Bull

Why one star overall?

Reviewed: 04-18-23

This is a great story by one of my favorite authors, narrated by the best voices Audible has to offer. BUT the audio quality is terrible! It sounds like a pirated tape recording from a 50s vintage recorder that has been dubbed six or seven times. George's voice sounds muddy, almost indecipherable at times. There is no high frequency content. I'm surprised Audible's sound engineers let this one out.

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5 people found this helpful

False description of book?

Reviewed: 11-14-22

The book description says the book is by Dick Francis, but if you check out the illustration of the cover it is by Dick and his son Felix Francis. I didn't notice this until I was well into the book. The story was so bad that I couldn't believe it was Dick Francis himself so I checked more carefully. I suspect Felix was responsible for most of this one.

Martin Jarvis is a way poorer performer than is Tony Britton, who narrates all the other Dick Francis audiobooks I have read. Or maybe I just projected my disappointment with the story onto him. If so, sorry Martin.

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Not a Max Allan Collins novel

Reviewed: 08-11-20

If you're expecting something in the vein of Collins's great Heller novels, forget it. The book sounds like a bunch of notes he took researching a new Ness book.

I believe there is a 4 book series by Max collectively known as Eliot Ness in Cleveland. They're not available as audiobooks. One in the series in hardcover is priced at over a thousand dollars at Amazon! No thanks.

The "Mad Butcher" is not the central theme of this book. I guess they put that in the title to get people (like me) to try it (I did). The Butcher's story pops up from time to time, but the mentions are almost incidental.

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Much better than expected

Reviewed: 09-14-16

I was chary of this book because the author (and a female voice) narrated the book. It sounds like someone publishing their own book in a vanity press.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the author is a better narrator than he is an author! He's very good at both, but his narration was so effective that I found myself overlooking lapses in continuity and story credibility. It was just a very good (audio) read!

Read it. You'll like it.

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Discovery of great new narrator!

Reviewed: 01-16-14

I have followed lots of references, reviews, and recommendations in looking for new mystery novels at Audible.com. I don't know how I stumbled over Eric Ambler, but I'm glad I did.

Ambler's story-telling, plot, dialog, pace, -- well, everything that makes a great book great -- are without equal. He is a master, and I intend to audio-read everything he has in Audible.com's library.

But recommending Ambler to other readers is like recommending Graham Greene: You already know it's good, and you don't need me to tell you so.

What this book did for me was to introduce me to the narrator Tim Bentinck. Bentinck has the most versatile and believable range of accents of any narrator I have yet encountered. In this book, I thought many times that there must be multiple narrators.

With respect to just two of the accents he portrays: I could not decide if he was a Brit able to put on an uncommonly good American accent, or an American who knew how to do Brit especially well.

Bentinck's range is phenomenal. The best part is, he sounds completely natural in whichever accent he delivers. What I mean by that is, say, consider George Guidall. He is one of the finest narrators in the business. But when you listen to him narrate, you always know it is Guidall! With Bentinck, not so. He really does sound like a lot of different people.

Disclaimer: If it turns out that there really were multiple narrators used in the production of this book, then, as Roseanne Roseannadanna would say, "never mind".

I have downloaded a few other of Bentnick's Ambler narrations. I'm currently into one in which a Dane is portrayed. So far, no reason to change anything I have written. He's good.

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10 people found this helpful

Bad choice of narrator

Reviewed: 01-12-14

I loved the first of Robert Knott's "Robert B. Parker's ..." novels (Ironhorse). It was very faithful to the style of Parker, along with being a great yarn. In particular I liked Titus Welliver as the narrator. Welliver did all the previous Cole-Hitch books, and he was excellent. Rex Linn, not so much.

Linn does a fair job of sounding like a Gary Cooper playing a old time western marshal, as Cole and Hitch are intended. But they sound identical in his rendition. In fact almost everyone sounds the same, with the exception of the Mexicans in the story who sound the same but with an atrocious Mexican accent.

Mexican accents aside, there were other problems with the narration.

You know those parts in dialogs where the author inserts things like "he said", "Hitch replied" (and every prepubescent boy's favorite, "Jack asked")? Welliver did a great job of easing those into the background. WIth Linn, they have the same emphasis as the dialog, and it is jarring.

Equally jarring were the very often repeated one-word responses from Cole or Hitch (Hitch: "It's what we do." Cole: "Is.") Linn just can't pull these off, and he makes Cole's "Is" sound clumsy and inappropriate to the dialog.

I liked the story fine (despite wondering if Parker would have given a woman the nickname "Slingshot"). But given the narration, this book would be a lot better in print than narrated by Linn.

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11 people found this helpful

Excellent early Burke ruined by terrible narration

Reviewed: 12-07-13

This book is probably Burke's first novel, first published in 1965. It consists of three stories loosely interwoven in Louisiana's seamier sides, including the fight game, blues singers, and prison camps. Early Burke sounds a lot like later Burke so far a tone, mood, and dialog. It's very good writing. But caution: these are not an uplifting stories. The prison camp in particular conjures up images of Cool Hand Luke's camp.

Except for the fact that everyone talks like some bland character from a TV family sitcom.

