Dead in the Water

A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery, Book 6

By: Carola Dunn

Narrated by: Mia Chiaromonte

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

May the best man die!

In July of 1923, the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple travels to Henley-on-Thames to visit her aunt and uncle, as well as to work on her latest writing assignment: covering the Henley Royal Regatta for an American magazine.

Daisy plans a simple trip researching her article, enjoying the races, and, come the weekend, having a pleasant time with her fiancé, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard. But the tensions between the Ambrose team's coxswain, Horace Bott - a shopkeeper's son and scholarship student at Oxford - and rower Basil DeLancey - the younger son of an earl and all-around bounder - are constantly threatening to erupt into violence.

The day after losing a race thanks to Bott's overindulgence the night before, DeLancey keels over and dies mid-race. Foul play is immediately suspected, with Bott the logical suspect. But nothing is obvious in this tangled web of jealousies and secrets, and while Inspector Fletcher investigates the murder, Daisy once again must ferret out the truth.

©2011 Carola Dunn (P)2014 Blackstone Audio

Good story, terrible narrator

I am a longtime fan of Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple books, but this performance was horrible. It is extremely distracting, and insulting, to have a narrator use a fake English accent (and badly); if you don't have an English narrator, just get a good narrator to speak normally! Not only was the accent totally wrong, so were the characterizations of various characters, especially of Alec, who comes across as a real jerk (which he is not). Also, the narrator mispronounced numerous placenames (Gloucester, Berkshire), as well as ordinary English-language words ("pique" does not have two syllables). I hope this narrator will not be doing the remainder of the Daisy Dalrymple books.

Narrator doesn't know how to pronounce the words!

Where does Dead in the Water rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The story is fun but the reading is not, so it ranks near the bottom.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Sort of. It's a cozy mystery, so it's not meant to be thrilling, I think.

Would you be willing to try another one of Mia Chiaromonte’s performances?

No. This is the second reading in this series by Mia Chiaromonte, and she mispronounces words all over the place. As I've said in past reviews, specifically about Mary Sarah Agliotta, when I pay for an audiobook, I expect the reader to know how to pronounce the words. Mia Chiaromonte thinks a "fit of pique" is a "fit of pickay." And that's just one instance. It's annoying enough to make me stop listening to this series, even though the stories are fun.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It pissed me off, because, as stated above, the reader didn't bother to check the pronounciation of the words before she did the reading, and the producer didn't do anything about it.

Does the production team ever read the reviews-Narrator Complaint-AGAIN

The only mystery here is how the narrator survives! As a professional she must be burned by the stream of complaints of her DREADFUL narration, yet as a professional she should be inspired to improve, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t take care to do her research, she doesn’t take care to work on her accents , so why should I take care to pay to listen to her spoiling the authors work. It is her tool of trade. A second question is. How on earth the production team or stakeholders involved do not take note and respond? it’s as if they don’t take care to listen to their customers. If me or my staff didn’t listen to our customers we could not feed our families. I wish to be charitable but I cannot. This is the 3rd book in the series the narrator has mangled, each ‘performance’ is simply appalling. She spoils the experience.

Change the Narrator!!!

The narrator is bad, so it's hard to know if that will stop you buying the book or not. I like Daisy, so I'm willing to put up with Mia Chiaromonte, but wow, it's a lot to put up with. She is terrible with accents, mispronounces words, and puts the emphasis on the wrong word. For example, the, "what?" at the end of the sentence completely flummoxes her. It's really too bad because the narrator for the first few books in the series was good. If you can overlook the pretty bad narration, then go for it. The book is good.

Great story terrible narrator

As always with the Daisy Dalrymple stories the story is well plotted and the main characters particularly Daisy and Fletcher are likable. I would recommend any of the books in this series. The problem with the audio book lies with the choice of narrator who tries and fails miserably to do British accents. She does not seem to have bothered to try to look up the correct pronunciation of British place names and every time she mangled Gloucester (it should be pronounced Gloster not Glowcester) it grated - this is just one example among among many many others - there seems to be a mistake almost every time she tries to do a upper class accent. If I had not been on a long drive I would have stopped listening and bought a copy of the paperback!

love this series!

I have to admit I am fairly addicted to this series of books. Daisy Dalrymple is just Spiffing!!

anorher fun entry in the series

if you have read this many books into the series you know what you are getting: alec bemused by daisy getting into a case, alec sensibly untangling the case, daisy using common sense and sensibility to help. It is another light hearted adventure of murder.

