The Demon Headmaster: Mortal Danger
by Gillian Cross (Oxford University Press, 2019)
audiobook read by Steven Crossley (Nudged, 2019)
An oddly flat instalment, with little to no description of persons or place. The child protagonists are spirited but not particularly quick-witted or resourceful. Fortunately, then, the Headmaster’s plan, while shifty enough to keep everyone guessing, turns out to be utter bosh.
Trent’s Last Case
by E. C. Bentley (Nelson, 1913); audiobook read by Steven Crossley (HarperCollins, 2017)
A cultivated, rather loquacious narrative, pleasant enough to read and certainly ingenious, though Trent is cloyingly self-absorbed and everything rests upon a glossed-over mis-assignation of the time of death. (The motivation for removing Manderson’s false teeth also bears up poorly under scrutiny.)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde (Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 1890); audiobook read by Steven Crossley (W F Howes, 2012)
The story is justly famous and the epigrams easy to quote, yet the overall reading experience is rendered wearisome by Wilde’s tacked-on (and continuously hammered home) cod philosophy. The character of Sir Henry presumably inspired that of The Sphinx in Mystery Men.