False Mermaid

I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. It took me several chapters to get used to the strong irish accent of the narrator but after I got used to it, I loved it! Her accent added more depth to the book. It's interesting when you find out why the book is titled "False Mermaid". There are twists and turns in the book that will keep you turning the page or in the audible version - it will make you keep your earphones in !!!
Cheers!

I appreciate her "sense of place" details from both MN and the Donegal coast. The links with traditional music and folklore make this a satisfying listen. I enjoyed the narration a great deal. I loved the Irish acsent and then the American it really seperated the charaters. I would highly recommend this book.

Great story, with twists that added an enjoyable depth to the narrative. The writing captured the feeling of the Irish countryside and the romance of the Irish fairy tales. I love the character developments.

The narrator was great - loved her style and ability to breath life in to the story.

Would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries - of the folk story kind as well as murder/police investigation kind.

I thoroughly enjoyed the production.

Having enjoyed the previous Nora Gavin stories, I looked forward to reading one with a foot in St. Paul. I appreciate her "sense of place" details from both MN and the Donegal coast. The links with traditional music and folklore make this a satisfying read. Details of the mystery, from both this current book and the previous two, are tied together through characters in the subplots and unexpected connections - very well done. I look forward to more from Ms. Hart. I enjoyed the narration a great deal. While male voices, particularly American, were harder to believe, I found the differences in dialect, between northern Donegal and Dublin or Clare very true and a wonderful detailed addition.

Very perplexing -- I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks in the last 20 years, and this has never happened before, but I absolutely could not stay focused on this book. Time and time again I backtracked, realizing my mind was "off with the fairies", only to loose it again, and then again. One section I think I "listened to" about three times, and still couldn't stay with the story. I can't quite identify the problem -- very strange, because I've read two Erin Hart books before and generally liked them. I expected to enjoy this recording a lot -- but that didn't happen.

It might be the narrator -- no problem with the Irish accent (I wouldn't know an authentic Irish accent from a bad one), but the constant switches among the piping of the little girls voice, the high-pitched garble of the policeman, the broad and somewhat grating American accents.... I found myself paying more attention to how she was pronouncing the words than following the story. Very odd. It just didn't grab my attention -- and I tried, I really did.

I finally gave up about three hours from the end -- at a point at which I realized that even though I didn't have more than a vague idea what this book was all about, I still knew what was going to happen next. When exactly what I expected did happen, I decided that was it. Enough.

I kept getting lost in the telling of this book, I kept listening because I wondered if it was just me as I was having a lot of problems following the story line. My mind continued to wander no matter how hard I tried to stay focused. Personally I like a book that holds my attention and this one failed on all levels.

Each of the characters in this novel was well developed and believable. The story held my interest from start to finish and the secondary characters really fit. This narrator is one of my favorites and she did the story justice. Excellent read!

Erin Hart's three mystery novels set mostly in Ireland have been compelling and enjoyable experiences. She has woven together murder mystery, a little romance, and a wonderful exposure to many of the nuances of Irish culture and history and mythology into the fabric of a very satisfying novel.
The narrator does an excellent job of providing clear distinctions between the characters and reads with good pacing, great expression, and what sounds to me like an authentic Irish accent for the Irish characters.
I would certainly highly recommend this novel and Hart's other two novels: Lake of Sorrows and Haunted Ground.

Great detailed story, well written, up in the top of this type of listen.

This is similar to a CSI TV show/ or Maggie Shayne book.

This book is very accurate in it's setting. The characters are flawed and believable. The story is a twist on a typical murder mystery.

It is like all murder mysteries, it is always the person you least suspect but at the same time you already know who the murderer is and who actually does the dirty work. It is very much like The Fugitive.

No

If you like murder mystery this is the book for you. It has all the twists and turns needed to hold your interest. The characters are perfectly flawed. There is no new way to make a cliche subject like murder mystery but False Mermaid does a great job with round characters and beautifully drawn settings.