The Woodcutter

By: Reginald Hill

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Wolf Hadda's life was a fairytale - successful businessman and adored husband. But a knock on the door one morning ends it all. Universally reviled, thrown into prison, Wolf retreats into silence. Seven years later Wolf begins to talk to the prison psychiatrist and receives parole to return home. But there's a mysterious period in Wolf's past when he was known as the Woodcutter. Now the Woodcutter is back, looking for truth and revenge...

©2010 Reginald Hill (P)2010 WF Howes Ltd

I'll have Revenge please...

As I listened to this tale it became obvious how much I love revenge stories. The most thorough and satisfying tale of revenge would be The Count of Monte Cristo. The best modern tale, in my opinion, is the Dragon Tattoo series. Of course, Monte Cristo and the Dragon Tattoo are both biblical in length. But this is what makes them so brilliant, the authors spent as much time completing the satisfying and justified revenge as they did on the (unjust) destruction of the heroes.

Which brings me to The Woodcutter. As the story develops we are introduced to a gruff, unsophisticated, powerful man who's humility immediately attracts the reader. He is betrayed and destroyed to the point that any part of what made him great in his world could never be redeemed. The conspiracy against him is every bit as sophisticated and developed as Larrson's trilogy. (If you haven't listened to the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy, stop here and buy it now.)

What disappoints me here is the lack of depth and completeness in the revenge itself. There, I've said it. I listened to every minute of this book with relish. It is entertaining and clever. The mystery revealed is remarkable. However, its lack of detail and brevity left me disappointed.

Still, its a great book, well worth your time!

Alison

I like to listen to audiobooks on my iPod as I walk. This story was so good and so well read that I almost had to walk the whole 16 hours in one go!

Rewarding finish

I was not sure at one point if I was going to continue with this book. I stayed with it and in the end was very happy that I did. The fact that this story is influence by the "Counte of Monty Cristo" is not hidden in the story, and the trials of the main character are monumental. The story unfolds in layers and soon the reader is hooked wondering where this tale is going to go. I would recommend this book but would caution that it takes a commitment from the reader to work through the character and story development phase, once accomplished the story takes off and moves very well, with great tension building for the exciting ending.

Great.

I have been a Reginald Hill fan for many, many years and love his Dalziel and Pascoe books almost to the point that I am disappointed when he has a new novel that does not feature the two detectives. But, the Woodcutter is Hill at his best - and that really puts it high on the chart. Jonathan Keeble is an outstanding narrator and I will look for other books he narrates. This book kept me guessing up to the very end. Hill's love of words always ensures that I will have increased by vocabulary after reading or listening to one of his novels, and he writes both wonderfully descriptive prose as well as intriguing dialogs. His character developments are first rate.

My only complaint is now I have to wait a while until Hill's next book is on the market.

What a thrill ride this is, hang on!

This story is so creative it really takes a while to appreciate how intricate Reginald Hill is. This is like a painting done with words, you can see, feel, touch the characters. Wonderful talent in developing each character, the story takes you through the life of a brilliant, dark, troubled man. The success and failures, betrayals at a level you can't imagine. This book pulls you in, and keeps you "there". Really enjoyable.

A Mix of Good and Bad

Having just finished this selection, I felt I needed to write a review I would have wanted to read prior to purchase. The storyline is elaborate, complex with many well developed characters and the good and bad guys are often hard to pick out. I did find I wanted to see how this all turned out and was rooting throughout for the Woodcutter. However, this is no Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In many, many of the scenes the dialogue just doesn't ring to me as things people would say. Often I found my self rolling my eyes at the too clever by half banter. And the dramatic climax at the end of the book was so over the top (literally!) that I said "you have got to be kidding me!" out loud. Almost parody. Word of warning to those who have difficulty with English accents. The narrator I liked a lot and was very good at a large variety of voices. Often though on some of the voices, which unfortunately includes the main character Wolf, I wouldn't get some of the words at first listen and would have to rewind. Reminds me of some of the more accented Masterpiece Theatre pieces with British actors. Overall, worth a listen but not on my list of best audiobooks.

Nothing to keep me hanging on

I don't think this was a great story, I'd say almost good. I don't know why it has so many star ratings, which is why I chose it. So many characters it was hard to keep up with. But truthfully I just thought it was a poor story line. Yet I will say I thought it was a good performance. I would not recommend it - I'd say skip it.

My first Hill book and not my last

Would you listen to The Woodcutter again? Why?

Well written with fantastic narration. Very unique anti-hero, gobs of twists. I've never heard a story quite like it.

Started slow, but was a great adventure

At first I didn't think I'd like it, but it really drew me in.

great story great narrator.

this is a fantastic story narrated by one of my favorite audiobook narrators. I simply loved it