Pam M

Thoroughly Enjoyable, Wish I Could Give 4.5

Revisado: 11-16-23

I think Fiona Shaw does a remarkable job that honors the wonderful character voices and mannerisms created by Lesley Manville without making the mistake of mimicking them.

I was initially disappointed not to hear Manville’s voice - her version of Joyce in particular is irreplaceably sublime - but Shaw made every character recognizable to the listener by using similar pace, timbre and accents to Manville’s, while adding her own talent and nuance. I particularly love Shaw’s Elizabeth - so perfectly the dry-humored, well-heeled spymaster, not unlike Shaw’s “Killing Eve” character.

The story itself is delightful and witty, although maybe getting a bit more sprawling in characters, storylines and central plot than even a ‘cozy’ mystery fan can suspend disbelief for. There were a couple very good suspenseful moments in the first third of the book but I guessed who the culprit was very early, so a lot of the book felt like misdirection and over-complicated window dressing. But intriguing, fun, endearing and poignant none the less! Sending in a man (or woman) with a gun produces several masterful and very different scenes over the course of the book.

Ultimately, these books are more about the joy of being a loyal gang of unique people than about tight mystery plotting - and I absolutely love getting to be in the gang with these brilliantly absurd characters. The original, sensational title for Joyce’s book, followed by her decision to ditch it because it “gave away too much of the plot”, made me laugh out loud (waking my husband) and still makes me giggle thinking of it days later.

I love this series and look forward to reading and listening to the next one, whoever takes on the narration.

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**Semi-Spoiler Alert** Fun Narration, Endearing Characters, Convoluted and Illogical Plot

Revisado: 08-01-22

Important note to editors and jacket art artists below!

Charming cozy characters with a tantalizing backstory and sweetly witty banter. Reviews say the series keeps getting better, so I’ll keep going — but in the first two books far too much exposition is needed at the end to explain convoluted events, and premeditated murders that illogically depended far too much on luck for their success. The stories have great charm and underlying intelligence. I’m looking forward to greater subtlety in foreshadowing and logic in the double layers of a mystery plot as this series progresses.


Editors and cover artists: if the murder weapon itself is a mystery until 90% of the way through the book, PLEASE DO NOT PUT THE UNKNOWN MURDER WEAPON IN THE COVER ART!;-) It’s so frustrating how often this is done. I knew how the victim died before I started the book, and the only character who could logically have succeeded in using that weapon by the second chapter. Since the author ultimately chose to make the murderer’s success illogically depend on luck (and an inexplicable omission in witness questioning), rather than ability to control the outcome, the cover art ultimately didn’t reveal the murderer, just the method. Still given how much of the book is given over to the mystery of the method, and the flash of brilliant insight that ‘may’ be the answer, having the answer clearly represented in the jacket art made a lot of the story boring. Please, unless everybody can see it sticking out of (or onto, or around) the body immediately when the corpse is found, don’t put the murder weapon in the art. Thank you for your time!

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Barbarians Sad Rape No Longer Okay

Revisado: 06-09-19

I love Terry Pratchett, and although I usually find the Rincewind plots meandering and uncompelling, I usually enjoy the dialogue. I kept plowing on with this one despite my dislike of the general “might is more fun than right, who needs justice systems when you can just kill people” theme, and the first nine or ten times that they sighed over not being able to rape anymore— because I think Pratchett was a remarkably keen and insightful social commentator, and a lot of fun. And Rincewind’s sarcasm is usually worth the price of admission. But I finally quit a couple of chapters from the end when I realized just how pervasively furious and deeply sad this book was actually making me.

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Slow Narration Sucks the Life Out of It

Revisado: 12-13-18

I wish I could recommend this, because I love all things Heyer. Even when it isn’t Heyer’s best work (and this definitely isn’t) I enjoy the escapism of visiting her worlds. But it’s just too much work to get through this. Ulie Birve’s narration is perplexing, often maddening. Her voiced characters are very good, and the pace of their dialogue fairly natural, maybe just a little on the slow side. But when there is no dialogue the narration is excruciatingly bad and unbearably slow— she sounds like a computer that has been slowed down to half speed. I was able to get through it by turning the speed up to 1.5 or 1.25 during narration, and 1.25 or normal for dialogue. With a better narration, I think I would have better liked this story of the surly and mysterious girl who has come to stay in a posh village outside London, and the rude and superior star barrister who finds her standing beside a car containing a murdered butler—and decides to conceal that fact as he helps the police investigate the murder. But even so, for a Heyer story it is short on sympathetic characters with real charm, with the notable exception of the barrister’s placid but perceptive aristocratic aunt, and the looooong exposition at the end is tedious. If you’re a Heyer fan I’d recommend reading this one, or, if possible, finding a different narration— and if you are new to Heyer definitely start with a different book.

