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Title: The Man with the Clubfoot
Author: Valentine Williams
Narrator: Tom Weiss
Format: Unabridged
Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
Language: English
Release date: 06-17-15
Publisher: Spoken Realms
Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:
The Man with the Clubfoot is one of the most ingenious and sinister secret agents in Europe. It is to him that the task is assigned of regaining possession of an indiscreet letter written by the Kaiser. Desmond Okewood, a young British officer with a genius for secret service work, sets out to thwart this man and, incidentally, discover the whereabouts of his brother. He penetrates Germany disguised and meets with many thrilling adventures before he finally achieves his mission. In The Man with the Clubfoot, Valentine Williams has written a thrilling romance of mystery, love, and intrigue that in every sense of the word may be described as "breathless".

Members Reviews:
Mostly pretty charming
Pretty much the best Buchan novel John Buchan never wrote -- it certainly owes a great deal to John Buchan's work. Protagonist's brother works for British intelligence and disappears behind German lines in WW 1. Protagonist, through one of those improbable coincidences that only seem to arise in books like this, gains the opportunity to get into Germany and search for him personally. And then a bunch of stuff happens.
It has it's faults. A lot of the very early thriller writers were still learning how to write the genre, and you can see that in this book -- Williams does some odd things that seem counter-productive to his story. I think he just didn't know any better. So, while I can go along with the coincidence that starts everything rolling there's another, major coincidence in here that functions as a deus ex machine for the characters and is just silly beyond belief. Williams breaks out his pov at the climax, which accomplishes nothing I can see and dissipates a lot of the narrative energy we'd been building toward. The climax happens too early, starts out strong but peters out unsatisfyingly, and we've still got a second, lesser climax to get through until the end.
All that said, this is a charming book, and for much of it's run is frankly better than a lot of the Buchan it was obviously inspired by. The lead character is charming, and I think reacts more or less appropriately, given his situation. He's certainly no superman, there are convincing passages where he's too tired to think straight, or stuck with little options and has to make a bad decision, etc. I liked the villain very much, and can't help but wonder if Hammett didn't read this at some point before writing THE MALTESE FALCON.
If the end of the book had been better written I would've called this a flat out classic, full stop. It's not quite that, like a lot of genre efforts from this period there are basic structural problems that stop it from being top-rank.