Paper Money

By: Ken Follett

Narrated by: John Standing

Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

On one fateful day in Britain, fortunes change hands as a suicidal Junior Minister, an avaricious tycoon, and a seasoned criminal all play parts in a scheme that moves paper money around at a dizzying pace. Meanwhile, an ambitious young reporter for the Evening Post scrambles to crack the story. This early novel from Ken Follett, the author of On Wings of Eagles and The Key to Rebecca, plunges the reader into the worlds of crime, high finance, and journalism on the way to a masterfully plotted dramatic climax.

©1987 Zachary Stone (P)1987 Dove Audio, Inc.

Never Again

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone with no interest in writing

What could Ken Follett have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

For me, Ken Follett can do no wrong. He is a great writer and his prose should not be edited.

What aspect of John Standing’s performance would you have changed?

Have him read the complete book which apparently is not available unabridged.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Paper Money?

Everything

Any additional comments?

Will try to remember to check and never buy an abridged book again

Over Abridged

There are 3 Ken Follett books that have been in my Audible Wish List since the end of 2012! That’s about 3 ½ years now.

Modigliani Scandal
Paper Money
Jackdaws

I did not buy the books because only the abridged versions were available and I generally don’t care for condensed books, but after three years of waiting, plus a sale, I decided why not! It’s time to plunge.

I just finished Paper Money and I wasn’t able to wrap my head around what was going on; I never quite got the gist of the scheme. Was it difficult because it was abridged? Or was is just me?

Admittedly, I have an attention span problem when it comes to keeping track of lots of different characters, but I felt more lost than usual and I had to refer back to the synopsis on more than one occasion remind myself what the point of the story was. The plot did SEEM interesting, so I think I would have enjoyed the unabridged version.

I’ve had bad luck with abridged novels in the past so I would bet that it was the abridgement giving me problems, but I have to say that this book was not as horribly shredded as The Modigliani Scandal was!!!

Terrible Quality on Audio

I have listened to 2 books available with the "2" audio format.

I didn't care for the format the first time, but was able to hear the audiobook well enough.

Since I am a Ken Follett fan, I tried this one despite the format.

The audio quality was terrible. I would estimate, that I missed about 10% of the spoken words due to poor quality (the cockney accents made it even harder to understand).

As far as the story, it was Follett's poorest effort. The story was not interesting or good.

Stay away from this one, I can't recommend it on any level.

money and men

a book based on what people would do for money. easy to flow with an interesting story line. A good short listen and will listen to again