THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS

Journalist, novelist, politician, agitator, spy--this author’s life would make better reading than any of his fiction. Still, this spy thriller raised a lot of commotion when first published in 1903 (the year of Sherlock Holmes’s retirement). Indeed, it spawned a whole genre. It is a first-person tale of stereotypical young Englishmen on the scent of German spies in the North Sea. This is all very conventional Edwardian fare except for the loving details of yachting and the prophetic hint of German imperial ambition. Simon Vance lends a mature sound and considerable technique to his narration, making Childers’s seafaring not only apparent, but contagious. However, because the narrator is unable to generate the excitement inherent in the story, the set is merely serviceable. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 98]