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  • A Shadow on the Lens

  • Written by: Sam Hurcom
  • Narrated by: John Telfer
  • Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
  • 2.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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A Shadow on the Lens

Written by: Sam Hurcom
Narrated by: John Telfer
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Publisher's Summary

The Postmaster looked over my shoulder. As I turned to look I saw a flicker of movement from across the street. I felt unseen eyes peer at me. 

He walked away without another word. I watched as he climbed onto his bicycle and sped away down the street. I turned back and looked over my shoulder. 

Someone had been watching us.

1904. Thomas Bexley, one of the first forensic photographers, is called to the sleepy and remote Welsh village of Dinas Powys, several miles down the coast from the thriving port of Cardiff. A young girl by the name of Betsan Tilny has been found murdered in the woodland - her body bound and horribly burnt. But the crime scene appears to have been staged, and worse still: the locals are reluctant to help.

As the strange case unfolds, Thomas senses a growing presence watching him, and try as he may, the villagers seem intent on keeping their secret. Then one night, in the grip of a fever, he develops the photographic plates from the crime scene in a makeshift darkroom in the cellar of his lodgings. There, he finds a face dimly visible in the photographs; a face hovering around the body of the dead girl - the face of Betsan Tilny.

©2019 Sam Hurcom (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group

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excruciatingly dull

I wanted to love this. I should have loved this. I have a thing for period mysteries, especially Victorian ones (even though, ok, yes, this is set a few years later) and especially ones with a weird, ghostly or supernatural bent. Tick, tick, tick. But oh my gosh, was this a hard slog. Nothing happened!!! A guy gets sent to a secluded town to investigate/photograph a murder, he gets a fever, goes slightly loopy, sees a ghost, sort of, and only barely manages to figure anything out. It was also weirdly anachronistic about the treatment of women, particular sex workers, but that is a minor quibble.
The main character narrates and is a generic, dull posh with the unfortunate habit of saying, essentially, "this didn't seem important at the time but it was!" and then leaving it. So annoying!
This was one of the slowest and least rewarding books I've read in a long, long time.
The narrator tried, but he didn't manage to add any vitality to this lifeless endeavor.

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