Winter’s Gifts

Rivers of London, Book 3

De: Ben Aaronovitch

Narrado por: Penelope Rawlins

The brand new novella in the Sunday Times #1 bestselling Rivers of London series.

THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY ACROSS THE POND . . .

When retired FBI Agent Patrick Henderson calls in an 'X-Ray Sierra India' incident, the operator doesn't understand. He tells them to pass it up the chain till someone does.

That person is FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds. Leaving Quantico for snowbound Northern Wisconsin, she finds that a tornado has flattened half the town—and there's no sign of Henderson.

Things soon go from weird to worse, as neighbors report unsettling sightings, key evidence goes missing, and the snow keeps rising—cutting off the town, with no way in or out . . .

Something terrible is awakening. As the clues lead to the coldest of cold cases—a cursed expedition into the frozen wilderness—Reynolds follows a trail from the start of the American nightmare, to the horror that still lives on today . . .

©2023 Ben Aaronovitch (P)2023 Tantor

A good start to explore other countries mentioned

A good start for stories of this series in other countries. Involving native Americans in North American cultures is an added interest. The only negative was Agent Reynolds Christian ideology and mother. In itself ok but it got old. Hammering that Kimberly is quirky.

Good story.

I'm a fan of the River of London series. This story was good but not a favorite. I had to force myself to finish listening because of the narrator. Her pronunciation of "parka" and "library" were painful. Both words were over used. And the voices she used for the male characters were horrible.

Enjoyable foray into peripheral character

I really enjoy the RoL series and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith has set an amazing example of audiobook narration. So - the story here is great and fun and the narration absolutely does not do it justice.

Sadly, returned Audible book

I love the Rivers of London series, have all of them in both print and audio versions. Sadly, I won't have the full collection as I am returning this audio version of the book, and I'll go get the print version instead. For reference, I live in the Midwest among the founders of the Christian Reformed Church in America, so I do have a decent frame of reference for this character.

Possible Spoilers in review:

Why I am returning this book:
I can't get past the narrator. The voice as a Midwestern woman was mostly fine, but as pointed out by others "parker" for "parka," and not just that but "parrrkerrr." Brits have a problem with the "ah" at the end of American English, and this is supposed to be an American character. It was very distracting. Overenunciating words, and really bad versions of what's supposed to be male voices, including Native American males with unbelievable accents. Her voice for the child was extremely annoying. Unfortunately, the narrator was not up to this particular challenge as a voice actor. Perhaps starting with a woman with a naturally deeper voice would've helped.

I couldn't get into the story because of the narration, but there are a couple of things that Aaronovitch either needs to research more about or stay away from. No FBI agent - or knowledgeable gun owner - in the US is going to put a loaded pistol in a car cup holder. Ever. Please learn about actual gun ownership and handling. Gun owners will normally either have the correct equipment for the car, or they'll carry it. Did appreciate that he got the good brands in like Mossberg shotguns. Women in the Midwest don't wash bras every day. Maybe in Texas in the summer, but not the Midwest in winter. Ludicrous to think that a women would take off absolutely everything including her underwear around men she doesn't know in order to have a guy wash them. It makes the author seem like he knows zero about women. Midwestern Christians would never say "goddamn" no matter what, and she flings these bombs around like it's normal. Lay pastors are never going to suggest taking a woman to show your bigoted mother as a partner, even as a joke. Funny, yes, but the joke ruined the character as somewhat believable. Yes, I do expect somewhat believable main characters in a book where the unbelievable happens. That's what makes them fun.

I couldn't finish the audiobook. Will get the print versions, where I am much more likely to overlook the things that bothered me about the audio version.

Parker

I love this series and the world building, but this book was a struggle. The narration kept pulling me out of the story. I understand mispronounced words happy but like another review said it was almost a comical drinking game. Hold my Parker, I am headed to the liberty.

I am looking forward to getting back to London and Peter Grant.

Mispronunciation made the book difficult to listen to

I love the Rivers of London series, but this book is my least favorite in the series. This story is good but not great. Unfortunately the narration brought it down as well. I found the narrator’s pronunciation of parka as “Parker” really grating and it is said a LOT in the book.

parker?

If the word parka shows up multiple times in the manuscript, please make sure the narrator knows how to pronounce parka.

Seemed minor at first, but then over and over the word parka was mispronounced as parker...

Am I being pranked?

Great!

What a great short story in the ROL universe! I can’t wait until the next book is published!

Read the paperback instead

I'm a fan of the author, and while I'd put this story on the lower end of his output, it's still pretty good. But the narrator, my god. Her accent is all over the place in general, but most of all pronouncing "parka" clearly as "parker" (and it comes up frequently, being set in a Wisconsin winter) is absolutely infuriating, I struggled to listen through to the end

Painfully obvious fake accent

It’s a standard Rivers of London story, and Ben tried his hardest to write an American story, despite missing a few linguistic differences. The narrator, Penelope Rawlins, is clearly British and trying to fake an American accent. At best, she sounds like an odd American but at worst, she cannot for the life of her figure out how and when to pronounce her R’s. The number of times Reynolds puts on her “parker,” or otherwise puts an R sound on a A word is beyond count. Just hire an American to read American stories, and a Brit for primarily British stories.