内容简介

《伦敦48小时》是一本侦探小说，以推理解谜为主轴。该书所描述的所有故事都发生在伦敦，在48小时之内，故事情节跌宕起伏，扣人心弦。该书是杰克逊·宾利伦敦系列小说里的第一部小说。杰克逊·宾利是小说家，也涉及其他文类，他成为出版作家已16年多。现如今他在英国、美国、中东和远东地区担任法律顾问。闲暇之余，他就待在英国和佛罗里达的家里写作。他已婚，有四个已长大的孩子。他正着手写作一部新的惊悚小说，并在2012年编纂一本短篇小说集。

理赔师乔什·哈蒙德收到了鲍勃发给他的一条短信，短信上要求他在48小时内支付25万英镑，否则就会杀了他。可是，他并不认识鲍勃。深思熟虑之后，他把整件事告诉了他的老板托比。托比利用他在伦敦检察厅和维斯吹可安全局的人脉，让他们帮忙把鲍勃找出来。维斯吹可安全局派调查员迪作为乔什·哈蒙德的贴身保镖，协助调查此案。第一条线索就是乔什·哈蒙德的同事安德鲁·卡斯伯森，由于他言行举止怪异，引起了迪的注意。就在安德鲁·卡斯伯森打算把幕后指使者说出来之时，他遭到了谋杀。随后，案情进一步发展，越来越多的人卷入此案，又有几人被谋杀。但是，越来越多的线索浮现水面，最后，侦探者们将犯罪嫌疑人定在了希克史泰德勋爵，但是所获得的证据都是间接的，不能直接将他逮捕入狱。他奸诈狡猾，拒绝承认自己的罪行，与侦探们不断周旋。最后，希克史泰德在逃亡过程中被击毙。

本次翻译实践节选自书中的第45-51章，这几章属于揭开案件谜底的高潮部分，侦探们找到更多线索，审问罪犯希克史泰德勋爵，但是在证据面前，他不断狡辩并与侦探们周旋，情节引人入胜。其中，人物对话占据很大一部分，翻译的时候，要体现出口语的特点，简单明了。这需要译者置身人物对话与场景中，仔细斟酌字句。

INTRODUCTION

48 Hours is a detective fiction of which the main shaft is reasoning and riddling. All plots in the book happened in 48 hours in London, which featured a quirky twist and were deeply moving. It is the first novel in the City of London Series by J Jackson Bentley. J Jackson Bentley writes both fiction and non-fiction books and has been a published author for over sixteen years. He now works as a Legal Consultant in the UK, the USA, the Middle East and the Far East. His spare time is spent writing at home in the UK and in Florida. Married with four grown children he is currently writing a new thriller set during the London riots of 2011 and he is compiling a book of short stories for 2012.

The insurance loss adjuster, Josh Hammond, received a text message from Bob whom he did not know. The text message says that Josh Hammond only has 48 hours to live unless he pays quarter of a million pounds. After careful consideration, he told the whole thing to his boss Toby, asking him for advice. Toby called his contacts in the City of London Police and the Vastrick Security. The Vastrick Security appointed the investigator Dee as Josh Hammond’s bodyguard and to find the blackmailer. The first clue is Josh Hammond’s colleague Andrew Cuthbertson. His weird speech and behavior aroused Dee’s attention. Just when Andrew Cuthbertson decided to tell the hidden instigator to them, he was killed by Bob. Later on, the plots of the blackmail case developed further. An increasing number of people were involved in it and some more people were killed by Bob. However, detectives found more and more clues about the case, and they finally put a suspect on Lord Hickstead. But the evidence they held was indirect which could not bring Lord Hickstead into jail. He is a man of deceit and denied all accusation. More clues were found. In the end, Lord Hickstead was killed during his escape.

Chapter 45 to Chapter 51 were chosen for translation. The seven chapters are the climax of the detective fiction bringing the riddle to light. The detectives found more clues to bring the blackmailer, Lord Hickstead, into jail. However, in the interrogation, he quibbled and denied all accusation. The plots are very stimulating. Among the seven chapters, characters’ dialogues constitute the majority of the text. In translation, the translator should display the characteristic of spoken language which is simple and short. This needs the translator to put himself in the characters’ position and situation and measure words and sentences carefully.