Ruth

While the Brunetti mystery's are slow paced, this stand alone was too slow for me to stay engaged. It is a book beautifully written, with Leon's elegant craftsmanship, but scholarly paced, which makes sense as an unravelling of a historical mystery to the protagonist scholar. While I do from time to time listen again to the Brunetti mystery's, I can't say that I will listen again nor recommend to mystery readers this novel. Those interested in historical fiction and the landscape of Venice will find it charming. Leon's subtle and dry sense of humor is present, which always makes me smile. Narrator, excellent.

No way around this, the narrator is bland, disinterested in the story and almost robotic. Never will order a preorder again without knowledge of the narrator. It's a prime example of how important the narrator is for an audio book to succeed. And how a bad narrator can destroy an excellent book. This one I'm going have to get the book.

How can this happen with an exceedingly popular and great writer, a cash cow from audible's biz perspective?

First time readers to this series, skip this audio version, find the book in a library or buy it. Listen to any of the other books in this series narrated by Len Cariou or Dick Hill. Frankly, the new preorder system is helpful with knowing about upcoming books, but audible selling preorders in to March 2013 is too far in the future for me and without stated narrators is not working for me, and I wish it was a separate sort function. In the meantime, I'll be skipping over them to actual books released. I can't even rate this Connelly book a 5 star for the story which it may very well deserve, as the story became flat and I couldn't get engaged in this listen.

Not unlike listening to Scott Brick who was once a great narrator but now over-emotes and is impossible for me to listen to any more. Skip those. Audible you are losing biz.

Even if you are a hard core John Sandford fan as I am, this book is just about unreadable. Don't know what happened here. Where were Sandford's editor's? What was he thinking? It's painful to write this as there are so many great Davenport books before and after this one. I can't even recommend this to a fan. Will take a listen again in a year or two, but this is the one you hope one of your favorite author never writes. Makes sense that it is the last in the this unabridged series to get issued on audible. On the other hand, one clunker out of 20 plus is an amazing record. This book is only interesting in Weather making an appearance, although just a smidgeon, in Davenport's life again.

Loved this book. Letty West is one of the best character additions to this great series. She appears in subsequent novels in the series and she is a fabulous character. And this is the book where she makes her debut.

I agree with "disappointed". Young U.S. readers, my grandkids, were so looking forward to listening to this very popular series. But the book is read so fast, and the english accent so pronounced, that they were not able to understand the reader. I love english/scottish/welsh/irish narrators, and in fact seek them out, but I grew up with an english mum. For young ears it was just too difficult for them to understand. It looks like the book has received wonderful reviews. wish I could be more positive about this beloved english series.

To be fair, this kind of book, as someone noted, is "slice of life" fiction, which I never would have been intrigued enough to purchase. Not my cup of tea. This may account for the extremes in ratings this novel has garnished. That being said, there were no characters to root for, and although being an anglophile, (and half English, if that means anything) I would never want to live in nor visit this village. Should have been published under a pseudonym - may have then been more fairly reviewed by those interested in this kind of story. Instead, reviews, including mine, would have been based not on expectation. Instead, I kept thinking, when is HP going to show up? Very very unfair.

Tom Hollander is a new narrator to me. Will be looking for other books he has narrated.

One of the best of the wonderful Scandinavian authors to be revealed because of the Millenium Trilogy. One of the very best I've listened to overall.

This book takes off from the very first page. Detective Carl Merck and his Department Q deal with cold cases, nothing new these days, but their uniqueness and complicated lives take readers on an enticing and can't put the book down ride.

Jussi AdlerOlsen's first book The Keeper of Lost Causes available on Audible which this book is a Department Q follow up is a must read too. Cannot wait until the next two books in this series are available.

james and kincaid with their growing family continue with their crime fighting ways. a deborah crombie novel is not to be missed. gerard doyle/michael deehy is not my favorite narrator for this series and i wish that audible had purchased jenny sterlin's version, a bit too pricey for me to buy independently. but just the same i'm grateful that the book is available on audible.

if you are new to crombie, think about starting with the early novels so you can see how these characters grow as police officers, as individuals and how their romance develops. and you get to watch how a good writer just gets better.

"dreaming of the bones", "necessary as blood" and "kissed a sad good-bye" are my top choices, but all her books are consistently engaging and quite wonderful. ms. crombie is not only a fine story teller but is a talented writer.

so i will be rereading and listening to them all again. and waiting for the next one! i have some books, some on kindle and all that are available on audio through audible. what amazing choices we have these days.

you can follow her on Facebook where she talks about her kitties, her book tour, her Jungle Red women writing group and where she introduced me to a great weekly book review Shelf Review.

More a thriller than police procedural than previous "Prey" novels. All of the Audible books available for the series are notable and worth a listen. Lucas Davenport could easily have become a protagonist character that a reader/listener couldn't support or bond with over years with this series. But he doesn't. I couldn't imagine another narrator than Richard Ferrone, a personal favorite of mine.

Discovered Phil Rickman thru an audible recommendation in 2009 and I never looked back. His novels are hard to categorize but are based on strong character development and for those fascinated with all things UK he interlaces mystery, crime, faith, music, single parent life, politics and history into fabulous tales. I am not religious nor brought up in the Christian faith so it took a long time before I said yes to this recommendation. mmmm, female Church of England clergy who becomes an exorcist in subsequent novels? Really? Really! Add - a bit of the supernatural as possibility.

Rebecca Lacey is the narrator of "wine of roses" - the first Merrily Watkins and Emma Powell takes over in the second book of this series. Both super narrators. All books are available in audio but not all are yet available on audible. Most are available as e-books. Read, read, read!!! (listen :).) Characters are a bit quirky to US readers but this is what makes them so appealing.