Read Between the Lies

The John Handful Mysteries, Book 5

By: Andrew Hixson

Narrated by: Gerard Marquez

Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

In a remote town on the Suffolk coast, the local residents are stalked by a brutal killer.

After the sighting of strange lights in the sky, the dismembered, burnt remains of the local RAF base commander are discovered in his car. An autopsy reveals that the victim showed signs of exposure to high radiation levels.

Assistant Chief Constable Angela White enlists the aid of both John Handful and local reporter Yazmin Nash. The level of radiation the killer leaves in its wake should have killed any normal man by now, but the murders continue: the killer appears to be both more and less than human. And then when a leading government minister arrives the pressure is on for Handful to solve the case not only quickly but also quietly, by any means possible.

Until a strange craft is discovered...

Handful then turns from hunter to hunted, where everyone is playing for the highest stakes, and where violence becomes the only solution....

©2018 Andrew Hixson (P)2019 Andrew Hixson

Read between the Lies

This audio book is an interesting and suspenseful addition to the John Handful Mysteries. I am enjoying listening to the available audiobooks.

Book was ok but narration was bad

This book has a good start and I kept interested in it for a while.

All the characters seemed jammed together.

I like action but this was not realistic action.

Simply put the narration should have been checked BEFORE this went out. There is an almost constant sound of metallic clicking and so many double takes I was focused on them more than the book.

Not as good as the other Handful novels

My least favorite in the John Handful series. This tale is to unbelievable and the Audible narration had lots of repeated material. Apparently there was no editing of the audiobook before publishing. That’s a shame because Blindspot was one of my favorite Handful novels.

Decent narrator, very weak story

On the positive side, The narrator did a decent job. He seems, potentially, new to the role but I can give him credit for good pacing and decent voicing. It was surprising, however, that many lines were repeated and the audio editor? failed to remove these restarts. Odd.

During the first half of the story, I felt that the plot lines were weak and the lions share of emphasis was placed on adjective laden descriptions of ... everything. Later I noticed that the science and action sequences were poorly conceived, And that failing catastrophically intensified in the last portion of the book which was silly, incredulous and disappointing. Sorry to be so harsh kind author.

Again, I point to the editor, not for the audiobook, but for the book itself this time. There’s certainly enough here to have made a much better book with a little frank criticism and strong direction during the creative process.

Audio issues.

I enjoyed the story, and the characters were fairly interesting, however there were many times when sentences repeated.

Bad editing

The story was ok, not my favorite out of the series. The narrator repeated lines in many different parts of the book. It would have been way better if it was reviewed before being released.

2.5 stars.

I started this series and the rest of the books were good and getting better. Then this one came along. I wasn’t impressed with the story. Or the audio that kept repeating itself time and time again.

It was like the narrator stopped the tape, and then reread the last line before continuing on with the story but forgetting to edit out the last. It was incredibly frustrating.

A surprising change of pace

As a disclaimer, I was offered a copy of this book for the sake of an honest review.

Read Between the Lies is a different beast from the rest of the John Handful series. Hixson moves away from the classic murder mystery and delves into a more political, and ghastly, kind of suspense.

The result is a good, action-filled investigation that will keep you on your toes.

The narration is, sadly, very uneven. Gerard Marquez has a nice voice. However, I felt that his expression did not always follow the mood of the text, especially in dialogues. Moreover, there are numerous occasions where the narration skips back one line, and repeats passages. Aside from that, it remains very listenable.

Somewhat poor editing

Many lines are repeated with different inflection. I’m not sure if they need someone to listen to it first before selling it, but it was very distracting. The story also was.. hard to follow. The protagonists would be running for their lives one minute, then the next minute they’ll be chatting with a guy and his dog? I don’t know if I missed something in between.

A good story, but...

I wish that I could have given this audio book a higher rating. Andrew Hudson wrote a very good story and Gerard Marquez did a good job with the narration, but the editing was severely lacking. I almost gave up on the book several times due to the same line being repeated over in over. I think that, with a better editir, This would have been a great listen.

