Office of the Dead

By: Andrew Taylor

Narrated by: June Barrie

Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

Living in the British city of Rosington of the 1950s, Wendy finds herself penniless, jobless, and on the verge of divorce. She goes to stay with her friend, who seems to have everything Wendy lacks. But a decades-old mystery lingers, and the shadow of death seeps through from turn-of-the-century Rosington, portending tragedy.

©2001 Andrew Taylor (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Maiden ladies who would make Miss Marple smile and villains as vile as Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter populate this witty, urbane but dark third volume in Taylor's Roth Trilogy." (Publishers Weekly)

Pulled me in and kept surprising me

Office of the Dead is not your typical mystery. The story builds slowly and keeps both the narrator and the reader wondering what is coming next. This is first person point-of-view done as it should be. Our narrator, Wendy, reveals enough about herself to become a well-rounded, sympathetic character. Her observations of Roth, the college, and characters around her draw in the reader. The book is full of interesting and sometimes creepy secondary characters.

While this story stands on its own, I discovered after finishing that it was actually the third book in a trilogy. The trilogy steps backward in time with each volume, which explains one of the issues I had with the story. There are hints of future happenings that are not explained. If the books were read in order, the reader would understand the references.

June Barrie was the perfect narrator for this volume.

Slowly a mystery emerges

This is the first part of a trilogy of books that starts in the 1950s. The early part of the book moves slowly as the characters are introduced and fleshed out and one might think it was going to be a simple family saga. However, after a while a mystery, with its origins in the pre-War period, emerges and one realizes that the story is much more complex and gripping. The structure of the book suits being an audio version as the story is largely told chronologically by a first person narrator remembering the past. It is excellently read by June Barry. I shall certainly listen to the next two parts.

QUALITY FIFTIES NOSTALGIA & MYSTERY

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The author Andrew Taylor is in his mid sixties, which is why he understands perfectly the era of the fifties. I am the same age and can appreciate his novel which is superbly written. The narrator June Barrie was perfect. I was transported. Not sure if today's younger reader will appreciate this. But I do.

What other book might you compare Office of the Dead to, and why?

There are too many wonderful novels. I am about to read the next book the Judgement of Strangers, which is the middle novel of the Roth trilogy. It sounds very promising.

Have you listened to any of June Barrie’s other performances? How does this one compare?

She's not a prolific narrator, but I'm hugely impressed with this reading. I'm staying in rural China where there are no westerners, and it gave me hours of joy to be reminded of England and the spoken word.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

This has been made into a television series. In my opinion, Audible should rethink this rather meaningless question and delete it.

Any additional comments?

This is my second review in three years of listening, and only because I think the author and narrator deserves the praise, as they have given me so much pleasure. And I hope it gains a wider audience.

Brilliant!

I really enjoyed Office of the Dead. It is well-written, intriguing and has a great plot. I would recommend the whole trilogy to friends. I am looking forward to the next one!

A story devoid of tension, pace or narrative drive

Confusingly, this is either the first book in a trilogy or the last, depending on whose comments you read.

If it were the last then perhaps the purpose of this book is for answers to the mysteries in the previous books to drop into place. Perhaps those reading it as the third book in the trilogy are constantly emitting sighs of satisfaction as they say to themselves "Ah, that's the reason why that other thing happened in book 1 or 2".

I read it first and found it extremely slow and lacking any tension or narrative drive. For the first 80% of the book, nothing really happens. The narrator stumbles across a couple of unexplained facts, but so what? The narrator is a dispassionate observer with no skin in the game and the author gives us no real mystery to drive the story forward.

As a standalone book, this doesn't work. Perhaps it does in the context of the trilogy.

The narration is excellently and convincingly done.