A Staged Death

Brock & Poole Series, Book 2

By: A.G. Barnett

Narrated by: Nigel Patterson

Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

When showbiz gets ugly...

The world of showbiz comes to Bexford when the new series of hit TV show Foul Murder is launched there. Soon, life imitates art as a murder is committed, live on stage.  

Luckily, Detective Sergeant Guy Poole and Detective Inspector Sam Brock are in the audience to take charge of the scene.  

When it becomes clear that one of their own is the prime suspect, they are determined to help prove his innocence, no matter how annoying he is.

©2018 A.G. Barnett (P)2018 Tantor

Wonderful

What a great story! What a wonderful narrator ! Great plot with a twist at the end. Characters that are authenticate with a sense of humor.

Disappointing

I enjoyed Occupied Grave but in this second effort Barnett succumbs to the hapless trivia of the totally cozy.
Most disturbing is the narration. Patterson did a good job with the first book, but he too has redefined himself and not for the better. The reading is high school - well no make that 8th grade. And tends only to make a poor second effort from the author not worth the time or money.

Very good

An improvement from book one. I ended up enjoying this one more that I did book one.

Anticlimactic narration

The plot is interesting. The narrator, however, spoils it most of the time. He sounds flat and, except for a few better moments, appears completely inanimate. As if he were a machine.

British cozy at it's most satisfying

The who is easy to guess, but watching the cops figure it out is fun to read about. I plan on continuing this series.

Not an improvement over the 1st book.

Characterization is weak - particularly for women. You can see plot points coming a mile away. Not very interesting.

Staged to Murder

First time reader of Barnett and Poole's books andI enjoyed it very much. The plot was fresh and gripping. Portrayal of the charecters was in depth and very interesting. The Narrator was entertaining. I look forward to more mysteries by this author.

Nothing special

This is the second of this series that I’ve listened to, and I was hoping it would get better after the first. The characters are so two-dimensional, it’s almost embarrassing to be listening to it. The narrator’s inflections are a bit better than nothing, but still somehow boring. It does pass the time, and the end is a bit interesting.

Batty actors!

England, law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, actors, acting, family-dynamics, friendship, relationships, procedural*****

Another great character driven procedural complete with an embarrassing mum! But it's also a fine procedural trying to do the diligence with a bunch of entitled and batty television actors and a star struck pathologist. Brock and Poole are the best!
Nigel Patterson showcases his talents by differentiating the characters, and his range of accent and tone is really great.

This book is bad for the same reasons the first was good.

It finally managed to become too cozy. There is little creativity. The characters are talking like they belong in a movie from the 70s. They are not speaking like anybody speaks today.