Hawksmoor [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Peter Ackroyd (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

18th century London is a city where squalor and superstition vie with elegance and enlightenment as the brilliant architect Nicholas Dwyer is commissioned to build several new churches. Two hundred and flinty years later, the legacy of the past lives on, as CID Detective Nicholas Hawksmoor investigates a series of macabre murders on the sites of certain eighteenth century churches...

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Eighteenth- and 20th-century London merge as Nicholas Hawksmoor, C.I.D., investigates a series of murders whose only connection is locale18th-century churches constructed by Nicholas Dyer. Resisting modern, more systematic methods of detection, Hawksmoor interprets the historic connection between these places, old murders and new, slayers and slain, murderers and pursuers, defying time, religion, and reason itself. Despite exacting re-creation of Dyer's London and careful mirroring of 18th-century people and places in the 20th century, the novel lacks a focus that would make a point behind the wealth of detail. As it is, tantalizing symmetries, provocative discussions of architecture, debates on ancient and modern lead nowhere and frustrate the reader. Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

This is a moody tale of ancient superstition and the modern havoc it spawns. There's no one better to read it than Sir Derek Jacobi, whose sepulchral voice seems to echo from the story's eighteenth-century beginning. Two hundred and fifty years ago, architect Nicholas Dyer designed devilry into the churches he built after the great fire of London. Now those churches are the sites of macabre murders; it's up to CID Detective Nicholas Hawksmoor to resolve this spooky and involving tale of evil-once-done. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Sterling Audio Books; Unabridged edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754003485
• ISBN-13: 978-0754003489
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,914,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best introduction to Ackroyd, February 15, 2002

By 

Leigh Munro - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawksmoor (Paperback)

The historical detail in this book is fabulous - I work opposite Christ Church in Spitalfields and I am intrigued to know more about the real Nicholas Hawksmoor. What interests me is where Ackroyd had the idea to make Hawksmoor a Satanist and to interpret the architecture of these churches so as to see occult references everywhere.

The story itself, though, was heavy-going and I almost did not finish the book. The book, whilst interesting, was somewhat disappointing compared to Ackroyd's other works. (I previously reviewed this in 1999 and my opinion has not changed)

If you are interested in Peter Ackroyd or historical London, his biographies of Dickens and London are terrific.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed, but still a macabre tour-de-force., January 3, 2003

By 

T. Maddison "Tim Maddison" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawksmoor (Paperback)

Peter Ackroyd enjoys a deserved reputation as the foremost contemporary interpretor and historian of London, especially the city's hidden and arcane aspects. As a painter of London's underbelly he is unquestionably Dickens's heir. His feeling for the city as an almost living entity, oppressive in the accumulated weight of its sprawling physical structure and the mass of lives that have passed through it, and frequently been crushed in the process, is one shared probably more or less conciously by most Londoners. In such an environment, where the most modern buildings can stand on a street pattern centuries old, the present can never entirely cut itself free from the past. This is Ackroyd's main theme, brought to life with chilling brilliance in this story of murder and superstition in the 17th century sounding a physical echo in a series of slayings in the 20th. Be aware that this is not a simple murder mystery in period costume. The narrative is poetic and allusive with much, especially the ending, left for the reader to interpret. It is not wholly succesful in the intertwining of past and present. Ackroyd's 16th century London fizzes with life, the characters and the city brilliantly conjured (Ackroyd has a skilful ability to write in a way that is actually less archaic than it feels when caught up in the narrative flow). By contrast, he fails to breathe much life into the modern day scenes and characters. This may be partly an intentional contrast, but either way these scenes are rather flat. Nonetheless, the book is hugely enjoyable. The demonical architect Nicholas Dyer (the 20th c. detective is the Hawksmoor of the title) is a great creation, and the dark world he inhabits stands with the classics of the literature of the macabre and supernatural. It will certainly impell a London (or London bound) reader to explore the churches built by the historical Hawksmoor with new eyes, as however fantastical the story, the geography and architectural details are completely accurate. I remember well seeing tramps descend into the shelter in the understory of Christchurch Spitalfields.
The structurally flawless (and very chilling) 'Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem', which inhabits the London of Jack the Ripper and the heyday of the Music Hall, is also highly recommended.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In praise of Hawksmoor!, September 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hawksmoor (Hardcover)

Unlike some readers who have reviewed this work, I found it utterly compelling. The atmosphere of old London was masterfully evoked and the psychology of the principal characters was particularly well wrought. That Nicholas Dyer was a master of the "Magick Arts" but was beset by paranoia and depression, let alone his physical ills, made him an entirely believable person; very different from the usual fictional mage who is master of everything. Likewise, Hawksmoor's mental disorder and gradually loosening grip on his reality made for a sadly credible character.

I found the 18th century style of writing to be highly readable with a minimum of effort, yet it added greatly to the creation of the atmosphere of the historical period. I think that the author must have devoted a great deal of careful attention to this aspect of the novel; as he must also have done to his researches into the churches and geography of old London.

A dark and scary story; and I am slightly spooked that I found my copy at a second hand stall near the Thames just after a walk that had taken me unknowingly past St. Mary Woolnoth's church and a number of other locations in the book !