The Steady Running of the Hour

A Novel

By: Justin Go

Narrated by: Steve West

An impossible quest. An epic love story. A mesmerizing debut.

In 1924, the English mountaineer Ashley Walsingham dies attempting to summit Mount Everest, leaving his fortune to his long-lost lover, Imogen Soames-Andersson—whom he has not seen in seven years. Ashley’s attorneys search in vain for Imogen, but the estate remains unclaimed.

Nearly eighty years later, new information leads the same law firm to Tristan Campbell, a young American who could be the estate’s rightful heir. If Tristan can prove he is Imogen’s descendant, the inheritance will be his. But with only weeks before Ashley’s trust expires, Tristan must hurry to find the evidence he needs.

From London WWI archives to the battlefields in France to the fjords of Iceland, Tristan races to piece together the story behind the unclaimed riches: a reckless love affair pursued only days before Ashley’s deployment to the Western Front of the Great War; a desperate trench battle fought by soldiers whose hope is survival rather than victory; an expedition to the uncharted heights of the world’s tallest mountain. Following a trail of evidence that stretches to the far edge of Europe, Tristan becomes consumed by Ashley and Imogen’s story. But as he draws close to the truth, Tristan realizes he may be seeking something more than an unclaimed fortune.

The Steady Running of the Hour announces the arrival of a stunningly talented author. Justin Go’s “debut is ambitious in many ways…it depicts a love that transcends time and disdains convention; and it fluidly moves between past and present” (Publishers Weekly).

strong start - but I want all those hours back!!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The author wove a compelling story - or rather two compelling and extremely detailed story lines. Sometimes it seemed a bit long but it all seemed worthwhile as I was anxious to learn what happened to all the characters. Well, the author doesn't tell you. He does not resolve either plot line - and leaves huge holes in the stories at the very end. After listening for hours and hours and hours... I have no idea what happened. So if Audible still lets you return books that are profoundly unsatisfying I will return this one. That said, the author is clearly a talented writer. If his next effort actually includes a conclusion worthy of the story I will read it.

steady wasting of my time

Had to speed up narration as the reading is painfully slow. i kept loosing interest. once i got into the story I wanted to know how it ended. Now I'm finished and I still don't know but not "don't know" in a good way. i won't read anything else by this author as I feel he cheated me.

Tedious

Overly long and found characters immature.
Speeding it up helped.
Interesting weaving of time frames

Pretty Disappointing

After living with these people for so many hours and finding the whole thing pretty interesting when I got to the end I thought my iPhone had skipped something. To end with an "oh well, it didn't work out . . ." is, I believe, pretty inconsiderate of the author. I can imagine all sorts of possible reasons why this might be so, but that's not my job. With all of this laborious sleuthing and traveling and unbelievably serendipitous meetings that Tristan went through I don't think it's asking too much for a little more explication at the end. Or am I being too prosaic and unsophisticated? I wasn't that crazy about that French Chick to begin with and she just came off as a petulant whiner. Their story was not developed sufficiently for me to care very much whether or not they ended up together.

Steve West was terrific and made the hours go by luxuriously.

Disappointing

Disappointing

Too many loose ends
Very poor characters. Wouldn't recommend as it rambled on too long. Wish I had moved on.