Ruling Passion

By: Reginald Hill

Narrated by: Brian Glover

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

Peter Pascoe is in shock. A weekend in the country with old friends turns into a nightmare when he finds three of them dead and the missing fourth a prime suspect in the eyes of the local police. They want his cooperation. Superintendent Andy Dalziel wants him back in Yorkshire where a string of unsolved burglaries are turning nasty. But it is all getting too much for Pascoe?

(P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Hill remains one of the finest crime writers of this era." (Booklist)

Good Grief !!

I'm a Reginald Hill fan and especially enjoy Pascoe and Dalziel but holy guacamole !! Brain Glover is not the right narrator!!! This is the second time I've bit on a R. Hill book only to find a poor performance. Note to self: Pay attention to name of narrator!!

Frankly, I don't know if this is a good story or not -- I could barely understand most of it and could feel my ears clamping down the rest of the time.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

narrator disapointing

I love Reginald Hill's novels, and thoroughly enjoyed an earlier audiobook, Deadheads, read by Col in Buchanan. However, Brian Glover, the reader on this and, sad to read, several other Hill audiobooks, in not in the same class. The character voices are inconsistent, he seems to be almost screaming in many parts, and his accent is hard to understand. I'd give this a two, except that Hill's writing almost overcomes the defects caused by the reader.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

reader ruins the book

The reader takes what may have been a good story and ruins it. His reading is uneven in volume and pace and even is monotone at times. He hurries along as if he is going to be paid a bonus if he finishes the book more quickly. His interpretation of voices is so vague that you cannot easily tell who is who. Dalziel, with his frequently mentioned size, has a high-pitched voice that rightly belongs to a smaller person. All of this makes finishing this book a matter of endurance, which is a shame. I like the series.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

good early story

Before Pascoe marries, Ellie clashes with Dalziel, who, in classic Dalziel fashion, wants them to get married. This is the side plot to a good murder story involving old friends (of Peter and Ellie), found murdered in a country cottage. The battle in the antique store is a memorable Dalziel escapade.

I agree that the narrator (Brian Glover) is not as good as Colin Buchanan. Glover's voice for Wield is weak. But he's not terrible; I've listened to this audiobook several ties.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Story - but awful narration

What didn’t you like about Brian Glover’s performance?

He's a very monotone reader, and whilst undoubtedly a fine actor, this is not his forte

Any additional comments?

Thankfull the story is up to Mr Hills usual quality, but I won't be getting anymore narrated by Mr Glover

Performance Undermines story

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

A huge Reginald Hill fan, I have books, DVDs, tapes and audiobooks for most of Hill's titles and all Dalziel & Pascoe series. Brian Glover's gutteral delivery on Ruling Passion, apt for Dalziel, grates for the other characters. Too bad. Also, supposed to be unabridged, some dialogue appears to be missing.

Oh, well, it's still a treat. Story is intriguing enough to hold interest.

Ajones
Toronto, Canada

How could the performance have been better?

A different actor.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Pretty long for one sitting, unless one is an invalid and in bed all day. It takes some concentration, and will hold up over a few days or more.

Half-hearted narration spoils a good story...

"Ruling Passion" is well-written and intriguing enough that it captured me from the start, and I wanted to find out how it ended...but the narration was so sloppy that it was a real struggle to stay with it (though I finally did manage to finish). I can tell the narrator is capable of better. Was he unprepared? Bored? Distracted? His reading was halting, and his odd phrasing often obscured the intended meaning of sentences. What a shame. The book deserved a better performance.

Awful narrator

He speaks incredibly rapidly and in a near monotone. It's like listening to a nervous graduation speaker, this one with a British accent.

Great Story - Poor Audio

I'm a big Reginald Hill fan, and enjoyed the writing and storyline as usual, but the poor quality of the narration and audio overall really gets in the way of this one. It sounds like a very old recording has been tranferred to digital format, and suffered a great deal in the process.

Really good story, really bad audio

I've recently discovered the Dalziel & Pascoe series, and was at first excited to find so many of the novels on Audible. Unfortunately, the older ones from the BBC (of which I've heard 2 so far) have AWFUL sound quality. Overall, the audio is muffled, but there are also bursts of background noise, and several dramatic changes of speed & pitch. In addition, while I enjoyed the narrator's accent, he inexplicably chose to use a high-pitched nasal whine for Dalziel, and his method for adding drama to a passage is to ascend into a near-shriek. I enjoyed the story nonetheless, but very much in spite of the narrator and the audio. I hope the author can get the audio rights to his earlier novels back and have them re-recorded -- preferably read by Shaun Dooley!

Hard work to listen to

The book is up to the usual Dalziel & Pascoe standard but, although Brian Glover's Yorkshire accent is more accurate for Andy Dalziel than Warren Clarke's Lancastrian accent we're used to on TV, it does make it a harder listen than other D&P books read by Colin Buchanan.
Brian Glover reads as if he's got his finger under the words whilst Colin Buchanan's narration flows more naturally with more light and shade in the voices as well.
It's a shame, but because of the narrator, it's hard work to listen to.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Wrong reader

I am a Reginald Hill fan and was held by the story which had all the usual unexpected twists that result in a page turner. However, the reader (Brian Glover) lacked the chameleon quality that would have allowed listeners to bypass him, as if they were listening to the actual characters, and lose themselves in the story - his Yorkshire accent is pervasive and, as much of the action is around Oxfordshire, obtrusive.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Disappointing

I love Reginald Hill, but I couldn't follow this narration. Brian Glover's sing-song delivery is distracting and at times almost unintelligible and the story is too complex to fully appreciate unless you're really concentrating on it. Better to read the book in my opinion.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Sorry but narrator impossible to listen to

Would you try another book written by Reginald Hill or narrated by Brian Glover?

I am a huge fan of the (audio books) by Reginald Hill, however I could not recommend Mr. Glover as narrator.

Would you be willing to try another one of Brian Glover’s performances?

absolutely not - apologies. Tastes differ but I simply could not get over the first 15 minutes, the almost bored but nasal voice, sounding very weary, and mumbling to some degree.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good story, bad narration

If you could sum up Ruling Passion in three words, what would they be?

Good well written book

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ruling Passion?

The story.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Brian Glover?

I could almost write anybody, Brian Glover shouts all the way through the book It is giving me ear ache.
Colin Buchanan is the best narrator of the Dalziel and Pascoe books. I think that maybe he came after Brian Glover, but I can't remember.

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

Don't know. Not really my field

Any additional comments?

I am just so glad that Reginald Hill was such a prolific writer. I have read/heard most of his books and I often go back to them, apart from the Brian Glover ones.

Disappointing

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

I could bare Brian Glover's laboured narrating, I will stick to Colin Buchanan in the future.