The Missing Man (A Morton Farrier Novella)

The Forensic Genealogist, Book 6

By: Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Narrated by: Ian Pringle

Length: 5 hrs

Publisher's summary

It was to be the most important case of Morton Farrier’s career in forensic genealogy so far. A case that had eluded him for many years: Finding his own father. Harley "Jack" Jacklin disappeared just six days after a fatal fire at his Cape Cod home on Christmas Eve in 1976, leaving no trace behind. Now his son, Morton must travel to the East Coast of America to unravel the family’s dark secrets in order to discover what happened to him.

This is the sixth book in the Morton Farrier genealogical crime mystery series, although it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story.

©2017 Nathan Dylan Goodwin (P)2020 Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Excellent Story!

Nathan Goodwin once again created an excellent genealogical mystery. I really enjoy this series, and following Morton Farrier's adventures. The characters are nicely developed and the stories are really good! This book is no exception, especially because it deals with Morton's own family mystery. I listen to audiobooks mainly because it's the only way I can make time to enjoy fiction these days. I have never complained about a narrator, and I hate to do so now, but Ian Pringle wasn't a great choice for this particular book. Massachusetts accents aren't easy. They aren't easy for Americans and unfortunately for Ian, they aren't easy for the British. As someone from Massachusetts, I found his narration of American characters PAINFUL. Word to the wise for future narration: don't even try to do the Massachusetts accent. And please, please, please don't do a southern American accent. In fact, don't even bother with the accent! Just read it straight!

Will Morton find his father in America??

If you're a Morton Farrier fan, don't miss this episode, which is completely devoted to his search for his own family. I felt sorry for the narrator, though - a Brit tackling American accents. He made a valiant effort, but the Boston and various Yankee accents are notoriously hard to get right. I couldn't resist a chuckle, having lived in Western Massachusetts for many years - everything east of the Connecticut River was a foreign land. I guess this is how Americans sound to English people when we try to speak with a British accent - muddling together a variety of dialects!

Great story, voice issues

The story is well written and continues the adventures of Morton. The English male voice bits are fine. The English women are voiced as twits which isn’t how they are written. The American accents are abysmal and detract from the listening experience. As an American, it’s hard to hear characters supposedly from one part of the country voiced with bad accents from other parts of the country. Like a voiceover of The Queen speaking in Liverpudlian accent, the the next minute Cockney.

Love Morton Farrier series

This book lived up to my expectations and kept me involved and interested the entire time as Morton solves his biggest case yet - locating his birth father. As a lover of genealogy and mysteries this series never fails to be satisfying to me

Satisfying story

Great to hear another story focused on Morton’s personal genealogy! The story lost a star for me because of a huge plot twist without adequate explanation. But all in all, this novella is well-woven with interesting developments in Morton’s life!

Love these books!

In general, these books are great-the only ding for this one was the narrator’s portrayal of the American accent. It was all over the place and became a distraction to the story.

Heart warming story

This was a heart warming story with an added interest to me since I am a descendant of John Howland through the Chipman family.

Good story, bad accent!

As a lover of genealogy, I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and the entire series. However, the narrator’s attempt at an American accent was difficult to listen to! At best it sounded slightly southern, not at all like a Boston accent. It was very distracting and made it hard to listen to the whole book. Fortunately, most of the series is set in England, so the same narrator does a great job with the other books I’ve listened to.

You have to listen to them all

The narrator is awesome, he really brings the story to life! Start from book 1 and you'll want to listen to them all!

Story is bang-on. Narrator is ghastly.

Given that most of the story takes place in Massachusetts, they should have had a narrator that could pronounce the name of the Commonwealth. Mass-uh-two-shess. Every American that came out of Ian Pringle's mouth sounded like a transplanted Texan, and nothing like anything close to New England, much less Cape Cod or Boston. It was almost more than I could handle.