The House at Sea's End

The character development that made me want to continue the series was a real turn off in this book. I don't believe we all have to fatally flawed to be interesting. Every character doesn't have to be a caricature.

Harry and Ruth are turning into a regular little soap opera. I don't know if I'll read the last installment. Lord knows I'm not a writer so take my criticisms as what they are, an average reader with little tase for melodrama.

Jane McDowell who did the excellent narration of the two prior books in this series again does a great job with this third in the series. No complaints about the production.

Ruth's determination to raise her daughter without assistance from the father however is daft. Ruth discovers the problems with dealing with the practicality of child rearing as a single mother while the father clearly wishes to be involved both personally and financially with his daughter. Due to the determination that the relationship must be kept secret things get more and more confused.

Meanwhile in addition to the usual cast of characters, a friend of Ruth's from a prior stint in Bosnia shows up. A woman whose son, husband and parents were killed in the conflict there. Then there are people whose parents and grandparents were involved with WWII and a secret that it seems someone is willing to go to extremes to protect.

Ruth really doesn't have any serious problems with being a single mother as her friends rally around to provide assistance and support. Meanwhile bodies pile up but Ruth doesn't have that much detecting to do. I'm not sure where the author is going with this series, but I am not looking forward to forensic anthropology with a toddler. Unfortunately, at the end of the book I felt that things in the personal story arc were unresolved and I'm not sure I'm really interested in the resolution. Let's have some more archaeology please..

I had read other novels in this series, so already had my own idea of the characters. The narrator matched well to my ideas, and I enjoyed listening to this one.

The narrator's pace is good, and I particularly liked the voices she gave to Nelson and to Ruth, the two main characters. She does accents well. Nelson's flat, Norfolk accent was consistent and interesting.

I recommend this series of books and this narrator.

Have no idea since I have listened to 1,076 since Audible first came on line but nearer the top than bottom. All of the other auther's books average ratings were 4 not 1 or 2 and there were more than 2 ratings. This was a very good book. There must be an mistake somewhere.

Whilst I enjoyed the concept and the plot I was almost at the stage of throwing the ipod out of the window because I now realize I do not like books written in the present tense. For that reason this book really grated on me - the tense intruded at times when it shouldnt have done. The narrator did well with various characters though.

I would happily listen to another story by the same author.

It had enough twists and turns to keep me interested

Narrator did a good job with the array of accents and otherwise did not outshine the story - which is the point.

No

This was a comfort book. Nice every day tale of small British towns and the mud found underneath the surface.