When Will There Be Good News?

A Novel

By: Kate Atkinson

Narrated by: Ellen Archer

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

On a hot summer day, Joanna Mason's family slowly wanders home along a country lane. A moment later, Joanna's life is changed forever.

On a dark night 30 years later, ex-detective Jackson Brodie finds himself on a train that is both crowded and late. Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly hears a shocking sound.

At the end of a long day, 16-year-old Reggie is looking forward to watching a little TV. Then a terrifying noise shatters her peaceful evening. Luckily, Reggie makes it a point to be prepared for an emergency.

These three lives come together in unexpected and deeply thrilling ways in the latest novel from Kate Atkinson, the critically acclaimed author who Harlan Coben calls "an absolute must-read".

©2008 Kate Atkinson (P)2008 Hachette Audio

What a wonderful combination of story and reader!

What about Ellen Archer’s performance did you like?

She has a wonderful voice and seemed to nail each character with regional variations and tone.

Any additional comments?

I didn't expect to enjoy this audio book as much as I did. We've been watching the series "Case Histories" on PBS and enjoyed that, but the audio book is much better! Ellen Archer's reading is just delightful, she brings the characters to life. I think seeing the series actually helped; the characters were well cast and meshed with the reading but the increased depth and the changes from the books to the series kept things fresh.

Accent was too irritating

What did you like best about When Will There Be Good News?? What did you like least?

Great story, but horrible English accent that I could barely stand

What didn’t you like about Ellen Archer’s performance?

Her English accent was not good - lots of weird vowels and mispronunciations that were very irritating

DirkGently'sDetectiveAgencyGrittyVersionButBetter

It's been 30 years since I first read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", but it stuck in my psyche for all those years. This series feels like an updated, fully-inflated, "holisticly" conceptualized reimagining of that. However, I do the author a disservice in saying it's like someone else's work. This is a story of coincidence and perseverance.

I first became aware with Kate Atkinson's work through "Left Early, Took My Dog" as a Daily Deal promotion--liked the title. I found myself making excuses to leave a social situations I really should have stuck with to see what happened next to our protagonists. LE,TMD was hard. I try to stay away from detective novels that involve the persecution of women, but, stuck it out for the sake of the story and the characters. This story is wildly circuitous, the characters are fully developed and compelling. Here, there is justice occasionally in all of the many injustices... so many injustices. There is something "holisitc". I am eager to read more. I'm glad there is more.

Disappointing narration

I love love Kate Atkinson novels - and that’s why I listened to all of this one - but the narration almost made me quit on several occasions! Most of the time, she seemed to read in a “normal” voice - but it varied. I don’t know where this narrator originated - but her supposed Scots and Irish accents were appalling and there were even some English words that made me suspect she wasn’t British. I’d rather have listened to the book spoken with “normal” US accents than the phony nonsense accents used here. I know it’s easy to be a critic - but surely there are voice actors of a higher caliber for novels this good!

Godawful accents

When a book is set predominantly in Scotland, it is vital that the narrator can sustain a Scottish accent for significant lengths of time - potentially while shifting to other dialects in the UK, like England or Ireland. By the end of this book, it was like being at a party of university drama students drunkenly having a tea party (having been one of those students I have first-hand knowledge of what it sounds like - it ain't pretty).

Unusual and Distracting Accent

I’m originally from the UK, and as all Kate Atkinson’s novels from this series are set there, it makes sense for narrator to have a British accent of some kind. The story, as usual, is fantastic - but the put-on British accent of the narrator is not good at all. Vowel sounds are completely wrong, and I know no one from back home that talks like that. When I looked up the Narrator online, it turns out she’s American - no surprise to anyone, but makes me wonder why an English voice actor wasn’t hired instead.

Irritating Accents

An excellent story - well worth the READ!! I'm a Brit and unfortunately Ellen Archer is hopelessly at sea with her accents. So much so that it really did spoil my enjoyment. She sounds like that really annoying (male) mid atlantic food critic who's name escapes me. Interestingly, Audible.co.uk has a brit male narrator and it sounds so much better so why on earth doesn't Audible, in all its shapes and forms get some sort of consistency in such matters

Wonderful story, cringe worthy accents

If you could sum up When Will There Be Good News? in three words, what would they be?

The story is excellent, insightful sharp writing. The narrators accents are cringe worthy. Too bad!

April 2020

Hilarious, but riveting - as always. Have enjoyed the entire series, and her other books as well. Thank you.

Great story. Narrator can't fake UK accents

Kate Atkinson delivers entertainment satisfaction on so many levels and through so many byways - my delight in the story would have been complete except for the execrable fake/thrown in a blender and delivered at random UK accents of the otherwise pleasant narration.

Couldn't they find an actual British person for whom at least one of the accents was natively theirs?

However, it looks like lots of listeners aren't attuned to the many nuances of British accents. If you are in that category I can recommend this book without reservation.