alexia didn’t who was serving virtually the same role in the first book. Did I miss something? Genuinely would be happy to be corrected on this!

Poor

Probably the dullest book on audible. Narrator good as usual and tried to make the story listenable as possible but failed. Just couldn’t finish the story but I tried.

Terrible accents & huge plot holes

I tried the second book after enjoying the first but this was just rubbish. It just plows on without ever discussing the impacts of the first book. And someone please tell Ray Porter to stop doing accents, he just can't pull them off.

Absolutely hooked

I’ve listened to both the first books in 3 days! Added it to my library as a pass the time book but absolutely love them! Well written easy to follow with great story lines! Highly recommend

Easy, enjoyable listen & good yarn!

With the great narration it's a pleasure to hear this fantasy time travelling series. Great that the first 2 were included free with membership. Just have to buy the rest in the series now 😁

Such a Shame

The story was good, and so was the storytelling.
But..
The accents were atrocious.
In some places they were cringeworty.