Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks

I've read several of the Parlabane novels but this is my first audio version and I enjoyed it immensely. The multiple narratives are handled well and the sarcastic, gruff Parlabane is as enjoyable as ever. There is even unintentional humor in the narrators' attempts at a Louisiana accent. That said, they did a great job. Highly recommend this for something a little different and more interesting than the normal mystery.

Well, that would clean up the town, wouldn't it. Which town? Any one you'd like to send him to. And it would be done in such an outrageous, profane, honest and hysterically funny way, that even the losers would chuckle. Before they tried to kill him, of course.

Because that's the point of Brookmyre's Parlabane books; trying to kill Jack before he puts your butt in jail! But for us lucky readers, we laugh through the entire reading, if we can understand the narrator. Luckily, after listening to many books with accents from the UK, I can understand it pretty well. Perhaps not all of the slang, but I can guess at the meanings.

I visited Audible UK in order to buy this book. I wish Audible would make all of Mr. Brookmyre's books available here. (I saw them in my local indie bookstore for the first time recently.)

The first book I ever bought on Audible was "Quite Ugly One Morning." I was hooked, both on the author & Audible.

"Rubber Ducks" concerns spiritualists, life after death, religion and fraud. If you don't see the connection between the first three and the last, you will be offended. If dirty language offends you, you will be distressed. But if your view of the world is a bit skewed, your sense of humor a bit warped and the idea of believing what you read in the newspaper a bit skeptical, you will love this book.

Having read almost all other books by Cristopher Brookmyre the old fashioned way, I was very pleasantly surprised by this audio book. Brookmyre's story is expertly narrated in a way that certainly adds to the whole experience. I have read in other reviews that some people found the (British/Scottish) English hard to understand, but I found this not to be the case (fwiw: I am not a native English speaker).

The story is great, full of twists and larded with Brookmyre's trademark cynical humour. A "must buy"!

If you can't or won't understand Glaswegian, this isn't for you - but it's typically wonderfully biting Brookmyre - and Parlabane is BACK! Audiobooks needs more Brookmyre titles, desperately.

A superb crime thriller, very unconventional, with excellent narration by the dual narrators. This is my first Jack Parlabane book, and I will definitely try another. It is not possible to give a flavour of this book without giving the plot away, so I wont try. Do not be put off by the first chapter; it is narrated in a rather smug, irritating way, but this is integral to the storyline. The accents initially take a little getting used to, if you are not Scots, but your ear should adjust reasonably quickly.

Definitely a mixed review. It is tough at the beginning with narration from different characters, Scottish accents and a slowly developing plot but the overall theme of the deception of magic being used in crime is interesting and the narration and characters grow on you.

I absolutely loved "Quite Ugly One Morning", but for some reason Audible isn???t offering it anymore?? So when this one became available, I bought it right away. What a disappointment. Brookmyre definitely had an agenda, and it got in the way of his writing a good story.

This book rambles, heavily accented and the wording (British) is hard to understand. There are many other good books to purchase, so keep looking.