J. Walker

Frogett reading Jewel is Perfection

Revisado: 07-21-24

This is excellently written, with a compelling, multilayered plot, but the kudos go to Joanna Frogett. Twice I looked back at the title page to reconfirm that she was the only reader. She’s an amazing character actor.

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Couldn’t get into it.

Revisado: 10-23-23

The characters didn’t grip me. I gave up at Chapter 12. I’ve liked her others so much more.

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Pitch perfect!

Revisado: 10-23-23

Stunning performances; story told in an unusual, modern format. One of the best of about 200 audible reads.

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This is terrible melodrama.

Revisado: 07-01-23

The voice talent lacks emotional truth. That quivering pretense of vulnerability is insufferable. I couldn’t get through the first ten minutes.

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Three teenagers tell the story, in turns

Revisado: 07-17-21

Just wanted to note the age of the lead characters.

The writing of the girls and their mothers is subtle and evocative.

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Particularly like Shelly Atkinson

Revisado: 02-12-20

The strong regional accents are so important. She is fantastic. The next narrator is sanitized.

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The same narrator. Again? Why?

Revisado: 01-02-20

The story is one of the strongest in the series. The plot lines opened up nicely, which made the story quite compelling.

But Reiclin is back? There are numerous reviews bemoaning his work in this series.

He is at best a melodramatic voiceover for films in the forties, with women leading pitiful lives. He is seemingly incapable of genuinely connecting to the material. His racially ignorant reading of Stacey Chen is just silly. He sounds like a bad American Charlie Chan reading. She would have an assimilated regional accent like the peers she went to school with.

Losing the regional accents flattens out the story and makes it bland. And the reading of Carol is just awful. Her strength, dignity, scrappiness, humor and desperation just sound pathetic. No one reads this series to identify with a pathetic Carol.

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Okay, here I go...

Revisado: 12-29-19

This was the weakest book of the series, but I wouldn’t have written a review about that. With this many books in a series—some of them have to be weaker.

The problem was the narrator. Simply put, there isn’t much evidence he understands character. And at its core, the Tony Hill novels are expertly driven by character, both of the team and of the criminal.

Reichlin is a strange choice. I was an hour into the book before I realized he spoke like Clifford Drysdale, that is, posh mid-Century South African. Why? One of the loveliest things about British audiobooks are the regional and socioeconomic-based accents.

However, his lack of insight into a character’s mind is damning for a book like this. I generally find it easy to keep track of which character is speaking. When the character is well-written, and all of McDermid’s are, the ways they think, speak and react are unique to them. No one else in the book would have had that response so it is clear who is speaking, even if the line doesn’t read “Paula says”.

Because he doesn’t embody the client psychologically, because he’s a remarkably limited actor and because he has such an inflexible mode of speech the book bordered on unlistenable. I am so glad he hasn’t read the books from the beginning. I would have avoided the whole series and missed this fantastic writing.

I’m truly confused about the choice of this reader. And I see that he’s reading the latest one. I wonder if it’s all contractual—McDermid’s agent didn’t negotiate the right to overrule readers picked by the publishing house?

It’s such a poor business move. On all of those concerned.

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Great book; miss the other narrator

Revisado: 10-18-19

I really appreciate Olivia Kiernan. Her prose is more literary then mystery. This seems to be most obvious with audible books.

Although Shelley Atkinson is a superb reader, her voice is sounds twenty years too old for the character of Frankie. It really took away from the character.

Brona C. Titley is such perfect casting for that character. A young thirty something vs. a late middle-aged voice. I really hope Titley comes back for the next one.

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Great story, satisfying ending

Revisado: 08-04-19

The story was rich psychologically, and performed by an amazing actor. I’ll look for his recordings as much as I will look forward to other books by this author.

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