Not the dialog, Zeisler's narration. Escaped prisoners being chased through the marsh: they all sound the same, like a couple of frat boys talking about cars. Passionate lovemaking? Same thing. The woman even sounds the same, not like any woman I know and certainly not passionate. There's not even an attempt made to make some poor Louisiana coon-ass sound authentic. They're all the same, speaking with near monotone delivery. Everyone sounds like Zeisler ordering a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Well, all but one. For some reason Zeisler has to take a shot at a British accent. It's terrible, and the story doesn't even need a Brit. Zeisler could have just gone on with his coffee-ordering delivery and no one would be the wiser.

The only reason I can see that Simon and Schuster Audio picked Zeisler for this read is that he does a pretty good job singing some of the blues lyrics sprinkled throughout the book, or at least he has the guts to try. They should have used him for just the lyrics and got someone else, almost anyone else, to do the narration.

If I had it to do over again I would get the print version and try to imagine Will Patton or Mark Hammer narrating it.

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14 people found this helpful

Excellent story and narration.

Reviewed: 10-28-13

Grisham takes us back into the courtroom, a setting in which he excels: The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, and on and on. Including, of course, the wonderful A Time to Kill (1989) with attorney Jake Brigance. In Sycamore Row Jake is back, this time wrapped up in defending a holographic will.

This book is a sequel to A Time to Kill only in that the same lawyers -- Harry Rex Vonner, Lucien Wilbanks, Jake -- are back in the same small Mississippi town, but if you've forgotten the earlier book you won't have any problem reading this. A few references to the trial in A Time to Kill are used to establish Jake as a stand-up guy, which is how he gets dragged into the business with the will in the first place. There are also some KKK types who threaten and harass Jake and his family over his defense of a black man in the earlier book, but all the needed backstory is provided.

The plot is tightly woven and well paced. There are a few elements that seem there just to provide color, like the slick Memphis lawyer who tosses a race-grenade into the courtroom, but then slips from the scene. I do wish Grisham had followed through a bit more with the rednecks, especially the one who was released on parole. I thought for sure that firebrand would be back, and I just love it when they get their comeuppance, but he too was written out of the plot.

It's a different kind of law than what we usually get in courtroom novels. It centers around a holographic will handwritten by a man on the eve of his suicide by hanging (from a sycamore tree, a fact you should keep in mind). It's established pretty early on that his kids, son and daughter, don't have much time for the old man, so you won't be surprised to learn they don't make out too well in this will. And of course, there's an earlier will out there, all lawyerly and notarized, in which the kids fare much better. Which will wins? Read on.

Michael Beck is excellent. He has a nice, unaffected style when he's just narrating, and then shows a great range of characterizations of the southerners portrayed here. From my short time living in Mississippi I can say the accents seem quite authentic. Beck gives each of the major characters his own distinct voice and keeps them consistent throughout the book.

No more free passes for Mister Grisham, not after the hugely disappointing The Broker. Now I approach every new Grisham book as a I would a new author. Interestingly this book is a sequel to one Grisham wrote when he was a new author and yes, it's just as good.

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58 people found this helpful

Did Max really write this?

Reviewed: 10-19-13

Somewhere in the first chapter I went back to Audible to make sure I hadn't bought a book by someone with a similar name. Nope, Max Allan Collins it says. I checked the copyright date, thinking this must be a re-released version of really early book, but no, 2013 it is.

The dialog is strange. One second a person is screaming hysterically, the next speaking calmly to the killer, then more hysteria. And what a strange plot - a traumatized teenager is institutionalized and doesn't speak one word for ten years, then sees a news report on TV and is instantly as normal as apple pie. Well, maybe rhubarb pie.

I had read almost everything Collins has written and loved it. This book was a big disappointment. It is so different from his usual tight plots and sparkling dialog that I wondered if he hadn't collaborated with someone but forgot to mention it to the publisher.

It seems to get a little better as time goes on, but sure never rose to the level of good. I think listening to Dan John Miller kept reminding me of the many hours I spent with him and Nate Heller, and that kept my hopes alive.

If you've never read Collins before, do yourself a favor and don't start with this one. Read everything else he's ever written first, you'll thank me.

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8 people found this helpful

I liked it so much I bought the print version

Reviewed: 01-15-13

I bought the print version for one main reason: to give to my wife, who always figures out the whodunnits while I am still floundering amid the clues and red herrings. Let's see her sort THIS one out!

You won't be able to say that the clues are obscure or concealed. Inspector Appleby reviews the facts and summarizes the case frequently, just in case you might have missed something. There was one bit that I thought was downplayed a bit for all its significance, but since my wife is an RN she should probably pick up on it. We'll see.

Anyway, it's classic stuff, English manor house, motives, means, opportunities, spies, a very clever mystery writer guest, and an even more clever inspector. There's an anagram that's about as subtle as Rumred, and a little forensic stuff for good measure. High society and political bigwigs in antebellum (WWII) England round out the cast.

Some knowledge of Shakespeare's Hamlet will help, maybe just the Cliff Notes or Wikipedia version.

Great narration. My first Matt Addis, and I'm looking forward to many more.

The only downside to reading this book is, I feel a little like I did when I first read Ngaio Marsh and then discovered that she had written scores of like books! Innes wrote a lot of books too. So many great books, so few credits remain. Maybe Audible will let me renew early.

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16 people found this helpful