Chris Hedges

A weird, one-off miss for me

Revisado: 12-26-23

I have all the books from this series and really like them. If you have too, then you have come to know what to expect from the story lines and each character. Seventeen books in, you sort of feel like an honorary member of the Bunburry community. You know how the characters will react in certain situations, the dynamics of the relationships between the characters, etc. In this book, however, none of the characters acted as they usually do. Not in terms of their interactions with each other, not in terms of their responses to circumstances around them (ie. the "mystery"). Over the three hours of the book, none of the characters seemed really to be together, somehow. The book seemed to have no particular story line. The mystery, which is usually the centerpiece of the story and the thing upon which everything and everyone focuses, is inconsequential.

Oh, and the whole Alphie/Emma thing was, for me, one cringey bit after another. Like two siblings or cousins dating. I just ... can't. Hope that something comes along to fling that situation into a different orbit.

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Suuuuuch a great book!

Revisado: 01-25-23

This is a great book, which is now part of a series of great books. I love every single character, each equally interesting and fully explored. The four musketeers are the headliners, whose enthusiasm for day drinking, crime scenes, police interrogations, adventure, misadventure, and love and respect for each other combine to convince you that this is the dream team friend squad we all want now and when we're 80 years old. Richard Orman's excellent writing is intelligent, cleaver, and sprinkled with English humor that will make you sometimes smile, other times laugh out loud. And then there's the Lesley Manville's narration, which is as exceptional as Richard Ornaman's writing. Together, Orman and Manville are like peas and carrots.
As if all this isn't awesome enough, even better is that the other Thursday Murder Club books are equally wonderful!

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Couldn't do it

Revisado: 03-16-22

The new narrator seems to have no grasp at all of who the players in the book are. She reads every line of every character in the same vaguely whiny manner. And so, rather than becoming the characters, the new narrator herself actually becomes a distraction from them. I found that the narrator had my attention all the while, instead of the story. I hope this is a one-off circumstance and that Anna Bentnick will return to the series.

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This narrator is completely unsuited to this book

Revisado: 02-23-22

I'm a bit confused about the ratings for this book. The star rating indicates that there are 290 reviews, with an avg. review of 4.6, but when I go to the bottom of the page to read the individual reviews there are only eleven reviews there. So, where are the rest of the reviews?

Anyway, a rating of 4.6 by 290 reviewers for a book on a topic about which I'm interested seemed very promising. But this book isn't good. Or, maybe the reader is the issue? In my opinion, he isn't at all right for this book.

I see that this narrator is well regarded across Audible, and for other books I expect he's probably great. But his management of this book is completely ham handed. It's a book about refinement and sophistication read in a manner that seems anything but. It's a book that dedicates many words and pages to detailed descriptions of French and European menu items, that are narrated by a person who has no facility with the French language at all — his pronunciations are poor and a French accent is non-existent. With this narrator, English aristocrats have the voices and mannerisms of actors on a vaudevillian stage. The book is being read as though it's satire, not narrative history.

I'm returning this book.

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I love this book and the series!

Revisado: 12-02-21

Witty writing, charming and witty characters, spot-on narration! I wish Barbara Cleverly would write more books for this series and Steven Crossley would narrate them. I love this series!

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This book is 1/8 of an inch deep, 20 miles wide

Revisado: 05-24-21

Ten hours and 19 minutes later, I have two main issues with this book. One, that every theme that was ever written in any book ever is found in this one. All of them (20 miles wide). And, two, none of the themes are explored with any depth at all (1/8 of an inch deep). The insult to injury with those two issues is that you allow yourself to image that these two things can't really be the case and that, by hanging in there, the story will develop in all the ways it's lacking and you'll be rewarded for your patience.
Spoiler alert: It doesn't.

Almost hilariously, in the final chapter, the many little themes resolve, in water-drop fashion, at the speed of light, into a series of easy-as-pie solutions. Alrighty, then.

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Great book!

Revisado: 05-16-21

This is a great book -- well developed, lots of interesting characters, and beautifully narrated. I like the first book in the series, too, but I like this one best. It's a great series. I hope Kate Saunders writes more books, and that Anna Bentinck continues to narrate them. Her voice and style make you lean in.

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The perfect marriage of narrative and narrator!

Revisado: 12-02-20

What a wonderful book to read at Christmas time!
There could not be a more perfect pairing than this series and this reader. The narrator's impeccable interpretation of the author's delightful characters and interesting tales is spot on. This is one of those books where you wish you could hop into the story and spend time with all of the characters.

Reader Steven Crossley charmingly narrates the story and performs the characters in a manner that exactly fits the author's intent, imho. I'm very glad to have this and her other Inspector Redfyre book, Invitation to Die, in my library. I definitely hope Ms. Cleverly adds more books to the Inspector Redfyre Mystery series and holds onto Steven Crossley as narrator. More tales during the Yuletide would be fun, too. I am a fan!

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A must-read for followers of the series, but ...

Revisado: 06-01-20

I was glad to have a chance to revisit this world, but was surprised to find that, unlike the books in the trilogy, the writing was thin and superficial. The path through this book was straight and narrow from start to finish, involving the fewest possible characters and no other storylines. It felt more like an outline than a book. To me, it read like it was produced by another author.

The Hunger Games trilogy was all about the rich details — very effectively placing the reader right next to the characters in the story. There were several complex characters in those books, each with interesting storylines of their own. This book, on the other hand, plods doggedly forward, without making an effort to engage the reader. It's fine, and it's interesting to rewind to Coriolanus Snow as a young man, but this book is no Hunger Games.

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Not a fan

Revisado: 02-18-20

This book very deliberately calls itself a novel but presents itself, throughout, like a biography, including the time-line framed chapters. As the book went on, it became more and more deeply a cringe-inducing tale of the brilliance of the leading lady. The book, written in first person, has Clementine Churchill telling us how she personally maneuvered, masterminded, and manipulated cunning successes for every political, diplomatic, and military event of her married life. I happen to admire Mrs. Churchill, who needs no awkward inflating of her role. For a very good book about Clementine Churchill, I suggest "Clementine" by Sonia Purnell.

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