BLACK In The Box (BLACK #5) Audiobook By Russell Blake cover art

BLACK In The Box (BLACK #5)

Virtual Voice Sample
Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

BLACK In The Box (BLACK #5)

By: Russell Blake
Narrated by: Virtual Voice
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $9.99

Buy for $9.99

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel
Background images

This title uses virtual voice narration

Virtual voice is computer-generated narration for audiobooks.

About this listen

Artemis Black's world is coming apart in the days leading up to Christmas. His relationship is on the rocks, he's struggling to make ends meet, he's gone days without sleep, and when he's called in to investigate a brutal murder at a big box store in Long Beach, he's at the end of his rope. Racing the clock to clear a young woman's name before she's charged with homicide, Black gets more than he bargained for, and finds himself enmeshed in a web of deceit and betrayal that will require every ounce of his and Roxie's sleuthing prowess if they're to survive the night. Hard-Boiled Mystery Private Investigators Crime
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
I love RC Bray and search out books he narrates. That is how I found this series. I listened to the first 4 books and really enjoyed them. I I have gotten to know and appreciate these characters and this story line. Unfortunately, AI ruined it. I can fully understand wanting to give AI a try but RC Bray gave life to these characters and AI choked them out in the back of a minivan and buried them in a shallow grave. So sad.

Stop with the AI VOICE

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I will not buy another virtual voice book again. It ruins the story. Very disappointed.

AI voice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

LIstening to the first four Black books by Russell Blake was delightful, had me laughing outloud at the snappy and well-read dialogue. R.C. Bray, as narrator, did a fabulous job bringing these books to life as funny, unusual and expressing great characters. Black #5, however, was dull. Story was still good and clever, however, the narration was pretty bad, mispronounced words, very boring, not good inflection which really made this listening experience very dull. I will probably not listen to any more books using virtual voice.

First four in series were wonderful!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved books black 1-4 but the 5th with virtual narrative was horrible could not finish the book.

The poor virtual narrative was bad.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The 4 book Black set narrated by R.C. Bray was excellent!

I totally enjoyed all 4 books especially with all the witty banter between Black and Roxy. However, this 5th book with the AI Narrator ruined the writing and was almost unlistenable. Mr. Blake, I like your writing but the AI Narrator was a bad idea and turned your interesting and well written book into something awful.

AI Narrator ruined it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

My wife and I have hugely enjoyed the Black series through Book Four, but were leery of sitting down to listen to Book Five because of Audible's decision to use Virtual Voice. We were right. It was a huge mistake. It's one thing to use Virtual Voice for non-fiction or technical titles, quite another for books utilizing characters and their dialogue. Hearing Black and Roxie's banter presented in the same voice and with the same inflection was disappointing, to say the least. Audible rightly presents human readers as 'performing' the book. That was not the case with Virtual Voice. There may be some economic advantage to using Virtual Voice, but Audible would be wise to restrict its use to pure narrations and not performances. We gave the story a one-star only because we knew it would get people's attention and we would like to see Audible respond.

Virtual Voice and Literature.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I absolutely love books 1 through 4. R.C. Bray is the voice of this series. I revisit them annually. But he AI Voice doesn’t serve the story or series well. Despite really wanting to know how the 5th Black book plays out, I’m struggling to focus with the AI voice. I doubt I’ll even finish the audiobook. Can someone just pay R.C. Bray, please?

Can someone please pay R.C. Bray?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Very little, If any, inflection. Also, difficult to know which character was talking. Why couldn’t different voices be used? Doubt I will listen to another virtual voice book again.

Virtual voice ruin good story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If i could have givgiving it a minus 4 stars i would have- I would have rather listened to someone with their mouth wired shut read this instead of AI. the worst reading... I am a fan of the BLACK BOOK SET.. but not this AI reading this book.. completely ruined the storyline and characters.. go back to paying someone with a pulse to read!!

AI reading was terrible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This has been a great series until someone decided AI was the way to narrate. I hope Black comes back in the voice of RC Bray.

Absolutely not!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews