Liz

I'm a big fan of James Patterson the Women's Murder Club. I read the 6 previous books and watched the tv series. This is my first "listen" of the audio version and I'm sorry to say the narrator is disappointing.

I enjoyed Carolyn McCormick on the Law and Order series, but as a narrator, she is sadly lacking. Often I could not tell when the dialog changed from one character to another. Often, she overlooked an ephasis that needed an inflection of the voice and often she used inflection when it wasn't called for. It made the book boring and confusing, having to plod along in the sameness and concentrate on who might be speaking.

Top notch author, great book series, needs a narrator of the same quality.

Overall, the story is good, especially the part about the terrorist himself and how he travels around performing his deeds. The main character is a bit irritating, not the kind of guy I'd want to spend much time with, constant wisecracks, etc.

The narrator does the main character part (the wise-cracking cop) really well. Almost too well. Conversations get a bit confusing because the voices are all about the same and you can't tell who said what unless the author has written in "he said, she said".

There is nothing called romance in this book. There is some banter, some sex and an engagement but no romance, I promise you. This may be a SPOILER, but the main guy sends his current girlfriend an email that says "We have to talk" meaning to break up with her since he's sleeping with someone else, but they NEVER DO TALK and he gets engaged, etc. with no more mention of her. Just threw that woman away, I guess.

So, I suppose you could say I enjoyed the "tale" but never warmed up to the main character. In fact, most of the law enforcement people I know hate those sort of irritating co-workers such as John Corey.

I have read every Matthew Scudder book prior to this one and loved them all. Lawrence Block knows NYC and he knows his character. This series is character driven. You keep reading because you come to relate to the character and you want to know what happens next in his life.

This narrator makes Scudder sound like a doddering old drunk working on his 10th bourbon and trying to keep his face from hitting the bar when he passes out. He does NOT sound like the man who lives with the beautiful, sexy Elaine, or who can talk his way in and out of so many situations. He sounds BORING, befuddled and banal. He puts me to sleep.

And when I first heard Mark Hammer's version of TJ, I almost cried. This smart, savy, cool street kid, struggling to make himself better, sounds like a dumb white-boy cartoon version of a young, hip, black man. It's disgraceful.

I am NOT finishing this download, but I AM racing to buy the book and go back to reading the Matthew Scudder I know and love.

I gave this a 3 star Overall and Story because I KNOW Lawrence Block writes great books and couldn't stand to rate him any lower. If I had listened to this never having read the previous books in the series, I would have thought it was all 1 star drivel!

This book is unlike any other I've read in my 63 years. The first four chapters had a lot of cruelty in them, but I hung on because the storytelling is so excellent and I could tell there was a point being made, and the NARRATOR is unbelievable. I cannot imagine anyone else doing all these accents and emotions, of men, women and children, so fantastically well!

This entire book is an epic of justice and injustice , humor and grief. It's filled with life! The Greatest Book I've ever encountered.

Deon Meyer is a genius. Simon Vance becomes each character for whom he speaks. The two together create a compelling listening experience.

Meyer has brought some characters from his previous books and entangled them in an intricate, fascinating plot consisting of several tales in one. You have to hang on to them all until the very end when they come together and you say "AHHHH", in satisfaction.

Besides all that, Meyer somehow makes you care about each character, each plot within "the plot". I don't see how Meyer can top this one, but I believe I thought that before about him. Obviously he has what it takes.

Good grief! What a group of whiny, whimpering people! Every one of them misunderstands every other one of them and no one gets or gives a second chance. These people are all full of angst and spend all their time over analyzing every last word and blink of the eye. This author creates such weak, ineffectual men, I can't imagine what the men in her life are like. No one remotely connected with criminal justice, in any country, can identify with this version of Canada's Finest. The writing sytle repeats itself in almost every page, every paragraph, every sentence. (That's an example. You'll find sentences constructed like that over and over and over and....) Not much joy in these pages.

Yes, I loved Marsters as Harry Dresden.
Yes, I'm upset that there is a change in narrators.

But DON'T MISS THIS AUDIO BOOK because of that. I'm at Chapter 3 and Glover is doing a wonderful job. If we'd never had Marsters we'd be singing Glover's praises. Really.

And I love Butcher's version of the AFTERLIFE. So will you. If you don't run off and pout about the change in narrators.

GREAT LISTEN so far. . .

This book will teach you the difference between funny and silly, the later definitely being the best description of the book.


In the chapter called Mail Order Bride, a character is thrilled to have "a white American" teaching his call center employees how to "talk American". The narrator of this book desperately needed a Texan to teach him how to "talk Texan". I don't know what he was speaking but if he tries it in Texas, he's in trouble.

I'd dearly love to know what the good people of India think of this book and wonder about their opinion of the ridiculous spoken word uttered by the narrator, purported to be "Indian". Perhaps it was meant to be funny, but it slipped into silly and sappy. It's good there is a disclaimer in the front of the book stating that although Mr. Swarup works for the Indian government, the views in the book are not that of said government, or there would be an international scandal, for sure.

This is my first Don Winslow Book. I've tried five different times to listen to it. Can't get more than two hours into it. It's boring. The ganster/hitman/main character talks like an old lady. He rambles on about nothing and constantly reminisces and beats you to death with minutiae like my 87 year old mother.

I don't even CARE what happens to him.

I wasted a credit. Don't make the same mistake.

This author's books are ruined by her anti-hunting OBSESSION.

In this book, she has a character ranting about the cruelty of killing animals in the same scene where she's having her staff serve a roast beef sandwich??? She also describes a character's apparel to include fine leather shoes in an approving tone. Perhaps she thinks they only "borrowed" that cow's hide ?

Disappointing.

This is an excellent mystery. Set in Africa, it is more serious than the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books by Alexander McCall Smith. It's more comparable to the Detective Kubu books by Michael Stanely, but I think it has even more depth and sociological tones to it.

Detective Darko Dawson is very human and fallible, a product of his childhood as are we all.

This is a good mystery, a good read, great character study and presented by an excellent narrator, Simon Prebble.

This author has another book coming out next year. I can't wait!