The Mystery Of Cloomber
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by Delmar H Dolbier
This novel is written by the author of, among other novels, the Stories of Sherlock Holmes. It is narrated by John Fothergill West, who tries to discover why the tenant of Cloomber Hall, General Heatherstone, is nervous to the point of being paranoid. Why are his fears becoming stronger every year at the fifth of October? And why doesn't he let his children leave home? This is a great mystery novel with a sharp twist at the end. (Summary by Wikipedia and Stav Nisser)
(5 hr 20 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Moderately interesting story, absolutely terrible reader. I will never understand why they think they have to do different voices (and in this case, different accents too), and then why men have to have deeeeeep, gravelly voices (who in real life talks that way?), and the women all sound like piping ninnies. Not worth the listen. Whistling "s"s made it even worse! I really wish they would just straight read a book.
A dramatic reading
Womandy
The reader's skill brought to life a list of strange characters; a bit of a weird story - but fun listening!
wonderfully suspenseful story
Frances
I have Previously reviewed Mr. Dolbier' read of this as outstanding... Still do. Noticed other reviewers did not agree and found the dialog difficult to understand. Too bad they did not allow time for their ears to grow accustomed to the totally accurate Scottish dialects which Mr. Dolbier used to add spice to his narration. Those dialects lifted the piece up from an ordinary reading to a theatrical presentation.
Fantastic story but narrator impossible to understand in parts
M Harpenden
Loved the story line, and the mystery kept me hooked all the way through to the end. However, the narrator used different accents throughout and some had been over done , they were absolutely impossible to understand. I found this irritating as I desperately wanted to follow the excellent story, but just couldn't make out what was being said. Such a shame.
Some of the voices were difficult to understand. Chapter 8 in particular. But it is otherwise well read and the embellishments on the characters voices are nice in most cases.
Most strange accent?
TC the Traveller
I could not fathom for the life of me what accent the narator was trying to replicate, I found it quite distracting.
Excelled in All Counts
A.T.B.
This is an excellent reading of an enjoyable book. If one enjoys Doyle, and if one enjoys the Victorian adventure story genre, then I highly recommend this recording! Having read many tales of this type, it was slightly predictable; and as always the prejudices and accompanying language of bygone eras are distasteful to a modern reader. With that in mind, I still give this an outstanding rating.
good book. bad reader
Good book. Awful time with reader. Whistles when he says s, can't understand him half the time. Would be good if he would stick to one accent. None of the characters are read the same twice. Uses a voice way too deep, compared to what I assume is his normal voice when saying the beginning. Awful awful awful reader.