I liked the setting, I enjoyed the new characters i. daisy's family, and it was an enjoyable mystery.

as always a nice voice acting performance and a good time from the reader.

Farewell Daisy

What was most disappointing about Carola Dunn’s story?

Each story in this series has edged downward and I'm finally done. Both the plot and the narration have done it in for me. In cozy mysteries, I'm not looking for great literature, only for something to keep my mind off how much I hate exercising, but this series has reached the point where I want to pitch myself off the back of the treadmill just to end the misery.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Mia Chiaromonte?

I wish they hadn't changed the narrator from the first couple of books. Mia Chiaromonte should be banned from doing accents, or narrating books set outside the U.S.

Best one yet!

I have enjoyed this series, and think this is the best one yet! It’s easy listening, and you can zone out from time to time without losing the storyline. It’s not mind blowing literature, but it is something to pass the time on a road trip for sure. I know there have been complaints about the mispronunciation of English words, but as an American, besides the Gloucester gaff, it’s not noticeable. Sorry Brits, I know it’s aggravating to you. I think Mia does a stand up job. Her American accents actually sound silly to me. Odd.
I love the old British slang, and think the story is just spiffing, what!

enjoyed

Always enjoy these interesting and clever murder mysteries. The story was fun to see unfold.

Awful narration

This story is completely ruined by the awful narration. Not only is the voice annoying, because of the accent, but there is little distinction between characters. Worse still is the appalling pronunciation. If someone can’t pronounce Gloucestershire they have no place reading an audio book. Audible need to listen to these books before they put them out for customers to pay good money for. Obviously their quality control is nonexistent.

Narrator is awful

The narrator really needs to learn how to pronounce British place names, events etc as the way she mangled them is atrocious. Do a little research, it’s not difficult

Dreadful Narrator

The story itself lived up to Daisy Dalrymple standards but the narrator was a bad choice. She was appalling! She just about got the English accent right, when it didn’t drift into Australian or back to her native American. The big problem was her legion of mispronunciations - not just place names which sometimes even puzzle we Brits. Most frustratingly she’d pronounce a word correctly in one sentence, then mispronounce it further on. It spoiled my enjoyment of the book. Such a shame, though probably not noticeable by anyone other than someone for whom British English is their first language.;

Teeth grindingly awful narration

I quite like the lightweight Daisy Dalrymple stories but this one takes the biscuit for the most awful English narration. It sounds like someone who usually uses American English putting on a British English accent, but that is not the real issue. I can understand why in a story about Henley and rowing that Remenham could be mispronounced by those not familiar with the major sporting event held there, but Gloucester, regatta and plebeian also all get murdered at least once before the first body is found. And if anyone from the publishers is reading this the position in a boat called bow rhymes with how not hoe.

Classic whodunnit with annoying narrator

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The story is a classic whodunnit, I enjoyed the story in itself.
But the narrator is extremely annoying. She sounds like a southern belle trying her hand at posh english... it's pronounced "Buckinghamsher" and "Glostur" - not "Buckinghamshayer" and "Glouwstehr"... argh
:-D

Who was your favorite character and why?

I rather like Daisy, I think I'd inviter her to tea, if she existed :-)

Would you be willing to try another one of Mia Chiaromonte’s performances?

no... I think I'll read another Daisy Dalrymple myself...

Good story, awful narrator

The producer shares some blame for the awful narration. A little research on the correct pronunciation would have been beneficial. Intermittent success by an American narrator attempting an English accent, slipping into other indistinguishable accents mid sentence. Voices assigned to characters were inconsistent and often bizarre. Frequent mispronunciation of not uncommon words was very distracting. The story itself is lightweight but engaging.

Great story ruined by narrator

Great story as ever, and equally as ever it’s ruined by the appalling narrator’s pronunciation. There’s NO excuse, the narrator clearly just didn’t bother to do even the most basic research into how British people talk!!!

Strange pronunciation

Story was ok, but performance was spoilt but the pronunciation of certain words, especially of the English counties. Quite puts one off.

appalling pronunciation

This is the worst narration yet. American trying to sound English and not succeeding. Accent terrible. Some words incomprehensible. Dook of Glowster worst but LOADS more.

Opportunity missed?

Thoroughly enjoyable, really enjoying this series.

However I do feel like the author missed an opportunity in this book to capitalize on the different ways in which people cope or don't cope with the horrors of war. She touched on it a number of times and there was an opportunity for the two lead characters to have a good conversation about it, but it seems that when things got too sticky she veered away.