Saturday 3 April 2010

The Great Shadow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Official Blurb

Set in an English-Scottish border village during the waning days of the Napoleonic era, this adventure story introduces us to Jock Calder, whose quiet way of life is shattered when a mysterious stranger steps ashore near his home. The stranger changes forever the lives of Jock, his cousin Edie, and his best friend Jim, sending the young men into the jaws of the final battle to defeat The Great Shadow that threatens to devour the whole of Europe. Don't look for Sherlock Holmes in this well-written tale, but do expect a wonderful glimpse of life at the end of the Napoleonic era, including an exciting rendition of The Battle of Waterloo.

My Review

As you might have gathered from the official blurb this is a Conan-Doyle tale. Doyle has given us good little story here. If like me your facinated by all things Napoleonic then you'll really like the latter half of the book as it moves from sleep England to the big battle in Europe.

The story starts with a classic love story where the people involved get burned and furious, which is always a story telling dynamo, this then follows through to the battle scenes and spices up the scenes at Waterloo.

Frankly the story is well written, it is Doyle after all, and very engaging. It's not what you'd call deep, character motivations are all very straight forward and obvious.

The reading is splendid. This is well worth a download.

Reading 2
Production 2
Story 2

Total : 6/9

Download from Librivox

Listen to the first chapter