High Treason at the Grand Hotel

A Fiona Figg Mystery, Book 2

By: Kelly Oliver

Narrated by: Nikki Delgado

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Paris, 1917. Never underestimate the power of a good hat...or a sharp hatpin.

Sent by the War Office to follow the notorious Black Panther, file clerk turned secret agent Fiona Figg is under strict orders not to get too close and not to wear any of her usual “get-ups”. But what self-respecting British spy can resist a good disguise?

Within hours of her arrival in Paris, Fiona is up to her fake eyebrows in missing maids, jewel thieves, double agents, and high treason. When Fiona is found dressed as a bellboy holding a bloody paperknife over the body of a dead countess, it’s not just her career that’s on the block.

Her next date might be with Madame Guillotine.

©2021 Kelly Oliver (P)2021 Kelly Oliver

Rough reading/character loses some charm

Honestly the reading is… rough. Plenty of mispronounced words and names that truly make the story distracting. The narrator’s voice isn’t unpleasant, but “assignation” pronounced as “assign-nation” really takes you out of the experience.

The story could also use some work. I can’t get a gauge on the lead and it just seems hastily put together where plenty of opportunities are available to make the story flow.

Hopefully the next is a little more thorough on both counts.

A bit of a struggle

Point 1; the narration was very sub par. The male characters sounded like teenage girls and the female characters sounded like breathless children. Pronunciation was very questionable. In short, the narration was terrible. The story wasn’t bad but didn’t make up for other shortcomings. I won’t be buying anymore of this series.

Story just OK, audiobook narrator catastrophic

The story is simple, characterisation is weak and the shoehorning-in of real-life famous names is irritating. Still, this could have been an easy, enjoyable romp but for the atrocious narrator. No inflection in the voice, no difference between characters and, most annoyingly, so many almost comically mispronounced words and names that I can only assume this was an attempt at producing an audiobook using AI. I was unable to finish it.

This could be great but…..

This teaches me for in buying in haste before reading reviews. Was not expecting an Agatha Christie-level story, but hoped for a nice relaxing listen. But this is just beyond a disappointment.

The book itself is probably fine and even uses reasonably passable English - which the unfortunate narrator cannot seem to manage.
The narration is simply disastrous. The mispronunciation starts as annoying and distracting, but ends up being such a train-wreck it becomes it’s own form of entertainment. I can overlook unfortunate accent work but bless this girl, she bungles some pretty basic words - over and over… and over….again.

One would have hoped that an editor might catch some of the more egregious errors and bail this poor child out. But no. And based on the reviews this complete lack of care extends to several books in the series.

It’s an insult to listeners, the author, and the Queen’s English.

Last chance.

I will be sure to watch for narration by Nikki Delgado. Never hope to be so irritated by poor reading again. Spoiled the story for me.

Insipid and unconvincing

There is a balance between charming naivete and foolhardiness that she gets wrong. Characters are not well developed, especially Fiona. Reader tries but often fails in both pronunciation and consistency of voice for each character.