
A shadowy figure known only as “Captain Shannon” stalks the streets of late‑19th‑century Britain, leaving chilling messages in bold hand on the bodies of his victims. As a wave of brutal outrages spreads from England to Ireland, the police are baffled, the public terrified, and the government desperate to uncover the mastermind behind the carnage. The relentless pursuit of clues leads investigators into a tangled web of secrecy, dissent, and political intrigue that threatens to upend the fragile peace between the two nations.
Against this uneasy backdrop, a seemingly ordinary young man boards a train with a bundle of library books—a harmless façade that may conceal a deadly device. The tension builds as authorities scramble to intercept any further threats while the true nature of the mysterious captain’s network remains hidden. Listeners are drawn into a tense, atmospheric chase, where every clue could tip the balance between order and chaos.
Language
en
Duration
~5 hours (311K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1896.
Credits
Emmanuel Ackerman, Joeri de Ruiter and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Release date
2024-01-29
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1858–1943
A British novelist and essayist of the late Victorian and early 20th-century period, he wrote fiction, social commentary, memoir, and religious reflection with equal ease. His work often mixed moral seriousness with a readable, conversational style.
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