The Shadow of the Rope: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Shadow of the Rope, credited to E. W. Hornung, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Shadow of the Rope, by E. W. Hornung. Read by Christine Dufour. Rachel Minchin stands in the dock, accused of murdering the dissolute husband she was preparing to leave. The trial is sensational, and public opinion vehemently and almost universally against her. When the jury astonishes and outrages the world with a vedict of Not Guilty, Rachel quickly finds herself in need of protection. It comes in the form of a surprising offer of marriage from a mysterious stranger who has sat through every day of her trial. The marriage to this intriguing stranger, Mr. Steel, is by mutual agreement to be a platonic one, the only condition of which is that neither is ever to question the other about the past. The two travel to Steel’s remote country estate, where Rachel accidentally discovers that her second husband’s past was somehow intertwined with her first husband’s history – but how, exactly, and why he determined to marry her, Steel will not say. As her doubts about her husband increase, local busybodies threaten to unearth Rachel’s own past. And that is the least of the secrets that comes to light as this entertaining mystery unfolds. (Introduction by Christine Dufour)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Shadow of the Rope
• Author credits: E. W. Hornung
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 28
• Listed recording duration: 8:14:46

Catalogue topics

• mystery
• hornung

Opening tracks: first 24 of 28

1. 01 - Chapter I - The End of their Life — 20:37
2. 02 - Chapter II - The Case for the Crown — 15:09
3. 03 - Chapter III - Name and Nature — 18:52
4. 04 - Chapter IV - The Man in the Train — 22:14
5. 05 - Chapter V - The Man in the Street — 23:36
6. 06 - Chapter VI - A Peripatetic Providence — 14:30
7. 07 - Chapter VII - A Morning Call — 11:35
8. 08 - Chapter VIII - The Dove and the Serpent — 22:35
9. 09 - Chapter IX - A Change of Scene — 13:08
10. 10 - Chapter X - A Slight Discrepancy — 19:26
11. 11 - Chapter XI - Another New Friend — 20:09
12. 12 - Chapter XII - Episode of the Invisible Visitor — 27:41
13. 13 - Chapter XIII - The Australian Room — 13:46
14. 14 - Chapter XIV - Battle Royal — 12:33
15. 15 - Chapter XV - A Chance Encounter — 15:56
16. 16 - Chapter XVI - A Match for Mrs. Venables — 19:01
17. 17 - Chapter XVII - Friends in Need — 11:10
18. 18 - Chapter XVIII - They Which Were Bidden — 18:08
19. 19 - Chapter XIX - Rachel's Champion — 16:51
20. 20 - Chapter XX - More Haste — 11:15
21. 21 - Chapter XXI - Worse Speed — 15:05
22. 22 - Chapter XXII - The Darkest Hour — 16:01
23. 23 - Chapter XXIII - Dawn — 16:19
24. 24 - Chapter XXIV - One Who Was Not Bidden — 16:14

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.