The Birthday Girl

By: Stephen Leather

Narrated by: Martyn Read

Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Tony Freeman rescued Mersiha when she was fighting for her life in war-torn Yugoslavia. Now she is his adopted daughter, the perfect all-American girl - and the past is another country. Or so it seems. But Mersiha has been trained to kill. And when she discovers that Freeman’s company is subject to a sinister takeover bid, she decides to help. Whatever the risks. The consequences of her actions are lethal - for Mersiha has unearthed a conspiracy of terrifying proportions.…

©1995 Stephen Leather (P)2007 Isis Publishing Ltd

Good Story, Poor Narration

What made the experience of listening to The Birthday Girl the most enjoyable?

Good story line, pace kept moving along, believable characters.

What did you like best about this story?

The building up to Mersia ( the main character in the story) telling about her past.

How could the performance have been better?

The Narrator tried to put on voices for the characters and failed miserably. He clearly has no idea what a 15 year old girls sounds like and the italian and russian accents he attempts are just awful and seem to fade out within the same sentence.

Any additional comments?

If you can put up with the Narrator, this is a good story.

Shockingly bad

I tried twice to listen to this but gave up both times. The story is one of those where the characters are always lighting and putting out cigarettes every thirty seconds because the writer can't think of anything else for them to do - never a good sign. Everything about it comes across as implausible and the narrator's accents are dreadful. In short, it's completely unlistenable and you should give it a miss if you have any taste whatsoever.

That said, maybe it gets better after the first half hour. ;^)

Unusual story line

An unusual story line. Fairly fast paced and quite exciting. The ending I found a little implausible

Just couldn't listen to the narrator any longer

I listen to audible books every day and of course I have my favourite narrators...doesn't everyone? Occasionally I decide, having listened to the sample, that a new narrator is worth a try...sometimes I come across a real gem...but not with Martyn Read I'm afraid. Very shortly into the story I found his "female" voice so irritating I had to delete the book! Happily, the other Stephen Leather book I have is read by Sean Barrett so I will listen to that instead. :-)

A riveting listen

What did you like most about The Birthday Girl?

The excitement and anticipation of wondering what was going to happen next.

What did you like best about this story?

The contrast between the current life of a normal US teenager and the violent past she experienced.

What about Martyn Read’s performance did you like?

All of it, the gentle Scottish accent and the way he could differentiate between the different characters, including a teenage girl.

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

No, too long for that. Daily instalments were fine.

Any additional comments?

I like Stephen Leather as an author and this was the first one of his books I listened to as an audible book. I really enjoyed it.

TawdryI did not enjoy this book at all.

Not 1 ot the characters to me seemed real or plausible. The story was that of a bad soap opera. I never ever give up on a book , but this 1 I kept looking at the timer to see how long I'd got before it came to an end.

Terrible Narration

Really difficult to listen to as the narration was so bad. Whiney childlike voices for the 15 yr old girls.
Scottish accent terrible.

The Narrator was extremely annoying

The narrator was really annoying when he change voices when you put on a female voice it was Patronising. the story is excellent however I was unable to listen to the book fully as a narrator put me off

Excellent

Well written and well read, lots of twists and turns on the base story line.

disappointed I love Stephen Leather usually!

In the first instance the characters voices and accents were not great. The amount of sex was very out of balance with the story line. Too much booorrring