Monday 31 January 2011

Officer 666 by Barton Wood Currie and Augustin McHugh

Official Blurb

Bored with his life as a wealthy businessman's only son, Travers Gladwin learns of a plot by a renowned art burglar to rob his house, so rather than thwart the planned burglary, he borrows a police uniform from a friend and decides to confront the robber by posing as an officer. When the burglar arrives at the house, he tries to pass himself off as Travers Gladwin. From there, things only get more complicated, including the arrival of the burglar's girlfriend who believes that her beau is the wealthy man's son.

My Review

This is a comedic farce in the best tradition of such things. If you like P.G. Wodehouse's farces, then this will be right up your street.

This story does rely on a certain suspension of disbelief, the characters making somewhat odd decisions that lead to outrageous situations. This is to be expected of course otherwise there would be no farce! In fact, now I think about it, it's not just farce, characters in horror stories make odd decisions too!

The lead characters are all attractive to the listener and although perhaps not as distinct as Wodehouse's characters, they are the sort of people you'll laugh along with their antics. There are no real bad-guys in the story, even the thief is a likeable rogue.

The reader lends a voice to the story that is perfectly paced for this kind of story, he doesn't race through the comedy moments nor dawdle in between. This kind of pacing helps you keep track of things, and you need to do that in a farce.

Reading 2/3
Production 2/3
Story 2/3

Total Score 6/9


Download it from the Librivox

Listen to the first part

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