Todo Belascoarán

By: Paco Ignacio Taibo II

Narrated by: Jorge Lillo

Length: 30 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Algo podrido se respira en la ciudad de México: la corrupción y la muerte andan sueltas y Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, ingeniero auto jubilado y reconvertido en un singular detective independiente, se lanza a resolver los casos más variados y plagados de personajes singulares. Una actriz que desaparece en la frontera norte; policías, gangstercillos y una banda de asaltabancos pelean por hincarle el diente a una fortuna de dinero negro, caída accidentalmente en manos de una joven viuda; un dirigente magisterial es acusado del asesinato de un personaje que ha sido visto emborrachándose con policías y caciques; un estrangulador serial de mujeres que firma sus crímenes como Cerebro; la muerte de un viejo campeón de la lucha libre, el rescate del pectoral de Moctezuma robado por la ex amante ranchera de un ex presidente, y otras historias donde se entremezclan el suspenso y el humor. Una forma de ver y entender a la ciudad más grande del mundo y probablemente una de las más corruptas. Todo Belascoarán está conformado por Días de combate, Cosa fácil, Algunas nubes, No habrá final feliz, Regreso a la misma ciudad y bajo la lluvia, Amorosos fantasmas, Sueños de frontera, Desvanecidos difuntos y Adiós, Madrid; un homenaje que reúne las historias del detective más conocido de la narrativa policiaca mexicana.

Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.

©2010, Paco Ignacio Taibo II; 2010, Editorial Planeta Mexicana, S.A. de C.V. (P)2015 Audible Studios y Planeta Audio

Good stories, bad reading.

Stories are good. They follow detective Belascoarán and his misfortunes throughout Mexico (and a few other places). Easy to follow and entertaining.
Now, the performance. It’s not good. If you don’t know how to pronounce certain words or are unsure, you should ask a person who knows. You can tell right away that the person reason is trying to sound Mexican but he is clearly not, the accent sounds fake, more so when trying to pronounce names of cities and people, and even worse when it comes to indigenous words.
It was quite distracting, it took away from the stories. There’s a couple of stories where they mention Oaxaca and he can’t even say that correctly, there’s another story that happens in Mexicali and he says the name wrong throughout the whole book.
Another thing that stood out for me was the fact that he pronounces the caliber of the guns as “point 45” instead of just “45” like most people referring to guns.
I found myself trying to catch errors and getting frustrated by the reading.

A very human detective

It is a entertained set of stories lived and played by a very human detective who end up wounded and afraid of death.
The language is full Mexican style and the narrative is always focused on the man behind the role who feels and suffer every situation.

Highly recommendable to enjoy good stories of Mexican people in Mexican situations.

Por fin en audiolibros

Would you consider the audio edition of Todo Belascoarán to be better than the print version?

⁄Claro porque me están leyendo mientras manejo!

What did you like best about this story?

Son nueve las novelas y todas divertidas.

What about Jorge Lillo’s performance did you like?

Buena la interpretación, pero qué pena que Oaxaca se confunde en su lectura con la ciudad japonesa de Osaka y otra desconocida de Wasaca. ¿Cómo es posible que no se le informara al narrador la pronuncia correcta de una ciudad que todos los mexicanos saben pronunciar?

Very bad pronunciation

The pronunciation is very bad. One simple example: the Mexican state of Oaxaca, here is pronounced as “Oxaka”, unbelievable. Other than that, the stories are very good.

La historia es excelente, la ejecución de la narración es buena.

Tiene importantes fallas en la pronunciación de palabras como Oaxaca, Mexicali y otras. En un par de ocasiones la narración repite oraciones, lo que delata fallas en la edición. A pesar de ello, el audiolibro aún es disfrutable. Recomiendo ampliamente la historia.

Enjoyable novels.

Great stories. Read with a splendid rythm.I would say almost perfect. There are several words that are not well pronounced, almost all those written with an X like Oaxaca, I suppose Lillio is not mexican. I had a lot of fun. The novels have a brilliant development. I think the endings are very weak practically in all of them.

No es mi taza de té.

These book collection will certainly attract young listeners who are interested in knowing what the fuss is all about. Nonetheless, the main character is inconsistent, sometimes boring and definitively not interesting. This of course has a lot to say about the writer itself. He comes through the language and the writing as a limited creator of thrillers. He gets Horacio Belascuaran into some pretty though situations and at the end he solves the crime through easy plot solutions that seem to come out of nowhere. He is not a good writer and therefore Horacio is not a good detective. A shame.

Terrenal súper héroe muy mexicano

No es fuerte, no pelea muy bien, es más no dispara muy bien pero su necedad y persistencia lo hacen resolver los casos más enredados, en verdad terminas amando a este buen detective.

lectura deficiente, demasiada descripción

se pierde el hilo de la trama entre demasiados eventos secundarios y descripciones superfluas. No lo recomiendo.

Very bad experience with the audiobook.

The story is fine, entertaining, well set, nothing too far out there, but it is enjoyable reading the good Hector Belascoaran in his misadventures.
On the other hand, listening to this audiobook had many ups and downs, the stories are of a Mexican character, set in Mexico in the 70's and 80's, written by a gentleman who is also Mexican, but they decided to have it recorded by someone who not only is not Mexican, but they didn't even bother, neither the gentleman in question nor the production, to research the pronunciation of regionalisms or proper names, and you have the gentleman saying "Oczaca" every time "Oaxaca" appears, "Meczicali" instead of "Mexicali".
Particularly, Sueños de frontera not only has these pronunciation details, but it has bad cuts and constantly repeats the same phrases where the wrong cut was made.