Sherri

I listened to this unabrigded audiobook during my daily commute back and forth to work. The story started out slowly and took me awhile to really get caught up in it. Part of that, I think, was due to the narrator. His voice never really drew me in and almost seemed irritating at times. Eventually, though, the plot started to move more quickly and I was sucked into the mystery. I really wanted to find out "whodunit" by the end, and there were so many reasonable possibilities!

This was my first Inspector Adam Dalgliesh novel. I didn't love the characters, but they were intriguing enough that I'll probably search out more in this series. With a different narrator, I think I would have enjoyed this book more and felt more involved with the characters. Next time I'll try a text version and see if that makes a difference.

I listened to the audiobook of this novel and was completely blown away. The story was incredibly moving - heartbreaking at times, uplifting at others, and definitely gave me a view of things in Afganistan that I wouldn't have had otherwise. The characters were incredibly rich and fleshed out. I felt like I knew them, like I would recognize them if I passed them on the street.

This audiobook was narrated by the author and I'm glad that I got to hear the correct pronounciations of many words that I would have stumbled across in the text edition. I think having the author read the book definitely added an extra element to the story that wouldn't have been there otherwise. The audio version had made me even more eager to read the text version of this novel.

I received a couple of other novels in thie series and wanted to read them in order, so I decided to listen to this one during my daily commute. The narrator annoyed me almost from the beginning, but despite that I really enjoyed listening to this. I've heard others compare this series to the Kay Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwall and I can see why. Temperance Brennan was a very strong character, smart and stubborn, and remarkably real. I really enjoyed her, as well as the other characters, primarily the investigative officers.

The plot of this novel moved well, keeping me interested and throwing enough curves at me that I was always second guessing my assumptions. The clues were laid out without being obviously flagged, so I was able to make some accurate deductions about "whodunit", but not enough to give the story away.

I'll be looking forward to more of this series (probably in text format, so I don't have to put up with that awful narrator again!)

I really enjoyed the 2nd installment in this series, and I'll be looking forward to the next one. The narrators were great and definitley added to my enjoyment of the story.

I really like these characters - Lindsay, Claire, Jill and Cindy - strong, professional women who usually manage to have lives outside their jobs as well as fascinating careers. I admit to having a soft spot for this type of character.

The plot was great - an intriguing mystery with enough twists and turns to keep me engaged. I guess wrong about "whodunit" and was quite surprised at the final resolution. There were a few trite moments, but they were outweighed by the rest of the story.

This was not Grisham at his finest, unfortunately. The plot dragged in places and seemed quite repetitive at times. It didn't suck me in the way his earlier novels did, and didn't have the tension that I used to love in his stories. I suspected the "culprit" almost from the first, despite the various plot twists and red herrings thrown around. All in all, it was a disappointment.

I wasn't crazy about this book, probably because I've never been fond of the character of Cindy Decker in this series and she played a central role in this installment. Rina, who has always been my favourite, had a very small part in this story, and the other kids were pretty much invisible. I never managed to get worried about Cindy, or scared for her; mostly I just wanted to give her a good shake and tell her to smarten up. It difficult to get into a story when you feel that way about the central character.

They mystery itself seemed a little thin in this volume of the series too. It seemed like I never really cared about "whodunit" in this one, and didn't really try to figure it out from the clues scattered throughout the story.

I hope Mrs. Kellerman's next book in this series goes back to focusing on Peter/Rina. I enjoyed those stories a lot more.

This was a fun book to listen to. The narrator did a good job with the characters and added a lot to the story through his telling of it. They mystery was entertaining and the cast of characters were interesting - doctors, miners, cops, moonshiners, bikers, musicians, hillbillies, politicians and a grandmother all thrown together in a way that required some suspension of disbelief but was thoroughly entertaining. I was rooting for the good guys and cursing the bad guys throughout. The plot twists at the end were good and I really didn't suspect the villain at all. Palmer came through with a roller coaster ride of a medical thriller with this one! I only wish that I'd paid more attention to what I was ordering and had gotten the unabridged version rather than the abridged. I keep wondering what I missed in the abridgement.

I can't believe I've never read Jane Austen. This was a remarkable book, full of incredibly rich characters and a wonderful story. The narrator was excellent and made listening to this book a pleasure, but I can't wait to have the actual pages in my hands. I loved the strong female characters, their willingness to speak their minds even during a time when this wasn't particularly approved of, and their support of each other. This is a story that I'll read again and again, and I'm looking forward to more of Jane Austen's novels as well.