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Just Whole Lot of Meh

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-22-24

Went with the reviews on this one. I’m not entirely sure we all listened to the same book. This was some of the most mediocre writing/storytelling I’ve experienced in a long time.

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Sweet Jesus! What is wrong with this narrator?

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-25-23

Small critique for potential directors of audiobook performances: pick an appropriate voice for the story. The narrator’s native accent is fine for the “Pinhead” dialogue (I do find his delivery a little rushed and possibly just a little too familiar) but the majority of characters are of specific regions of the U.S. A Foghorn Leghorn impersonation is not how one goes about voicing individuals from New Orleans, and Jack Nicholson (ala Prizzi’s Honor) is not appropriate for folks from New York City. The stereotypical Jewish accent is FAR too prevalent in this performance as well. My advice: pick a new narrator and start over.

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Overall, again, a good story ruined by meandering prose and an annoying reader.

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 06-03-22

I’m almost there. I’ve almost listened to nearly all of Charlie Parker series books by John Connelly. It’s been a long time! I’m a little sad, actually, that it’s all coming to an end (until the next book, of course).

I wish I could say I loved this story, but I can’t. I can’t get past the meandering prose that has always existed in these books, but seems to be prevalent as of late. Parts of the book just drone on and on and on and… you get the picture. This book could seriously lose a good 100-150 pages and still be overlong. Way too much exposition on characters that are entirely meaningless to the story, feelings and thoughts given voices that do not fit the character’s personality (there’s probably a literary term for this but I don’t know what it is.), and the aforementioned meandering prose - all lend themselves to what feels like a chore of a book.

Don’t get me started on Jeff Harding.

Ok… just a few points. The good: Jeff Harding is easily the best of all the readers in the Charlie Parker series, which really isn’t saying much. His constant mispronunciation of common words like “nomenclature”, “pasta”, and “minutiae” make me cringe every time he utters them. It begs the question: is there a director or does Jeff just phone this stuff in? His voice characterizations make everyone either sound like 5 year old girls (the women) or adults with speech issues - just… ugh!!!

The story… let’s see. It’s long. It takes over half of the book for something to actually happen, and the foreshadowing is terribly heavy-handed. The story is fine. All of the Charlie Parker stories are fine. They aren’t great, but they aren’t literary genius either.

Could be worse. It could be James Patterson!

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Does Anyone Actually Listen?

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-27-22

Does anyone actually listen to these performances before they are published for consumption. Wow! This may be one of the worst performances of audio book EVER! The story was fine, but the performances were horrendous. Boring and uninspired. Keeping characters straight in a conversation was nearly impossible.

Thankfully, this book didn’t seem to suffer the bloat of previous books. There was no 5 page description of a character’s appearance, and he seemed to keep the chapter long brooding sessions to a minimum as well. And there was no mention of “the honeycomb world” - a concept I never understood nor found interesting.

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Another Great Parker Book With Less Than Great Narration

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-07-21

I’m not sure who directs the voice narration in these books, but they really should be fired. Allowing Jeff Harding to continually mispronounce names, locations, and simple words is silly. Every time he utters the name “Cheryl” with a hard “ch” sound, takes me right out of the story. I think Jeff needs a new career. His work on Every Dead Thing was equally horrendous.

The book… is good. Of course it is!

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?

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-11-21

If the investigators are people at the top of their game, why would they make such a leap with absolutely NO physical evidence? So many bad moments in this book. Don’t get me started with narrator. I didn’t it could get any worse after Angel’s Flight, but I was wrong! Who directs these narrators? Harry comes across sounding like slurring alcoholic. Just terrible.

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