Carrie

I already enjoyed the print version of this book, which combines the sort of brainy surrealist humor appreciated by Monty Python fans with Hodgeman's charactaristic dry wit; but the audiobook is an entirely different experience, with the bonus of his troubadour, Jonathan Coulton and the bizarre pleasure of his reading 700 hobo names aloud. Be warned, Coulton's "Furry Lobster Song" will get stuck in your head.

I had picked up "Case Histories" last week and was absolutely mesmerized by not just the characters and mystery, but by her fluid writing and timeshifting narrative. While it was interesting to catch up with the characters from that story, this didn't nearly have the character development or cohesive storyline of the first novel, but that could be due to this only being available in the dreaded abridged format. The narrator is not nearly good as Susan Jameson, but he does a decent job (even if his default accent sounds like someone british trying to do a vaguely American accent, even though there are no American characters in the book.

I was looking for a lightly entertaining british mystery novel, but instead found this artfully interwoven collection of timeshifting stories that manages to never feel gimmicky and delivers terrific payoffs. I regret the former reviewer didn't stick with the story, because they missed out on some fantastic character development, truly fine writing and what ends up being a really satifying narrative. Speaking of narrator, Susan Jameson does a fantastic job and her rich delivery of the many different dialects really brings the story to life. She also does a great job with the male characters, which is so often the downfall of opposite sex audiobook artists. Highly reccomend!