The Philosophical Detective

By: Bruce Hartman

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

“...a suspenseful, pitch-perfect novel with an unlikely lead detective: a fictionalized version of iconic Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges… An intelligent, original detective novel.” - Kirkus Reviews.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1967. The blind poet Jorge Luis Borges, visiting at Harvard, faces a crisis of conscience and identity as he and his young assistant Nick Martin grapple with an extraordinary series of crimes and the equally baffling conundrums of literature and philosophy. Forty-five years later, struggling with pain and grief, Nick Martin looks back with wonder at that magical time and asks himself: Did he ever find out who Borges really was?

Lighthearted but deeply serious, The Philosophical Detective is a unique journey into the visionary world of a genius.

Surprised

The stories are well written, and I often found myself excited to know where the stories were heading. This is more of a collection of short stories than one overarching narrative. Some of the surprises seem a little on the nose, or unresolved. Taking the book as whole I enjoyed listening to this book. I would recommend it to friends that like brief philosophical meditations and detective stories.

I am very surprised by the virtual voice used to record this audiobook. There are times where you can really tell that it is a virtual voice, but I like to speed up my narrators, so the robotic tunes were not as noticeable at a faster speed. While not my preferred way of listening to audiobooks I would listen to a virtual narrator again if that is all that is available.