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Story+Film Diary+Emma Thompson=Joy

Revisado: 08-02-17

I've listened to this audiobook perhaps four times over the last several years, and it delights me every time. I wish Emma Thompson would narrate more books, preferably including a full memoir of her own. Her voice is beautiful, her delivery delicious. And she is remarkably insightful and emotionally wise. This book alternates between being a diary of the experience of filming Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, and a reading of Nanny McPhee Returns. Her character expression in the story is fabulous, and the story itself is both funny and uplifting. What I enjoy even more is the education she gives us about the technical aspects of filmmaking, and the physical and emotional effort it requires of everyone involved. Her understanding and love of human nature make the whole thing a fascinating and joyful listen.

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Heyer + Philpott = Brilliant Entertainment

Revisado: 01-03-17

This is one of my favorite, escapist Georgette Heyer stories. Daniel Philpott's remarkably versatile voicing brings a wide range of characters--male and female, young and old, southern, northern or London-bred--to vivid life. If you know and like Heyer's Regency stories you will enjoy this. If you are new to them, don't expect to be intellectually challenged: just sit back and enjoy Heyer's witty dialogue in this literate, G-rated romance and adventure story of a vanished age.

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Made Me Greedy for Longer Versions

Revisado: 04-17-16

Wonderfully performed collection of substantially abridged dramatizations of Austen's major works. Thoroughly enjoyed every one.. 'Emma' and 'Persuasion' sometimes bogged down in heavily expository dialogue, or monologue, in an attempt to limit narration, but on the whole were very good. (Austen's narrative commentary on the foibles of society and her characters is the best part of her books, but must make dramatization very difficult!) As an Austen enthusiast, I'd love a reading by these casts of the full works, but this is well done.

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Good Characters, masterful narration, slightly thin plot

Revisado: 03-31-16

If you like Georgette Heyer's romances, 'Venetia' will not disappoint. A nice plot and characterization change up in that this heroine is not at all concerned with securing or losing place in London society, as so many of Heyer's heroines are. There is some inkling of real world passion and sacrifice in this story. As usual, Heyer provides a terrific cast of secondary characters and a nice sense of the ridiculous. Ultimately not a great deal happens--as is usual for Austen-sequel stories--and the last quarter of the book seems to drag a bit as Heyer stretches out the pages before the denouement. Phyllida Nash is superb and utterly believable in every character.

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If books were champagne

Revisado: 07-28-15

Ranks with Cotillion as my favorite Heyer romps. Delightful characters in youthful misadventures. As much fun as the book is, the narrator, Eve Mattheson, is a marvel. Utterly convincing as male and female, young and old. As indigent an experience as a bubble bath with champagne and bon bond.

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Abridgment, Narration Highlight Weaknesses

Revisado: 01-09-13

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

On the whole, probably not. I'm a fan of Ngaio Marsh and other classic English mystery writers largely for the restoratively escapist experience they provide -- the luxury of immersing myself in a not-too-serious puzzle in an elegantly mannered, rarified society at a distant time, without bothering my little head about the real world questions of social justice and an impermeable class system, economic depression, and xenophobia that also characterized these times. I also consider listening to the perfect vowels and resonant tones of Benedict Cumberbatch's voice a truly satisfying indulgence. Unfortunately, Cumberbatch doesn't do young women spectacularly well, and he does American women less successfully than English women. Since many of the most importent characters in this story, both the ones we're supposed to love and the ones were supposed to despise, are women, that fact makes the escapist exercise of suspending disbelief more difficult, the experience a bit less satisfying. Moreover, I have never thought that Marsh does very well by her characters when they are trying to express deep emotions, especially romantic ones. Lines that had struck me as uninspired or unsuccessful when reading this old favorite--but which I shrugged off, and read on in search of the bad guys -- are revealed as jaw-droppingly silly, vapid, even embarrassing in narration. (I suspect that the abridgment makes it even worse, as these things seem to come even more out of the blue than in the original, but I think the fault is there in the original.). Again, hard to stay rapt in the the moment when the urbane hero is making an implausible goob of himself. Overall I still enjoyed both the narration and the story, but I suspect that I could have spent the time on much more edifying or, alternatively, more effectively escapist, offerings.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Either left the development of the Alleyn -- Troy romance to another time, or done much more with it, more believably. I also would have made Cumberbatch's interpretations of the characters "Donna" and Bridget less affected and more straightforward.

Which character – as performed by Benedict Cumberbatch – was your favorite?

A toss-up. Cumberbatch's voice is ideal for Alleyn: I don't think I'd want to hear anyone else do it. Cumberbatch brought out aspects of Lord Robert Gospell's character that I had overlooked when reading the book, so I was surprised and then impressed by what he did with that character.

Do you think Death in a White Tie needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

As to writing, a moot point: there are many, many Alleyn books, and Dame Ngaio is no longer with us. As to recording, yes, absolutely. Cumberbatch should do as many of these books as possible, preferably focussing on books that have a high proportion of men and/or elderly women in the dramatis personae. And then he should do the Campion stories. And the Lord Peter Wimsey stories. And all the Sherlock Holmes.

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