The Bedlam Detective - Stephen Gallagher

Written by Stephen Gallagher
Read by Michael Page
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Release date: March 13, 2012
Duration: 09:55:58

The thriller, set in England in 1912, introduces Sebastian Becker, a resourceful, underpaid government detective serves as special investigator for the Masters of Lunacy. He is charged with investigating the finances of rich eccentrics. Responding to claims that wealthy Sir Owain Lancaster lost his sanity on an ill-fated trip to the Amazon, during which his wife and child perished, Becker travels from his cramped offices in London’s notorious (Bethlehem) Bedlam Hospital to the rural town of Arnmouth.

He arrives to discover two young girls have been murdered, and it is not the first time children have come to harm in this small town. With Owain’s sanity is in question, Becker suspects him of the killings. A smart young suffragette and the wild daughter of a horse trainer had a frightening childhood experience that may hold some of the answers Becker seeks, but only if Becker can convince them to trust him in time.

Through scenes with Becker’s savant son, narrator Michael Page shows Becker to be a decent man with a clear grasp of the difference between insane and eccentric. Page ramps up the excitement when two children are found brutally murdered and Lancaster insists the evil has followed him

Page’s narration captures and enhances the dark and unsettling mood of the book. He employs a proper, clipped British accent for the bright, dedicated Becker, but softens his delivery when addressing the sleuth’s personal problems his job’s meager pay and his frequent travels, his strained marriage, his concerns for his autistic son. The voices Page lends the supporting characters are equally on target among them are Becker’s spirited wife, a frustrated local lawman unjustly disrespected by the town, and two courageous women who were fortunate enough to escape the murderer when they were young girls. For Sir Owain, Page creates a voice that sounds older, but remains vital and confident, leaving the character’s mental state, which plays a key part in Becker’s unraveling of the tightly knit whodunit ambiguous for a good portion of the novel.