Cast in Dark Waters

By: Ed Gorman, Tom Piccirilli

Narrated by: Leah Frederick

Length: 1 hr and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Her name was Crimson...and she was a legend. A beautiful pirate queen who plundered the 16th Century Caribbean sea by day and confronted voodoo and vampires during the steaming tropical nights.

Cast in Dark Waters is an original dark adventure tale by Ed Gorman and Tom Piccirilli.

This will be a Crossroad Press production.

©2002 Tom Piccirilli and Edward J. Gorman (P)2013 David N. Wilson

A Great Little Paranormal Pirate Adventure Story

This was a great little paranormal pirate story. The lead pirate was a lady named Crimson. That’s right a girl pirate and boy was she tuff! She was paid for a voyage to help a couple find and return their daughter, who they believe is being held against her will on a haunted island. Crimson believes her husband was also lost on or near the island so she is determined to find the island and recover them both.

The life of pirates always makes for a great adventure story and this story hits the mark. At first it was a bit confusing for me, but as the story got going and I got comfortable with the terminology, it really picked up speed. It was a little too short for me and the ending did leave a bit of mystery to continue on to the next story.

Even though this was number 11 in the series, I think they are all stand-alone books and I did feel like you could listen to this book without hearing the previous 10 books.


The Narration Review
This audiobook was narrated by Leah Frederick. She has a clear voice and did well for the different character voices and accents she used in this story.

** Note **
I received this audiobook free from the Audio Jukebox Solid Gold Reviewer Program and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I received no chocolate or any other compensation in exchange for my review.

Cast in Dark Waters

This story was alright. I didn't really get into it until the very end. I was not sure if it was for me to start, but I have been pleasantly surprised by short stories many times so I thought I would give it a shot.

I, Tis A Pirates Tale

Not sure why the reviews are so bad to be honest.
I really don't think it was bad at all. It was an original pirate vs vampire/ghosts/mermaid kind of story. I've heard way worse then this book.

I rather enjoyed the short story & found myself really liking the main character, Crimson ...The female pirate whom can hold her own against man or beast. I loved the old man Welsh too. I was rooting for Crimson to find her hubby & for the rescue of the couple daughter!

I actually hope more stories will get published if they haven't been already (I haven't looked yet) of Crimson & her pirates crew. Maybe looking for more creatures or to put loved ones to rest.
Who knows, but it's a short story & to me it was pretty cool!

The narrator wasn't bad at all either. She did very well with emotion & voice tone & different accents for different characters. By doing so, it made it easy to get attached to different characters. She did make a couple mistakes in word pronunciation, but edits should have caught that...so I don't blame the narrator really.

It's definitely worth a couple bucks & the 2 hours of my time in my opinion.
I can say, it's not a King short story, but it's not a Andrew's (not the passed away one I mean) either!

If you're looking for a huge storyline & such then sure,....it would get a bad review, but honestly what do you expect for a couple dollars or for free? Some ppl are just spoiled brats. Lol

Don't waste your money/credit, buy the novella!

What would have made Cast in Dark Waters better?

A different narrator. Ms. Frederick was horrible. She has a lovely voice but it's very mechanical sounding. Better suited to pre-recorded voicemail messages, or directions, NOT novels.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Cast in Dark Waters?

Knowing early on that I was going to have to force myself to listen to it and hope that the narration improved. It didn't.

Would you be willing to try another one of Leah Frederick’s performances?

NOOOOO!!!! Not unless she's giving directions via Google Maps. Never again!

What character would you cut from Cast in Dark Waters?

The narrator.

Any additional comments?

Where to begin...SO many mispronunciations that half the time I was trying to figure out the real word she was trying to say. The accents were horrible, the story, delivered in a monotone, was maddening.

There were so many mispronunciations (FOILage instead of foliage springs to mind - and I'm pretty sure that the missing woman's name was 'Daphne' not "DAFFNA" ) that it was just a bonus irritant in an otherwise tortuous listen.

Ms. Frederick has a very high, thin, reedy voice, which isn't remotely suited to bringing to life the heroine of this story. The main character is supposed to be a strong, female pirate. You didn't believe for one second that this woman could take care of herself much less be such a rare thing as a female pirate in charge of other male pirates.

Where Crimson was supposed to sound tough, she sounded laughable. The character's introduction via sword fight and what I assume was meant to be witty banter, is down right ridiculous. It's almost as if no one cared who read the story, they just had to meet a deadline. Or that someone owed the narrator a job and was compelled to hire her. Heck, I could have done a better job and I lisp!

I don't buy audio books because I'm too lazy to read the original. In fact, many times I've already read the book first. The reason that I buy the audio version is because I enjoy what a good narrator brings to the story. If this had been a full novel, I would have returned it by the end of the first chapter. The narration is THAT bad. Doesn't anyone preview these things before they press 'publish'?

It's a disservice to both the authors and the customer to put out a product this blatantly inferior. It's a very good story but that's hard to tell by listening to this version. In fact, if I hadn't already been such a big Piccirilli fan in the first place, I probably would have thought the authors were the problem and that would truly have been a shame because I doubt that I would have given another chance to either one of them.

Do yourself a favor and READ it INSTEAD of listening to it. You will be rewarded for your efforts. In the meantime, I'll hope for a better narrator because I'd buy it again just to hear it read properly.