A Clubbable Woman

Dalziel and Pascoe, Book 1

By: Reginald Hill

Narrated by: Brian Glover

Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the first novel in the Dalziel and Pascoe series, which was made into a hugely popular BBC TV serial. Two unorthodox police officers are called to investigate dodgy dealings at Wetherton rugby club after the body of their star player's wife is found dead at home.

©1970 Reginald Hill (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Excellent Beginning to Series

I am always delighted to discover a series that is new to me, which is entertaining, clever and well-written. So I am very pleased to have found the Dalziel and Pascoe series, which begins with "A Clubbable Woman."

First published in 1970, this book establishes the characters of Inspector Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ELL) and Sergeant Pascoe, members of the police in a medium sized town in Yorkshire. They are a fairly new mismatched pair -- the Inspector is a grizzled veteran who is large, messy, ill-mannered and loud, and who scratches a lot. The Sergeant is younger, a University graduate, nice looking and very well-mannered. A fairly large part of the story involves the partners' adjusting to each other. This requires Pascoe to attempt to understand Dalziel - not an easy thing.

The mystery involves the murder of the wife of an old star Rugby player, and the investigation centers around the local Rugby club, the social center for all of the current and former players. The plot is quite involved and the solution was not given away until quite near the end.

The book was quite enjoyable and was made even more so by the excellent narration of Brian Glover. The majority of characters spoke with Yorkshire accents, which Glover handled very well, at least to these American ears. The addition of Irish, Welsh, and Scots characters, as well as University and aristocratic accents were equally well done.

I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys well drafted plots, colorful characters, and very little graphic violence and sex.

Horrible narrator

The narrator was horrible. Once i got accustomed to his accent I still couldn't understand him because he would go from too loud to too soft. I listen while driving and am constantly changing the volume just so I could hear him.

Good Story nearly ruined by Narration

Narrator Brian Glover has got all of the different UK accents down pat. However, his volume range is extreme. So, as I was driving, I was constantly adjusting the volume knob on my sound system. It was terribly frustrating, and there were some segments too quiet to understand, no matter how far up I turned the knob. And, if a loud character chimed in after a quiet character had been speaking, the resultant explosion of LOUD dialog made me jump right out of my seat.

To be fair to him, there is another aspect of this book that makes it tough for audio. The author has written "thoughts" as well as dialog, and these thoughts are frequently and tightly enmeshed with the spoken word. So I often wondered, "Is he saying that out loud? Is he just thinking that?"

All in all, this book should be read.

Author Reginald Hill writes a good story, and I would like to know what his characters do next. This is a series of books following the same policemen on various adventures. It was also made into a British TV series that I have never watched.

Audio Awful!!

Reader alternates between way too loud and way too soft. Had to keep adjusting the volume over and over. So annoying I couldn't even finish the book.

Poor Quality

Difficult to understand; too soft or too loud; accents are not easy to understand; story grinds on and on.

Good story--Reader not so good

The story was interesting but the reader had such a heavy accent that it was difficult to understand. Also he spoke extremely loud at some points and at low whisper at other parts.

I like this series from Reginald Hill

I like this series from Reginald Hill. Unfortunately, while narrator Brian Glover uses a hearty accent, it was difficult to tell the difference between male and female voices and this made it difficult to follow the story. Others in this series, with different narrators, are easier to follow because changes from male to female voices are easier to recognise.

Wonderful narrator

It’s rare to find a narrator with so much feeling. Brian Glover is just perfect for this book. There are some technical issues with the volume. And one chapter, Or at least some pages, are out of order. If you get confused because of this you’ll get caught up eventually.

Maybe if it were young adult

I really wanted to like this series, but “Babe”, it reads like it was written by a 16 year old girl.
...and the tunes - just no.

Technical Glich

Evidently they produced this by ripping off of CD's and got the story out of order. At one point Colin is leaving a club meeting, then we go off on different directions only to get back to him still leaving the meeting sometime latter and you can tell another good portion of the story is out of sync.

Good story, good narrator...but

If you could sum up A Clubbable Woman in three words, what would they be?

great atmospheric tale

What about Brian Glover’s performance did you like?

his thick accent brought Dalziel to life..especially the bits describing his rather unsavoury scratching habits, and the great relish he takes in them!

Any additional comments?

One major fault is the sequence of the book is incorrect - Audible must have transferred from tapes or CD to a single MP3 file, and they have got one of the chapters out of sequence. I was mystified to hear that the boyfriend was back with his girlfriend again, only to hear the scene describing his return narrated about 20 minutes later! FAIL

Couldn't finish it because of narrator

Really poor characterisation. Young student sounds like old lech, dreadful mixture of unrealistic accents. Could not believe this was Brian Glover. Have enjoyed other Reginald Hill recordings - they were humorous and gripping. This lost the humour and the humans were not believable.

Couldn’t finish it thanks to narrator

I love Reginald Hill’s writing and been keen to get into the Dalziel and Pascoe series but the reviews for book 1 put me off. Thought I’d try it but I just can’t cope with the narrator. Absolutely awful. Why does he sound like he has no teeth in? Makes 30 year old characters sound like 90 year olds. Can’t pronounce words such as medicinal. No idea about the storyline because I couldn’t concentrate on it and only got a fifth of the way through. Please re-record this with someone else reading.

Spoiled by the narrator

I have become quite a fan of this pair. I was already a fan of Reginald Hill so I didn’t have far to go. But......... oh woe woe. Whatever it is that Brian Glover does for a living, (actor I believe?), he ought to keep to it and leave narrating alone. There is just too much excellent competition out there.
The story was quite good, not Hill’s best but it was his first Dalziel and Pascoe so he had to be given time to find his pace. But it was irretrievably spoiled for me by the narration and I struggled to get through it.
The major down side is that I think I have another Glover narrated book in my library that I have not yet looked at. Hmmm!

Disappointed

I had listened to The Woodsman an excellent book so thought I would try another by Reginald Hill. I wish I had read the reviews first. 2 chapters in and I’m struggling the narrators accents are strange some loud others soft so you almost can’t hear them. It’s seems rushed reading. Think I will give up and wait for next months credit.

Hard to follow narration

Unfortunately it was very hard to follow the story. The characters and the narration were pretty much delivered in the same way. I had to constantly rewind, as soon as I dared to not pay 100% attention I felt I couldn't follow the script anymore.

Dodgy sound recording

Not only is the story set in the 60’s, but it seems as though this Audible recording was made in the 60’s too !

Disappointment

Poor story line made worse by narrator the supposedly 30 year olds sounded like 80 year olds. Enjoyed the Woodcutter by author definitely wouldn’t recommend this series.

awful narration

really struggled with this book. the narrator is awful, hard to understand and distracted from the story. Wont be listening to any more

Narration terrible

Wish I hadn’t purchased this. The narrator practically whispered some parts of the story then blasted my ears with other parts. Truly awful!