The setting is 1852 where London is considered to be the hub of crime and the public look upon murders and hangings as their form of entertainment. Amongst all this you also have reporters and balladeers fighting to give an account of the next gruesome fashionable exposure.
One person awaiting execution is William Ryan, better known as Chokee Bill. His stranglings have set the whole of London talking and one balladeer in particular believes that he has managed to exact an admission from Chokee Bill which will make him rich. Unfortunately the admission he obtains is not one of guilt but is a protestation of his innocence.
With the help of an investigative reporter Edmund Whitty, Balladeer Henry Owler sets out to find the real fiend before he can strike again. The killer is closer than they realise.
The Fiend in Human is read by Patrick Romer who has a first-rate voice
which manages to convey a sense of not only the era in which the incidents take
place but also the horror of what happens. Listening to this book being read
is quite gripping and Patrick Romer has done it justice. The listener is immediately
lulled into the enthralling atmosphere and complex tale from the beginning.
As harrowing as this story is, the way it is read by Patrick Romer leaves you
wanting to listen to it from start to finish. If the author writes anymore stories
involving the investigate reporter Edmund Whitty, then as long as they have
Patrick Romer reading them then they will be on to a winner.
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Ayo Onatade