After the funny, educational and rather lengthy exposition (where the author suggests you to skip half a chapter) there comes a cute detective and love story. Notable is the anti-german accent, as the story plays after the World War I. The voice acting is done very well. First chapters a must-hear for bibliophiles xbeza 2008-07-09 14:36:12 2008-07-09 14:36:12 5 This is a rather long-winded story that takes over half the read to(slowly)kick into gear. It's also very heavy-handed, which may not have been a problem when it was written, but certainly is now. What is of interest are the scores of other actual books mentioned along the way. The listener is actually drawn to them more than the story at hand. The timing of this novel is set and was written right before the Versailles accord of 1919, which set the wheels of Nazi Germany into motion. Morley treats the residents of his book more like chess pieces than like human beings. Rather than endowing them with grand speeches and long soliloquies about other authors, it would have been nice had the characterization and story background been flushed out a bit more. We never really learn much about the characters in this book - the protagonists and villains seem cut out of a single piece of cardboard. They say or do their piece, then they go away. Still, if you have many hours to while away, it's an okay way to pass the time. Just okay Doinker 2008-11-10 23:12:29 2008-11-10 23:12:29 3 2 4.00