The Man Who Knew Too Much


Read by Martin Clifton

(4.4 stars; 582 reviews)

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an influential and prolific English writer of the early 20th century. He was a journalist, a poet and a novelist. He wrote 80 books and 200 short stories in addition to his other work. He is perhaps best remembered for his ‘Father Brown’ stories; two collections of which are available at Librivox.org.

‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ has some similarities to the Father Brown stories: Horne Fisher the eponymous hero is connected and indeed related to many of the high-ranking politicians of his age and thus ‘knows too much’ about the background of the mysteries in which he becomes embroiled and which he unravels. (Summary by Martin Clifton) (5 hr 49 min)

Chapters

Chapter 1 – The face in the target 42:50 Read by Martin Clifton
Chapter 2 – The vanishing prince 42:37 Read by Martin Clifton
Chapter 3 – The soul of the schoolboy 31:03 Read by Martin Clifton
Chapter 4 – The bottomless well 36:26 Read by Martin Clifton
Chapter 5 – The fad of the fisherman 41:08 Read by Martin Clifton
Chapter 6 – The hole in the wall 53:41 Read by Martin Clifton
Chapter 7 – The temple of silence 55:23 Read by Martin Clifton
Chapter 8 – The vengeance of the statue 46:12 Read by Martin Clifton

Reviews

Worth Your Time


(4 stars)

Reminded me of a more believable Sherlock Holmes. Also, very well read. Well worth a listen.

Enjoyable Stories


(5 stars)

I enjoyed all these stories. While most of them had to do with English politics of the time, my lack of knowledge of the same didn't hinder my enjoying the stories

Wonderful listen


(5 stars)

An entertaining seemingly unrelated set of mysteries brought to life by an exceptional reader. Listening to Martin is a delight. Would love to hear more from him.

Great reader, so-so stories.


(4 stars)

Martin Clifton does a superb job of trying to inject life into these stories, but they aren't that great, so listen for the writing style and reader's accent.

Cons and Pros


(4 stars)

Cons. The story lacked continuity and for a while kept me interested for only 2 reasons. Firstly, out of sheer marvel at where it could possibly be going and secondly, the excellence of the reader. Pros. The individual sub plots were very interesting and even had great potential to be developed more (maybe into a series instead of being crammed into just one book). I really felt immersed into his world. I would like to see this come to life in a Netflix series

TEPID


(3 stars)

Chesterton's fame as a great writer obviously was not based on this book. The decent ending is the only reason it got at least 3 stars. The characters never come to life, and it was difficult to find the story continuity. The reader did well, but he could not overcome the basic blandness of the work.

Worth listening to


(5 stars)

Martin Clifton is a gifted reader and a great pleasure to listen to. The stories are original though, as Martin Clifton says, reminiscent of Father Brown. I find them dense, not "light" listening and am going to listen to them all again.

It's Chesterton


(5 stars)

...so it's worth reading. Check out his essays esp. He was a genius at getting to the heart of whatever it is he was tackling. His nonfiction is what I am blown away by most every time.