The Walls of Windy Troy is carried along smoothly by a sequence of highly dramatic scenes, well imagined and well presented: the young Schliemann encountering the student who recites Greek, appealing to Wendt for help, being shipwrecked, and working his way up the business ladder in Amsterdam; the adult Schliemann traveling to California, learning that his goods have survived a devastating fire in the Black Sea port of Memel, and discovering ruins at Hissarlik and Mycenae. The biography resembles a Victorian story of great expectations completely fulfilled, although not necessarily within the lifetime of its protagonist. Braymer avoids painting an overly rosy picture of Schliemann's career as an amateur archeologist, acknowledging that at the time of his death he still faced heavy criticism from scholars who deemed his conclusions rash and unfounded.

Braymer writes that "[Schliemann] went too fast and he destroyed some evidence that it...