Eric

i bought this book on an audible promotion - it was on discount and i was out out of units. i read it just after finishing dragon tattoo, and spies of the balkans did not compare well. the narrator was overly laconic or low affect, and the story, while interesting, was not gripping. i had to listen and re-listen numerous times because it did not hold my attention. the listening stretched longer than most books, and i finally got my new credits about the time my listening to this book came to an end. i found one of the new jack reacher novels and could not put it down. this did not measure up well either to girl with the dragon tattoo or jack reacher. sigh.

I could not put the story down at the end because of the way it wrapped up the Red Breast story. If you are looking for the right book to pick up after Red Breast, this is it.

Nesbo's stories are complex enough that it is a good idea to have both the written and audible portion. Note to Amazon: Whispersync was not working even though my accounts said it would.

Great detective work, clever lines.

I have followed Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer, and I came to this one with some skepticism, putting it down after a day because I decided I did not want a detective book about a pedophile and murderer. When I needed a new read, I picked it back up, and I was soon hooked. This was the most multilayered and tightly knit Connelly I have listened to. Performance was excellent, but not at the same level as readers like auberjois or ballerini.

I picked this up on a 4.95 sale but I can't finish it. I wanted to listen to a bright person's coherent and logical progression through a model of the brain. As bright as the author might be, he is astonishingly tone deaf to how distracting the relentless implicit and direct accolades he gives to himself are to the science he is trying to explain. The book might be summarized as a tapestry of ....introduction (all about me!)...look at me again!...science...look at me!...look at me!....science...did you see me?! etc

Assumptions and assertions about research threads other than his own are conveniently packaged with plenty of straw men, when with a little bit more scientific humility he could be so much more effective. I would love to see what he put in his later chapters, but can't deal with all the sludge you have to put up with to get the good stuff.

A wonderful story of normal people running up against the mysteries of their domicile. It is a very fresh journey, and all the mysteries wind up making sense before it is all over. It is difficult to say much about the story without giving away some of the many surprises along the way.

In terms of characters, they are very well developed. Plain and sarcastic Veek was a winning personality, especially with the way that Porter voiced her. Like others, I found Tim to be all-around solid and interesting. Xela - yes, she had her moments. Nate was great, but these others seem slightly more absorbing.

A great listen.

I kept thinking while listening to this that it was such a well-done, well-narrated book, and all the pieces were coming together. But the ending seemed downright manipulative, lazy, or both. Spoiler alert: just when everything is coming together, they fall apart at the end, so if you have been mesmerized by the great writing up to that point, your reward is being made to wait for some future book that may or may not be written. I felt like I had been fooled intentionally by the writers, likely in the interest of hoping I'd buy the next one. Cheap and unexpected trick that is not worthy of these writers. Auberjonois was fabulous.

This was my first Robicheaux and second JLB. The Burke-Patton pairing is a true art form. I don't like to read series, but have gone pretty far with Jack Reacher. This is better than Reacher. The story begins with an outlandish storyline - Dave and Clete caught fishing and accidentally trespassing on the property of the family around which the story revolves, a family that just happens to connect to Clete's sordid past, but most of it is credible after that. More, it is intelligent, literate, heart-racing, twisting and turning, and multi-dimensional. At least multi-dimensional for those that aren't utterly evil.

Here is my question for those listening to this great story. Don't you agree that one of the very best parts, a part that captures some of the best of the JLB style, is at the end of the book, the little paragraph or two when three people go into the woods and only two come out? Don't worry - that's not a spoiler, and you can't really guess what that is about till you get there. But, as Clete or Dave would put it, that little event "puts a net around the whole thing" if talking about the JLB style.

Enjoy. A great book and a fabulous listen.

Thrillers that rely on the one super-hero, often a former spy or SEAL with clipped wings who has been nursing his wounds in retirement, usually require some kind of setup of circumstances that stretches the imagination. The setup in this case was exceedingly contrived. Getting chased by secret kill squads from 10-15 countries in a mad dash across Europe to beat a morning deadline for a contract signing set by a petulant dictator on another continent is as contrived as I have ever seen.

That backdrop and the fact that the narrator, in my view, seemed to be more of a novice than the experienced reader he apparently is, were two strikes against this. But the book was still a home run. It was clever, nail-biting, informative, well-researched, and, by that all important intangible measure, I could not put it down. A worthy listen, and highly recommended for those, like me, who love the thriller genre.

I never quite realized that social institutions like the local police department had to be formed in each city. This is the story of NYC's new police force in formation in the early 1840s - it gives a lot of insight into the favoritism and mix of politics, corruption and the law that still tears at the fabric of our society. That entree into the birth of a big city police department in itself makes this a worthy listen.

The story and mystery within it is compelling, and yes, it has a lot of twists and turns. You don't need to worry when you are reading it whether you can predict the ending - you probably cannot. As much as anything, it is a story of learning to understand one's family, of trying to sort out racial and religious prejudices and overcome them, of filial and romantic love in the prism of the 1840s. Again, a worthy listen. Highly recommended.

First, this is a five star narration. Sneha Mathan was truly brilliant in giving voice to the characters. What a lyrical, rich, thoughtful and seasoned voice.

I felt the story was stronger in the second half than the first. Because the story adhered so closely to actual events and personages, I felt I was learning history while listening to Sundaresan's characters were embodied in Mathan's voice. This was historical fiction at its richest, I think, where the author fills in motives, feelings, dialog and thoughts about real events and people. The preface to each chapter is an excerpt from a historical piece and is a nice touch. You might find yourself, like me, looking up different references.

I agree with another reviewer that the concept of romantic love in the story probably was more prominent in the novel than in actual history. On the other hand, to avoid giving away a spoiler, I will say that there is plenty of evidence and reason to believe that the marriage alluded to in the title was different than those that usually took place. Story was really good, narration was even better.

I am a big fan of the stage version, have seen it three times. i was well aware that the book and the stage were very different. the artistic quality of the book simply is not as high as the stage adaptation. i knew it would be darker, etc., and that would have been fine, but ultimately it dragged too much or was too depressing. Fine use of language to tell a story, but not enough to keep me going. DNF = did not finish.