Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Kapitän Shannon
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who love Victorian crime, clue-by-clue chases, disguises, forged letters and thames-side hideouts, and who enjoy an amateur sleuth who tells his own story with humour and a little self-mockery.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Captain Shannon is a thriller by Coulson Kernahan, set in the London of the 1890s. Anarchist bombings shake England and Ireland, and each crime carries the same signed order from a leader no one can name. The book gives you a chase told by an amateur, a writer who decides he would like a change from his desk and goes hunting a killer.
The story opens with a railway blast under Blackfriars and a manifesto sent to the Prime Minister. Then a newspaper offers a huge reward, a murder in Fleet Street seems to name the man behind it all, and the writer sees a portrait he has seen before. He tells the tale himself, under the name Max Rissler, and he is frank about his blunders as well as his lucky breaks.
The pleasure lies in how he follows his man. There are intercepted letters, genuine postmarks put to clever use, borrowed disguises and shadowed trains, from the marshes of Canvey Island to a barber's shop in Stanby. Let us begin with the crimes that set the hunt going.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1Outrages signed by Captain ShannonFree
- 2A manifesto and a rich reward
- 3A murder points to a name
- 4A face remembered through a smell
- 5Dynamite hulks and a false Mrs. Hughes
- 6Green's secret and the stolen letters
- 7A yacht, a disguise and a lost man
- 8What the hunt says about the hunter
- 9A telling full of wit, disguise and asides
Punkt 1 von 9
Outrages signed by Captain Shannon
The book opens in a year left blank, when a string of vicious crimes strikes England and Ireland. At each scene the police find the same signed line, By order, Captain Shannon. It is pinned to a body or chalked on a wall, always in rough capitals.
The police cannot learn who he is. People who may know something refuse to speak, because they fear him more than any punishment. Then a bomb wrecks New Scotland Yard, and public anger knows no limit.
In the House of Commons, the Chief Secretary for Ireland gives a fiery speech. He calls the plotters murderers and blames part of the Irish people for shielding them. He says the Government will offer no concessions to such men.
Within a month, a young man carrying what looks like a bundle of library books boards an empty carriage at Aldgate. The books are strapped together, and no one thinks to question him. The train enters the tunnel near Blackfriars, and an enormous explosion destroys two trains, the station and the streets above.
The narrator does not dwell on the horror. He notes that one name on the list of the dead matters more than the rest, because the whole slaughter was aimed at one man, the Chief Secretary himself.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Kapitän Shannon
What is Captain Shannon about?
It is a Victorian thriller in which a writer hunts a terrorist who signs his crimes By order, Captain Shannon. After bombings and murders in London and Dublin, the narrator follows clues across the Thames estuary.
Who is Captain Shannon in the book?
The police name him as James Mullen, an Irish-American. The narrator learns he also uses the names Cross and Jeanes, and is the illegitimate son of a nobleman, with a half-sister who loves him.
Who is the narrator of Captain Shannon?
He is a writer who gives his name as Max Rissler. He tells the story himself, speaks to the reader often, and admits his many blunders while chasing the fugitive.
Is Captain Shannon based on a true story?
No, it is fiction by Coulson Kernahan, written in the 1890s. It draws on the real fears of its time, such as Fenian and anarchist bombings, and uses real London places and newspapers.
Is Captain Shannon easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that matters: the chapters are short, the plot moves from clue to clue, and the narrator's chatty, humorous voice makes the chase easy to follow.