As a Thief in the Night

I’ll admit, I approached *As a Thief in the Night* skeptical of its inverted structure—what’s the fun in a whodunit where the ‘who’ is obvious? But Freeman’s genius is in the *how*, and Graham Scott’s performance sells it. His Thorndyke isn’t a flashy detective but a man who treats murder like a particularly stubborn crossword puzzle, and Scott’s delivery mirrors that: deliberate, occasionally wry, but never showy. The real standout is how he handles the killer’s perspective. In lesser hands, the early reveal of the culprit could deflate tension, but Scott’s subtle shifts in tone—smugness giving way to creeping dread—make the cat-and-mouse game visceral. That said, this isn’t a flawless listen. Freeman’s obsession with forensic detail (pages on arsenic’s metabolic path, anyone?) can test patience, and Scott’s pacing in these sections sometimes feels *too* clinical, as if he’s reading a textbook. The female characters, too, are thinly sketched—more plot devices than people—which grates in 2024. Yet the audiobook’s strength lies in its refusal to romanticize evil. The killer here isn’t a mustache-twirling villain but a man whose vanity and pettiness curdle into something monstrous. And when Thorndyke finally corners him, it’s not with a dramatic speech but a single, devastating question—delivered by Scott with the quiet finality of a guillotine blade dropping. For fans of *Knives Out*’s cerebral charm or *Silent Patient*’s psychological precision, this is a must-listen—just don’t expect warmth.