Colleen Renier

Much better narration than I expected

Revisado: 08-15-14

Would you listen to Designated Daughters again? Why?

Yes. It was a good story and after a couple of chapters the new narrator (Ms Maron) improved her pacing and inflection.

What other book might you compare Designated Daughters to and why?

It was similar to the other stories in the series, but the narration was different.

Which character – as performed by Margaret Maron – was your favorite?

There wasn't really a variation in "performing" characters. However, after a couple chapters she paced her narration well, allowing listeners to clearly tell when there was a change of speakers.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really, but the usually amusing parts of the series (Ping!) carried through to this book.

Any additional comments?

Series change narrators all the time. I've listened to hundreds of audio books and I admit that I prefer those narrated by skilled performers who provide identifiable characters' voices and personalities through the well structured plot and wording of the author. However, while a terrible narrator (mispronounces words often, poor pacing and inflection, etc.) can make it impossible to listen to a book, they are really extremely rare AND Ms. Maron was not a poor narrator. She was just a different narrator and took a couple of chapters to get the pacing and inflection smoothed out.

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A single narrator would have been better

Revisado: 01-17-13

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Because each chapter was from the perspective of either the male or female protagonist, the male or female narrator read that chapter. This caused the odd situation that "conversations" sometimes had the male narrator doing both the male and the female parts, sometimes the female narrator did both the male and female parts, and sometimes both narrators conversed. It was particularly confusing that each narrator had a different voice for Holmes.

Would you be willing to try another book from Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller ? Why or why not?

Yes, I have enjoyed books by both authors in the past and this book was actually a good beginning for a series.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Better continuity of voices for the characters; either by having only one narrator or having each narrator assigned the same characters throughout the book.

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Tedious and Self-indulgent

Revisado: 01-15-11

I have enjoyed past Scarpetta novels. However, I feel that while clinical accuracy gives the character credibility, extreme amounts of detailed clinical information that neither aids in character development nor moves the story forward is merely tedious and suggests that the author's desire to demonstrate their own knowledge in the specified clinical area greatly exceeds their desire to write a good novel. That unfortunately was the case with Port Mortuary.

At the same time, the best thing that can be said about the main character is that she has become quite self-indulgent, spending a great deal of the (too long) time dwelling in the past, while distrusting those closest to her, even though they are the people she has repeatedly chosen to surround herself with and the people she has helped them to become.

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