Dead West

The Nils Shapiro Series, Book 4

By: Matt Goldman

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

In the words of Lee Child on Gone to Dust, “I want more of Nils Shapiro.” New York Times best-selling and Emmy Award-winning author Matt Goldman happily obliges by bringing the Minneapolis private detective back for another thrilling stand-alone adventure in Dead West.

Nils Shapiro accepts what appears to be an easy, lucrative job: find out if Beverly Mayer’s grandson is foolishly throwing away his trust fund in Hollywood, especially now, in the wake of his fiancée’s tragic death. However, that easy job becomes much more complicated once Nils arrives in Los Angeles, a disorienting place where the sunshine hides dark secrets.

Nils quickly suspects that Ebben Mayer’s fiancée was murdered, and that Ebben himself may have been the target. As Nils moves into Ebben’s inner circle, he discovers that everyone in Ebben’s professional life - his agent, manager, a screenwriter, a producer - seems to have dubious motives at best.

With Nils' friend Jameson White, who has come to Los Angeles to deal with demons of his own, acting as Ebben’s bodyguard, Nils sets out to find a killer before it’s too late.

©2020 Matt Goldman (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Not good - Narration is awful

Macleod Andrews was a great narrator and I don’t understand the need to change. The story is average at best. Maybe that’s because Bronson Pinchot reads this one so poorly. He reads the two black characters like it’s Amos & Andy. He reads female characters like they’re all dumb blondes or Jewish caricatures. It’s hard to hear any other character aside from Nils because every character but him speaks in a whisper. He has weird affectations and emphasizes in odd places. It’s just a complete dumpster fire of a story. Hopefully they dump Balki for the next one, because this is ridiculous.

Only MacLeod Andrews Can be Nils Shapiro!

For some reason publishers do not understand how important it is to their customers that the same person narrate all books in a series. It was the combination of Matt Goldman's writing and MacLeod Andrews' performance that made the character Nils Shapiro. Change one (the narrator in this case) and you change the characters. Bronson Pinchot is a good narrator, but only MacLeod Andrews can be Nils Shapiro.

I was excited when I saw this book was going to be released and pre-ordered it far in advance. But I'm going to return it. If they decide to re-record it with MacLeod Andrews I will definitely be back.

bring back MacLeod!

The story didn't disappoint, another phenomenal entry in the Nils Shapiro saga. Unfortunately, the narration was such a jarring departure from the other entries in the series it was extremely distracting. Not only do the characters not sound right without MacLeod Andrews, but the new narrator has very odd pauses and inflection that come across as unnatural. Additionally, his African American voices are borderline racist and the female voices are borderline sexist. If there is another entry in the series without MacLeod, I'll probably just pick up the paperback, as poor narration really takes away from the story.

Horrible narration

Truthfully I couldn’t finish this book. I’ll get it on Kindle and read it. The narration is just terrible. There’s no way to know if it’s a good book because you can’t stand listening to the reader.

Why did you change narrators?

As the other reviewers have alluded to, they made a mistake not bringing MacLeod Andrews back for this one. I was extremely disappointed when I realized there was someone other than him doing the narration. Bronson Pinchot is talented and has a good narrating voice but I don’t think he was the right choice for this. I’ve found myself turning the volume way up to hear what he’s saying. It’s hard listening to the first three with a great narrator and having the fourth be so different. It’s similar to your favorite TV show switching the actor who plays the main character after three seasons. I listened and gave him a chance but MacLeod Andrews made the first three audiobooks worth listening to. It’s definitely not the same without him. I’m not sure why MacLeod Andrews didn’t do this one, maybe it was a scheduling issue, but I hope they rectify this by bringing him back for the next one and re-recording this one. Otherwise, this will probably be the last Nils Shapiro audiobook I purchase.

Awful narrator

sing song emotionless narrator made it too hard to get through. returning! very disappointing

Runt of the Litter

This is the weakest story in the series by a wide margin. Add that to Pinchot's performance and you get a serious slog. I struggled to finish. Maybe it's just that the previous reader's renderings were as close to perfect as you can get and Pinchot only pales by comparison. On the other hand, he portrayed three characters with modified whispers. There was African-American whisper, ethnic Russian whisper and African-American whisper with a stammer. I listened to this while driving and had to keep adjusting the volume up/down to stay with the narrative. Some of his other voices were so affected that it sounded like a goof. He also makes Nils sound like a 60 year old in a cardigan and comfy slippers. All around very disappointing. If Pinchot reads the next book I'll save my credit.

Wtf Narration

As many others have said, the narrator change was a terrible decision that made me regret spending money on this. I won’t be listening to future sequels unless they get this guy off the series.

Disappointed in story, dreadful narration

Others have stated very well the problems with this narration. Sometimes you can ignore that if the story is good. Matt Goldman was an author I would automatically pre order, no longer. The plot, if you can call it that, was all over the place. When I got to the last couple of chapters I just wanted it to be over. Perhaps, McLeod didn't like the story either.

Narrator Change

When I first downloaded the book I thought I had made an error. I went back and listened to the other books I had downloaded by Matt Goldman and realized the narrator had changed. It really took me about halfway through the book to get use to the new narrators voice. Please go back to the original narrator of your books. His voice was great. Overall still a great story.

Just like an Elvis Cole novel

I really could have been listening to a Robert Crais book, characters almost identical
Found the ending quite weak and disappointing, other than that the story was good
A few too many silly voices spoiled the narration but I would listen to another book by the same author

Enjoyed it

A good change to the infallible macho hero with a gun. Enjoyed the varied characters.

Not for me

Gave this up after about 3 chapters, nuff said I think but i have to use 15 words so.....

Loved it!

Funny, clever and I want more of Nils. Highly recommended - go for it, it’s a cracker!

Story is ok, narration is flaky

The story is decent enough but I’m distracted by the voices of some of the characters - like the Addams Family at 3/4 speed.

Boring

Not very interesting. 2 of the characters voices needed the volume turned up. A third characters way of speaking was irritating.
I only finished it to write this review
I recommend you read a different book. I usually enjoy detective type books.

Good story, but

Story is good, performance is good, just a slightly odd and surreal sequence at the end

Loved it!

The story, the main character Nils and his humour, all his family and friends, brilliant!

good job it was free

I think if I had read this book I might have enjoyed it more, but the narration was lacking. The narrator has a nice voice and does male characters quite well, but it was almost like he dropped a tab of acid about 3 chapters in. The Hollywood theme left me a bit cold, and I'm not totally sure why I actually listened to the end!

Good story - bizarre narration

I quite enjoyed the story, the narration was interesting to say the least but I kept going to the end which can’t be that bad as when it’s really bad I give up immediately