Audio review: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Tom Mison, star of the hit Fox series Sleepy Hollow, narrates the classic Washington Irving short story.
In the secluded Dutch territory of Sleepy Hollow, nebbish schoolmaster Ichabod Crane competes with the town hero for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the 18-year-old daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer. As Crane leaves a party at the Van Tassel's farm one autumn evening, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, an apparition said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper snuffed out by a stray cannonball during the Revolutionary War 

Shona's rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have heard of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow before and was vaguely aware of the premise of the Headless Horseman, I didn't have a working knowledge of the full story (or novella in this case) though.

One of the reasons I opted for this story was its length. I didn't want something too long and I wanted the whole story.

I don't usually like other people reading to me, for some reason the words don't sink in to my head and make sense.... or at least they never used to. Maybe it was the way Irving has written this particular tale, or perhaps it was the narration of Tim Mison, most likely it was a combination of the two. Mison has done a superb job of vocalising Irvings work, mixed with the 'soundtrack' this makes for a fairly captivating ride.

If im honest this story had the makings of something great, but as you near the end you realise this isn't so much a tale of the Headless Horseman (which I was expecting) and in fact he doesn't even make his big appearance until almost the last few minutes of the story. And then it just felt a little too anticlimactic.