I was given this audio book at my request and am voluntarily leaving this review.

☺

I like this audio book i have gave it 5 out of 5 I have all 3 of Andrew Hudson audio books I have there are more to come

Kept Me Guessing!

Read Between the Lies by Andrew Hixson is so well done! I love it when I do not have it figured out and have to keep guessing. The author is greatly talented and writing suspense and mystery. I liked the character of John Handful. I thought the narrator, Gerard Marquez was great bringing the characters to life. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review. I will definitely listen to more books by this author and narrator.

Enjoyable!

This is my second venture into the John Handful universe and the story told here is a great journey into the world of the private investigator and his life.

I really like Andrews writing and he does a great job of writing John into thrilling situations while humanising him and not shying away from his physical and emotional weaknesses with those around him. It’s a very British story with a very British feel and I also appreciate that close to home feeling that shines through Andrews writing.

Overall, Gerard did a good job with the narration. He’s clear speaking, understandable and attempts accents for the characters. The biggest thing I enjoyed about Gerard in this book is that he really conveys emotion in more fragile scenes - which is often neglected in audiobooks. He has a talent of making the characters fragility and distress shine and I really enjoyed listening to that. He has a soft voice which is very easy to listen to as well.

However. In the production of the narration in this one, there are plenty mistakes left in the audio. Repeating sentences, obvious cuts to the audio that are retaken and yet all left in. There’s a couple points where the narrator speaks and corrects himself. It’s quite a jarring listen and those moments which happen often throughout the book, really take you out of John Handfuls world and crashing back to reality.

I also felt that the narrators accent took me out of the story quite a bit as the dialogue parts with English accents really sounded quite off. For having an Australian accent, he is quite neutral sounding but it’s still quite strong and I think that made accents a lot weaker. As well as that, I found that, the narration didn’t sound quite as natural as it could have and I wonder if that was in part from the setting of the book.

Overall, good story, good narration but I didn’t feel that the two were a good match.

Read between the lies

Format: audiobook
Narrator: Gerard Marquez
The narration is a bit stiff and stilted, he mis pronounces Peugeot and repeats words/phrases countless times throughout the story, now, was the audio not checked before it was released? I haven’t read this book so it could be written this way but if it’s been through an editor then I doubt it.
This book has a Good storyline with mystery, intrigue, grisly murders and plenty of tension but unfortunately it doesn’t flow well from this narrator.
4 stars for the story but 3 stars for the narration.

Little green men or a monster

I did enjoy this book but in my opinion this is the weakest in the series, as there was no mystery just lots of deaths, car crashes and running lost in the woods. I liked the character of John Handful and was eager to see who his new contact in the police force was after the death of his friend, so was really surprised to find out he had lost another one in the form of his girlfriend, when is John going to get a break?
John Handful is hired to look into the death of a man who made a discovery on the local air force base. Something went on that night and all the witness have turned up dead. Aided in the investigation by a local reporter, John and Yazmin must survive car crashes and encounters with strange men as well as the airbase personal to get to the bottom of both the deaths and the lights in the sky.
The narrator was okay and did sound pleasant enough but the editing stopped it from getting five stars, as he repeated several sentences throughout at the book
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Story let down by editing and narration

I'm not sure if it was just my downloaded book but both the editing and narration ruined what may have been a good story. The editing is very flawed and often repeats parts of sentences ruinIng the flow of the story. I also found the narration quite poor, I felt the narrator kept changing characters voices/accents, sometimes mid sentences. I tried to persevere but even with only 1hour left I had to give up. This is is a shame as I think the story itself could have been quite enjoyable and intriguing with better editing and narration.

murder mystery

I Enjoyed this audio book.

A great listen. ”

A great series . I would definitely recommend this audio-book .

Fabulous

I Enjoyed this audio book very much
Hopefully they will be more audio books
Must read on your list

Another great listen.

The series continues to improve. It was a good series when it started and it just gets better book by book. I would definitely recommend this audio-book and the John handful series as a whole.