The Mystery of the Moving Image

Snow & Winter, Book 3

By: C.S. Poe

Narrated by: Wyatt Baker

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

It’s summer in New York City, and antique shop owner Sebastian Snow is taking the next big step in his relationship with homicide detective, Calvin Winter: They’re moving in together. What should have been a wonderful week of playing house and celebrating Calvin’s birthday comes to an abrupt end when a mysterious package arrives at the Emporium. Inside is a Thomas Edison Kinetoscope, a movie viewer from the 19th century, invented by the grandfather of modern cinema, W. K. L. Dickson. And along with it, footage of a murder that took place over a hundred years ago.

Sebastian resists the urge to start sleuthing, even if the culprit is long dead and there’s no apparent danger. But break-ins at the Emporium, a robbery, and dead bodies aren’t as easy to ignore, and Sebastian soon realizes that the century-old murder will lead him to a modern-day killer.

Even with Sebastian’s vast knowledge of Victorian America and his unrelenting perseverance in the face of danger, this may be the one mystery he won’t survive.

©2020 C.S. Poe (P)2020 C.S. Poe

Same great writing and nice addition to the series

The story grabs your curiosity right from the start and keeps it as usual. The series has captured me, so I will continue on in one format or another.
The narration change is a bit startling, especially if you are binge listening the series. The narration by Wyatt Baker is not bad, but a bit more voice distinction between the different characters' voices would help improve prove the listening experience of the story.
The feel of some of the characters themselves seems a tiny bit different in this book than the last two, but I am not sure if it is due to character development as the series continues or if it may be due to the narrator change and their interpretation of each character.

Love the book, couldn't listen to the performance

I love the Snow and Winter series and this was a great addition to it. But the narrator was so disconcerting I had to stop listening to it and finish the book on Kindle. He shouted much of the performance and never seemed to get the vibe of one of the main characters, Calvin. Other reviewers say he improved in the second half, I just could not make it that far. I will read the next installments.

Disappointing narrator

As usual, C.S. Poe storyline is entertaining and interaction between characters totally believable.

The narrator's voice choices missed the mark. It sounded as if Sebastisn had a lisp in the early chapters! Voice changes between Sebastian and Neil characters were hard to distinguish.

Why?

love the story of Snow and Winters... but hated the change of narrator... loved Derrick... in the first two books but this narrator just messed the story up for me...he seemed angry and constantly yelling ... no distinctions between characters...it sounded like one very long angry rant... 😤

Narrator is fine, give him a chance

To be fair, I understand why listeners would be upset with a change in narrators halfway through the series, especially given that they sound nothing alike. However, I thought Wyatt Baker did a great job! Yes it was a little angry/shouty in the beginning but halfway through the book he found his stride and it got much better. For me, the first two books were harder to listen to actually. Sebastian sounded so whiny all the time it drove me crazy. Wyatt is good at distinguishing between Seb’s snark, grumpiness, and vulnerability.
I listened to the samples for the next two books and he sounds much calmer and more like he’s reading as the characters and not just narrating a book so I’m excited to continue!

As for the series itself, I love it!! It’s been a while since I read it so it’s been fun rediscovering Sebastian’s snark and Calvin’s steadiness. I also freakin love Niel! CS Poe is one of my favorite authors. She’s so good at writing real people, even when they consistently end up in in the OTT situations that Sebastian does lol

The change threw me, but it's not terrible

So first off, still the same great story, still the same charming characters, I'm here for it.

But I had a visceral reaction to the new narrator. I had heard him before on another audible title, which I'll freely admit, I dint like all that much. His biggest performance issue was that he had struggled with consistency, he would drop voices, and had trouble maintaining accents, etc.

I resigned myself to the same issue in this piece as well, and while he started a little rough, he eventually found his stride. I still wish he had a better voice for Calvin, but he's not that bad.

Dont judge too harshly. It's not what I was used to, but it wasn't enough to drive me off the story completely. I just wish we didn't have these issues.

The narrator sounds angry

The new narrator just sounds angry as if he’s shouting the story. His characterizations really miss the mark and make the story very difficult to listen to.

Like the story

Love the story and series but I don’t like the narrator of this book. He comes off very aggressive and it’s mostly done in one voice with very little variation between voices and doesn’t often change tone from narration and character’s voices.

Got used to him as time went on!

Not the best narrator, but he got better as time went on
Love this series, on to the next story!

Another excellent entry

Poor Wyatt Baker! It's not easy to step into the shoes of a beloved narrator, and accordingly there are a lot of reviews dissatisfied with his performance. I can understand the sentiment but I strongly disagree; Baker is fine here and even better in the next book. In fact, after I finished the series, I went back to listen to the first book again and the switch back to Derrick McClain felt just as jarring to me as the switch to Baker did. It doesn't help that the two have different styles; McClain's Sebastian is soft-spoken, snarky, and perennially sarcastic, while Baker is a bit more aggressive and masculine. Personally, although McClain's delivery is easy to listen to and his non-dialogue narration is perfect, I think Baker's Sebastian is sexier, and works perfectly well with the text. He's also a good actor, though this comes across more in his dialogue than in his narration, which isn't always in character as Sebastian.

Anyway, I don't usually go on about narrators, but the switch seems to be a sticking point for a lot of reviewers on here. I admit it's a bit of an adjustment, but it's one that, if you put your mind to it, you can and should get past it, because this book is easily on par with the other books in this excellent series. Calvin and Sebastian's relationship progresses even further, the mystery, which is more of a double mystery here, is fun and intriguing, and the writing is a dream. Having listened to all the available books in this series (four so far), I'd put this one at number two, which is high praise as they're all excellent.