William

First James Lee Burke novel I have listened to, and first review I have felt compelled to write after listening to almost 30 books on audible. I took a chance on this one as many of the reviews were less than positive on the story and the narration and am glad I did. Having spent all of my life in Southern Louisiana I thought I could make it through the dialect and accents with no problem but there was no need. First, the accent used in the narration is NOT a South Louisiana accent. It is however a great sort of smoky, slow, country wisened drawl that fits the lead character perfectly if not exactly accurately as far as regional dialect is concerned. I had NO problems understanding anything that was said and can only wonder if some of the reviewers downloaded lower quality audio formats which I find unlistenable regardless of the accent of the narrator. Finally the story does not move at an intolerably slow rate, but rather gives just the right amount of time to character and location development. This is a great listen of a pretty good novel don't pass it up based on the negative reviews for the above mentioned reasons.