The Attenbury Emeralds

Well done, Magistra. If any of you have ever enjoyed Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, you will enjoy Walsh's addition to the genre. We are once more back (albeit post WWII) in the world of Lord and Lady Peter, with their two sons and a world that is progressing (if it is progressing) into the mid-20th century. Yet the author also brings us backwards, evoking tales of Peter's shell-shocked youth as he solves his first case, a case that now echoes -- through multiple murders -- into the present, along with recurrent emeralds, old friends, and new villains. And despite it all, Jill Paton Walsh manages to bring us back in contact with the characters we cherish: Peter, Harriet, and Bunter are unchanged from the Sayers originals. Magisterial, Magistra!

The narrator will make or break this listen for you, I think. I abandoned it twice; only the solid reviews of listeners I follow brought me back.

I???m a fan more of pastiches and satires of Golden Age detectives than the real thing; At first I was irritated by both narrator and plot, but after 1/4 of the listen I looked forward to daily doses of the almost zen tale: it???s a Dorothy Sayers' plot told at snails' pace -- If that sounds bleak, the listen is not ??? ???quietly charming??? is the phrase that seems to fit. This will relax rather than send you to seat's (or wit's) edge. You definitely need to be in the mood for offbeat quiet to enjoy this if you're not a Dorothy Sayers connoisseur to catch all the angles of the homage.

Don???t expect this to satirize the Brit social system: It's told consistently through the eyes of the characters, obliquely showing some changes in Brit society in first half of 20th century, with only very gentle humour, mostly playing off stock Golden Age images and the warm relationship between Lord and Lady Wimsey.

This doesn???t make me nostalgic for Sayers, but I would download another in this series by Walsh. And I really look forward to other Audible titles narrated by Petherbridge (Howard???s End!)

Walsh is pitch perfect on Sayers' characters and dialogue. This one was a bit slow to get started -- at first it had the feel of Sayers' short stories rather than the novels. Once it got going, it was wonderful! It was so nice to get reacquainted with Peter and Harriet. I wish Audible would get Walsh's earlier two Wimsey novels. And speaking of Sayers, where is Gaudy Night?

While it isn't quite the gob-smacking whingdinger that Gaudy Night or Murder Must Advertise is, Paton Walsh continues to do a really very nice job developing the characters of Lord Peter and Harriet Vane. The conceit of splitting action between a shell-shocked Peter's first detectival foray and the post-WWII Wimseys' lives helps smooth over any minor, inevitable discontinuities in style or characterization. I particularly enjoyed Walsh's treatment of the changes in class distinctions in post-WWII Britain, and the way she explored both Peter's and Bunter's likely reactions to those changes--something Sayers herself seemed unsure how to handle, based on Bunter's near-absence from her last few works.

Walsh captures the Sayer's style in her first standalone sequel to the Lord Peter Whimsey stories. I was terribly excited to see that Edward Petherbridge was the narrator! His performances in the1980's Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery miniseries was definitive. His voice is a bit soft, and and shows his age, but as Peter is in his 60's in this book it compliments rather than detracts from the atmosphere of the story.

Although I really liked this story, I found the narrator very difficult to understand. Between his accent and tendency to swallow the last part of every sentence, I had a difficult time getting through the book. In addition, the narrator modulated his voice in such a way that if I could hear the beginning of the sentence, I couldn't hear the end! His voice finishes most sentences softly.

Book is excellent ,,, but absolutely worst audio ever as others have mentioned. I believe that the recording/sound engineering is flawed on Part 1: even playing this with extra speakers on my PC, it was still too low to hear unless I held the speaker on my shoulder. The second half was better (does not drop off at the end of the words like the first half does) but still something seriously wrong with the producing or copying of this audiobook. Audible should get their money back and have this re-recorded, and offer a discount to those of us who tried to make sense out of the plot with missed indistinct words in the first half of the book.

Paton Walsh is very true to Sayers voice

I will never listen to anything by this narrator again. First half of book, the last word in every phrase or sentence trailed off to a whisper and was indistinct. In both halves of book, the sound was not loud enough, even with an extra boosted speaker turned "full up"

yes

A real shame this great book was ruined by the sound engineering. I would love to have all Sayers works in audio - but NOT with this narrator/sound quality

No, thought I was getting a Dorothy Sayers, got a wanna-be instead.

Not this author.

Nah

SOOOOOoooooo slow.

I love hearing the different characters. Gives much more of a feel for the story.

Bunter. Always ready.

Ability to do different convincing voices.

No. I was content to listen in stages.

The book was alright but the narration was lousy. The narrator speaks in a breathy tone and whispers all the time. I tried listening twice and gave up within five minutes. It was very frustrating trying to hear what was being read.

No. I have read most books of lord Peter Whimpsy but this is the first time that I got the audiobook.

He whispers a lot of the time or he speaks in a breathy way. Not good at all.