The Late Scholar

The Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet, Book 4

By: Jill Paton Walsh

Narrated by: Matthew Brenher

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lord Peter Wimsey and his detective novelist wife Harriet Vane return in Jill Paton Walsh's brilliant new continuation of Dorothy L. Sayers's classic mysteries.

When a dispute among the fellows of St. Severin's College, Oxford University, reaches a stalemate, Lord Peter Wimsey discovers that as the Duke of Denver he is "the Visitor" - charged with the task of resolving the issue. It is time for Lord Peter and his detective novelist wife Harriet to revisit their beloved Oxford, where their long and literate courtship finally culminated in their engagement and marriage.

At first, the dispute seems a simple difference of opinion about a valuable manuscript that some of the fellows regard as nothing but an insurance liability, which should be sold to finance a speculative purchase of land. The voting is evenly balanced. The warden would normally cast the deciding vote, but he has disappeared. And when several of the fellows unexpectedly die as well, Lord Peter and Harriet set off on an investigation to uncover what is really going on at St. Severin's.

With this return to the Oxford of Gaudy Night, which many readers regard as their favorite of Sayers's original series, Jill Paton Walsh revives the wit and brilliant plotting of the golden age of detective fiction.

©2013 Jill Paton Walsh and the Trustees of Anthony Fleming, deceased. (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

This reader is very difficult to listen to.

Where does The Late Scholar rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Compared with other Lord Peter mysteries this one is near the bottom. Characters were not fleshed out & differentiating between them was difficult

Would you be willing to try another book from Jill Paton Walsh? Why or why not?
I enjoyed "Presumption of Death" & "The Attenbury Emeralds", but not "Thrones, Dominations". I probably will read another Paton Walsh, but NOT with this reader!

How could the performance have been better?
He could have done a little research. He pronounced Bredon with a short e, not to rhyme with tree as is correct. Hearing that over & over again gave me fits. Shrewsbury was pronounced as an American would pronounce it, not as Shrosbry. He almost sounded like an American putting on an English accent. Edward Petherbridge would have been my first choice as Ian Carmichael has passed on.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When It was over & I could stop listening to him!

Any additional comments?
Get another reader next time!
Update: I was so frustrated by this reader that I purchased the Kindle book. Believe it or not, Echo reads it better!

Intriguing story, narrator less than enjoyable

I enjoyed the placement of this Wimsey mystery in Oxford. The number of suspects together with the number of victims keeps the story interesting, and presses home the need for Peter, Harriet, and Bunter to find the perpetrator quickly.
Having heard The Attenbury Emeralds read by Edward Petherbridge set me up to be very disappointed by this narrator. Brenher's voice carries a glottal fry which results in most characters sounding as though they have been smoking and drinking since they were 12. Bunter seems to have been raised in London's East End and poor Charles Parker was made to sound like a pompous, aged military officer left over from the Crimean War. Minor characters' voices are not distinct and sometimes change, so it is easy to confuse them and have to "re-wind" to find out who is really supposed to be talking.

Naration Sucked

Someone should tell the performer how to actually PRONOUNCE the names. Anyone who knows Sayers is familiar with the names of characters. It is Breeeeeedon with eeeee. Not Brayyydon! Don't waste your time. I am going to refund and get the Kendle book.

AWFUL NARRATION!

I couldn't figure out if this book is just boring or the narrator was ruining the experience. He made no distinction between character voices so it's hard to tell who is talking. I kept getting confused and losing the thread of the story. Even if the book was less intriguing, a narrator like Simon Vance or Simon Prebble would have kept the listener's interest. Hopefully, the print version is better. But for the audio version, after just 2 chapters, I gave up.

The narration is just criminal

There is no performance here. It’s strictly a straight reading. Very little differences between the male voices, making it very easy to lose track as to who is speaking. The narrator has absolutely no clue about these very famous and well loved characters. Also, he reads incredibly slowly, as if we readers might not be smart enough to figure out what is going on.

Peter Wimsey is probably my most favorite character in all of fictiondom. Of course I have read Jill Paton Walsh’s other Wimsey books, and while they are kind of flat to read the narration has always turned it into a great experience. Not so with this Narrator. Such a huge disappointment.

Dreadful narration

What disappointed you about The Late Scholar?

The narration was terrible. The narrator's voice is deep and heavy, although the Wimsey character is a lithe and lively man, described in one novel by another character as "a little English sparrow hawk."

Besides a voice so totally unsuited to the protagonist, the narrator was unable to properly voice other characters as well. His delivery was heavy and ponderous. Passages that carried an emotional punch were recited in as flat a tone as the ones where Peter was looking for a parking place. Also, it was often impossible to tell one character from another during a dialogue.

If all that weren't bad enough, he didn't pronounce key words correctly, including Bredon and Shrewsbury. And he read Bunter's lines in some godawful inappropriate accent.

I haven't been able to listen to the whole book yet, and will probably end up reading it because this narration is so bad I keep getting annoyed and distracted by it.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I'm not sure. The narration is so bad I haven't been able to listen to the whole book.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Matthew Brenher?

Edward Petherbridge, or Graeme Malcolm. Or Penelope Keith.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Irritation and anger, as well as disappointment.

Any additional comments?

If any book in the Audible catalogue has ever cried out for a do-over, this is it. Please, someone, produce this book with an appropriate narrator! Matthew Brehner is no doubt a good match for some books, but hopelessly wrong for this one, and didn't bother to learn correct pronunciations.

Underwhelming

I acknowledge that the bar is set higher than it would be if this was any other work of fiction. The worst part was the narrator who would be marvelous if this was a children's book. Its like he wants to soothe us to sleep. The mystery really wasn't. And the actual reason I keep buying these - beloved characters - only cause me to wince at every deviation from how I perceive them to be. I need to give up hope and stop buying these.

Enjoyable story, passable narration

I'm very happy to have another Wimsey adventure penned by Jill Paton Walsh. I think she does an excellent job of progressing the characters while staying fairly true to Sayers' style.
Sadly, the new narrator did nothing for the book. I realize that Ian Carmichael isn't around to read to us anymore and perhaps Edward Petherbridge is busy. I have enjoyed their narration of the Wimsey series for years and am probably spoilt by their perfect grasp of the characters. I really wanted to like Mr. Brehner's reading, his voice is pleasant to listen to, but he mispronounces several vital names and gives some important characters accents and cadence that sound very wrong. It's not enough to ruin the book for me, nothing like the abominable new narrators of the Margery Allingham mysteries, but it was certainly not up to par.

Great add to what I hope is a continuing series

What did you love best about The Late Scholar?

The writing stays true to the characters and the story is engaging. I love all the Lord Peter Wimsey books and I hope they keep coming.

Poor narration

What did you love best about The Late Scholar?

Patton catches some of the spirit of Sayers.

What did you like best about this story?

Again, Patton catches some of the spirit of Sayers.

What didn’t you like about Matthew Brenher’s performance?

Brenher has a really poor sense of rhythm and timing in reading a text. He often falls into a monotonic set of bursts of a half-dozen words at a time, regardless of what the text means. The story compensates for the poor narration, but only partially.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

An interesting imitation of Dorothy Sayers.