To the Top of the Mountain

De: Arne Dahl

Narrado por: David Thorpe

After the disastrous end to their last case, the Intercrime team – a specialist unit created to investigate violent, international crime – has been disbanded, their leader forced into early retirement.

The six officers have been scattered throughout the country. Detectives Paul Hjelm and Kerstin Holm are investigating the senseless murder of a young football supporter in a pub in Stockholm, Arto Söderstedt and Viggo Norlander are working on mundane cases, Gunnar Nyberg is tackling child pornography while Jorge Chavez is immersed in research.

But when a man is blown up in a high-security prison, a major drugs baron comes under attack and a massacre takes place in a dark suburb, the Intercrime team are urgently reconvened.

There is something dangerous approaching Sweden, and they are the only people who can do anything to stop it.

©2000 Arne Dahl (P)2014 Isis Publishing Ltd, Random House Audiobooks 2014

Ruined by the Reader

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book is a good read. It's a great addition to the Dahl cannon. The return of the characters from previous work is effortless.

What was one of the most memorable moments of To the Top of the Mountain?

No, I can't say there was one. I liked the book's momentum, sense of place and character.

How could the performance have been better?

A different reader. One who understands when less is more. Some awful voices, completely at odds with the book (as I read it, and i *have* read it) it's place, pace and characters. If I encounter this reader again, I won't but the book to listen to.

Do you think To the Top of the Mountain needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I would like to see the team working again as a team or as individuals or paired. I think they're fully formed and tractable as characters that they could carry stories in their own right.

Any additional comments?

Never employ the reader again.

If only...

The book is probably great and I look forward to reading it, as I now must because the narration was, hands down, the very worst I have ever encountered in an audio book, hopelessly muddling everything from story line to character voice to mood - literally everything. I’m confident that Mr. Thorpe has many talents but they are not evident in this rendering.

What a disappointment!

After John Lee's masterful narration of the first two books in this series, with his subtle but clear differentiation of the characters' voices and personalities, I couldn't finish this. What a disappointment! I found this performance confusing and hard to follow -- and not worth the effort.

Very disappointed!

Any additional comments?

This is the 3rd book in the series. Enjoyed the first 2. Perhaps the reader of those 2 also didn't like this book. In any case, different reader who was not able to catch the needed tone for this author. In other words, much weaker book with a much less appropriate reader.