Which Sign of the Four recording should you buy?
The second Holmes novel, sold under two titles — The Sign of Four and The Sign of the Four — and many times over. The complete readings we list run 3 hrs 35 mins to 5 hrs 5 mins. The things to step around are an AI voice and a retelling for children.
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Arthur Conan Doyle · 18 Audible UK recordings compared
Short answer
David Timson: complete and solo, from Naxos, and our pick for A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles, so the novels can stay in one voice. Christopher Eccleston (the Penguin Classics edition, with an introduction by Peter Ackroyd), Simon Vance, Michael Page, Jonathan Keeble and Simon Prebble are all complete too, as are the other readings in the table; together they run 3 hrs 35 mins to 5 hrs 5 mins. Don't let the two titles confuse you: "The Sign of Four" and "The Sign of the Four" are the same novel. The AI Voice Arthur Lane edition is a synthetic voice, and Richard Usher's listing is an Easy Classics retelling for children, with Stephanie Baudet credited beside Conan Doyle, although Audible lists it as unabridged.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Timson Our pick | 4 hrs 36 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Timson is also our pick for A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles. |
| Christopher Eccleston | 4 hrs 40 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo, the Penguin Classics edition, with an introduction by Peter Ackroyd. |
| Simon Vance | 3 hrs 52 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Listed as the AmazonClassics Edition. |
| Michael Page | 4 hrs 25 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Jonathan Keeble | 3 hrs 58 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Simon Prebble | 5 hrs 5 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Subtitled "A Sherlock Holmes Novel". |
| Patrick Tull | 4 hrs 6 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Matthew Lloyd Davies | 4 hrs 9 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Stephen Scalon | 5 hrs 5 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Marnye Young | 4 hrs 33 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Peter Coates | 3 hrs 44 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Richard Stibbard | 3 hrs 56 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Brady Smith | 3 hrs 35 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Michael Ward | 4 hrs 24 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Robin Cotter | 4 hrs 13 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Rob Goll, Ben Lindsey-Clark, Jeff Moon and others | 4 hrs 19 mins | Unabridged | Complete, shared between several readers. |
| AI Voice Arthur Lane | 4 hrs 16 mins | AI narration (Virtual Voice) | The text read by a synthetic voice; its description says it is narrated by an AI Voice. |
| Richard Usher | 2 hrs 4 mins | Retelling for younger listeners | A retelling for children, not the novel: part of The Sherlock Holmes Children's Collection (Easy Classics), with Stephanie Baudet credited beside Conan Doyle. Listed as unabridged. |
