The Irish Doll Maker

A Raven Hill Farms Mystery

By: Jane E. Drew

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Quinn sat straight up in bed. “Annie McClery has been murdered.” She said the words out loud.

She tells herself it was just a dream, but then she gets a call from Dermot Brennan, the local Garda. He’s calling to say they just found the old doll maker, Annie McClery, dead in her cottage. He’s sure she died from natural causes. After all, she was ninety-six years old.

But Quinn can’t shake off her dream. Did Annie die of natural causes, or was she murdered? But what would be the motive?

Quinn visits Annie’s cottage and discovers a drawer full of old journals. The journals reveal shocking secrets from Annie’s past.

Now it’s up to Quinn and her friends to figure out what happened to Annie and why.

Computer generated narration is impressive but…

I have become used to wonderful performances by some spectacular voice artists on audible so this was definitely not one of my favorite narrations.. That said, as a mother of a child (now adult) who is severely dyslexic, I believe that computer generated narration is a great way to bring more books, more quickly to the dyslexics, blind or others who don’t have the ability or time etc to read easily. As a reader for pleasure, i would much prefer to listen to the many voice artists and real life authors (and celebrities) who read their own books.

In this particular case, i think the narration, which was really impressive for a computer and not bad overall, detracted from the writing. I haven’t decided if I like the book itself or if I will listen to more from this author. Since these books are included with my subscription, I probably will.

I think computer generated narration should be used on more boring text books, required reading etc for students who have difficulty or lack of time, or any place where getting information as opposed to enjoyment is the objective.

This particular audio was truly impressive for a computer. They have come a long way. However, it can’t replace a good voice actor and I hope it never will.

There’s a definite difference…

…between the smoothness of an AI reader and the warmth, color of a human bringing us a story. As far as the story goes for this book, it was okay. Not certain if it felt formulaic because of the human writing or if, perhaps, it, too, was created using AI assist? Now, I’m not categorically against AI — it’s a reality that’s here to stay and become ever-more prevalent — but in this endeavor, it didn’t work for me today.

Not the same as live!

The live performances are much more entertaining and bring the stories to life. The story was good.

Ugh!!

The story line and written dialogue was awful and the only thing that could make it worse was listening to the AI reader!! When are people going to wake up and realize the natural pauses and syntax of speech ARE NOT being used by an AI reader. Machines will never be able to equal the quality of human speech and emotion when narrating a story!