The Sign of Four

Review: Naxos AudioBooks have just released their eighth recording from the Sherlock Holmes Canon, a thoroughly engrossing unabridged reading of The Sign of Four by the excellent David Timson. The production, enhanced as always by atmospheric music — this time works by Paganini and Bella — is first-rate, and David Timson’s narration is beautifully paced in this, the most exotic and most romantic of the long stories. His characterisation is wonderfully precise; if I single out Jonathan Small and old Sherman it’s to show that both the major and the minor characters are fully individual and convincing.

Mr Timson also wrote the perceptive and informative liner-notes. David Timson’s reading of A Study in Scarlet won Naxos the 2002 Audiobook of the Year Award. The Sign of Four is at least as good!

Reviewed by: Roger Johnson, [District Messenger 236, October 2003]