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Title details for Shadow of the Lions by Christopher Swann - Wait list

Shadow of the Lions

A Novel

by Christopher Swann
James Anderson Foster
Audiobook
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Wait time: About 2 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
How long must we pay for the crimes of our youth? It has been almost ten years since Matthias graduated from the elite Blackburne School, where his roommate and best friend, Fritz, fled into the woods, never to be heard from again, in the middle of their senior year. Fritz vanished just after an argument over Matthias's breaking of the school's honor code, and Matthias has long been haunted by the idea that his betrayal led to his friend's disappearance. Years later, after hitting the fast lane in New York as a successful novelist-then falling twice as hard-Matthias is stuck, a failure as a writer, a boyfriend, a person. When he is offered the opportunity to return to Blackburne as an English teacher, he sees it as a chance to put his life back together. But once on campus, Matthias gets swiftly drawn into the past, and is driven to find out what happened to Fritz. He partners with a curmudgeonly local retired cop and tries to solve the case, dealing with campus politics, the shocking death of a student, Fritz's complicated and powerful Washington, D.C., family, and his own place in the privileged world of Blackburne.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 1, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781681688169
      • File size: 370552 KB
      • Duration: 12:51:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 4, 2017
      An unsolved mystery plunges the best friend of a missing person into sinuous intrigues 10 years later in this confidently plotted literary thriller. In 2001, Fritz Davenport, a senior at the Blackburne School in Virginia, vanishes shortly after an emotional confrontation about a cheating incident admitted by his best friend, Matthias Glass. Fritz’s disappearance devastates his family and the lack of closure about his fate casts a pall over Matthias’s life. In 2011, Matthias—recovering from a failed relationship and blocked as a novelist—has taken on a temporary teaching gig at Blackburne. A student’s death rips open old wounds that he seeks to stanch with a renewed inquiry into Fritz’s fate. Exploring new clues provided by authorities and acquaintances, Matthias uncovers familial and institutional pathologies that his younger, guilt-ridden self could never have imagined. Swann renders his debut novel’s prep school setting with an authority that lends credibility to some of the more farfetched twists of its plot. Its melodramatic denouement notwithstanding, his tale keeps the reader guessing until it offers up its final revelations.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In the tradition of Knowles's A SEPARATE PEACE, or perhaps Conroy's THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, this audiobook explores the microcosm of an elite boarding school--and the conflicts that dwell, in this case, behind the leonine statuary guarding the front gates. James Foster is an authoritative narrator whose authentic and accessible delivery makes this an easy listen. His pacing and rhythms with both dialogue and narrative are outstanding, as are his renditions of both male and female voices. While the novel's intriguing opening--involving the unsolved mystery of a student's disappearance--is certainly a grabber, it is as much Foster's performance as it is the plot that keeps the listener engaged from start to finish. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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