Victoria J. Mejia-Gewe
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Terns of Endearment
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 10 h y 45 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 221
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 197
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 196
Meg's grandfather has been booked to give lectures on a cruise as part of the education/entertainment itinerary, and he's arranged for a passel of family members to join him. The passengers’ vacation quickly becomes a nightmare when they wake up to find themselves broken down and in need of repairs. Things get even worse when a crew member announces to all that a woman has jumped overboard, leaving behind her shoes, shawl, and a note. The note reveals she's a disliked member of a writers' group onboard for a retreat, and the group is split on whether this is in-character for her.
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5 out of 5 stars
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And now I have the pre order!
- De MolllyT en 08-06-19
- Terns of Endearment
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
The Cruise from Hell!
Revisado: 07-30-21
Meg Langslow gets on board a cruise ship bound for Bermuda with her grandfather, the famous biologist Dr. Blake, and 14 other members of her family and friends in Terns of Endearment by Donna Andrews. The cruise line Pastime shows a degree of poor customer service from the start, but the cruise still gets off to a smooth start. As Michael and the twins play miniature golf outside, Meg goes to the lounge, where she meets four delightful women on a writer’s retreat that also is serving as a memorial cruise to honor Nancy, the fifth member of their group, who committed suicide five months earlier. The writers are horrified to discover that they have been joined on the cruise by Desiree St. Christophe, a has-been romance writer whom the writers blame for having triggered Nancy’s suicide.
Then, at 4:30 in the morning, Meg awakens to find the ship still, with the power out, and goes on board the deck to see what has happened. Finding nothing but a still sea in every direction she looks, Meg goes back to her room. But in the later morning, with the ship’s still remaining without power, no one can use any lights, run any water, or even flush the toilets. The captain remains hidden from the passengers, but the first officer gives useless platitudes to everyone before a crew member comes running into the room with the news that someone has gone overboard. Meg follows in their wake to see the expensive shoes and scarf of Desiree, along with a suicide note, next to the side of the fourth deck. She manages to snap some pictures before the captain picks up the items and cleans up the scene. Mystery writer Angie joins Meg’s father, the medical examiner, and cousin Horace, the crime scene technician, in determining to investigate in the chance that Desiree did not go overboard willingly.
As the ship remains still, things deteriorate on board, with the crew members disappearing at every opportunity, leaving the passengers to fend for themselves. As Meg begins to investigate suspicious happenings, this cruise turns into the cruise from hell, requiring the passengers to take back their power and the ship.
I had high hopes for Terns of Endearment, and I was not disappointed in the least by this delightfully fun book. The cruise created a fun setting for a locked- room mystery, though it did cause some of my favorite characters from Caerphilly to be left out of the book. However, the sea setting allows for crazy antics that we wouldn’t see on land. One of the strengths of Andrews’s books is the depth of her characters, which then sets up opportunities for incredibly humorous situations. I especially liked the four authors, each of whom has a fully fleshed out personality and unique style of books. For example, Angie allows Meg’s father and cousin Horace to show their crime-solving passion, while Janet allows Michael and the twin boys to show off their sword-fighting skills.
Another of Andrew’s strengths is the way the characters work together to solve their community problems. We see this trend build up in such books as Some Like It Hawk, Duck the Halls, and especially Lark, the Herald Angels Sing, but Terns of Endearment demonstrates this in a special way. The lesson of the value of teamwork inspires and adds exciting plot devices to the book.
The audio edition of Terns of Endearment is performed by Bernadette Dunne. I first experienced this book by reading an ARC (Advanced Review Copy) of the book and highly enjoyed it. But when I got an ARC of the audiobook to review for AudioFile Magazine, the book came alive so much more effectively than in the visual version. Dunne does a fantastic job of giving extra personality to each character and makes us experience the drama on the ocean in a unique way.
I greatly enjoy all of Donna Andrews’s books and have listened to each numerous times. Terns of Endearment will soon catch up with all the other books as one in which I will soon be quoting and citing. It is a delightful book that I highly recommend to all. I give the book five stars!
Disclaimer: I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book in both print and audio, but that had no impact on the content of my review.
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You've Got Murder
- Turing Hopper, Book 1
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 9 h y 40 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 101
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 82
Zack is a workaholic computer expert who created his friend Turing. Turing is a sentient artificial-intelligence personality who has thousands of mystery novels downloaded to her database. With a self-improvement feature, Turing and Zack have taken on numerous challenges together. But when Zack disappears, Turing suspects foul play. She'll have to utilize her personality, her knowledge, and her unique abilities in order to find out what happened to her creator - and her friend.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An audiobook Winner!
- De Victoria J. Mejia-Gewe en 07-30-21
- You've Got Murder
- Turing Hopper, Book 1
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
An audiobook Winner!
Revisado: 07-30-21
Last year when I attended the Malice Domestic mystery convention, the guest of honor was one of my very favorite authors, Donna Andrews. She told us how she came to write her Turing Hopper series, which contains only four books in it so often gets overlooked. At the first Malice Domestic Andrews attended, before she had any book published, the convention held a writing contest, asking people to write the introduction to a book with the most unusual and improbable detective they could imagine. Andrews was inspired, and the character of Turing Hopper, a sentient AIP (artificial intelligence program) was born. Incidentally, Andrews won the writing contest too.
I was unable to enjoy the books in this series because they were not on audio, and reading full books is painful to me due to severe migraines. So imagine my delight when I discovered that the first book, You’ve Got Murder, was going to be released on audio. I immediately preordered the book, and it was worth the wait!
Turing Hopper is a computer program that has gained sentience, which means that she has learned to go past her programming to develop her own intelligence and personality. When Zack, her programmer, suddenly goes missing, Turing decides she must do her part to save him. In the process, she discovers all sorts of evil that has penetrated Universal Library, which owns all the AIPs. With the help of two unlikely assistants, Turing seeks both to find out what happened to Zack and to stop the bad guys from taking over her company.
You’ve Got Murder was published in 2002, so some of the computer technology is dated, but the book itself is especially relevant for today. I was really fascinated by Turing’s musings of self-analysis over issues of ethics, emotions, and what it means to be a person (opposed to being human). The plot was also well developed and kept my attention glued to the book, with the existential thoughts blended into it seamlessly. One need not know anything about computers or artificial intelligence to be able to enjoy this book, though it does use a lot of computer terms. Soon listeners will come to see Turing as a person, just as the characters in the book do.
I listen to hundreds of audiobooks a year, so it takes a lot to truly impress me, but Bernadette Dunne, already one of my favorite narrators, blew me away with her performance. The book shifts back and forth between 1st person narration from Turing’s perspective to 3rd person narration about the other characters. Dunne does an amazing job of making her voice subtly robotic for Turing’s speech without sounding too stilted or soon growing tedious. As Turing develops her own voice software and becomes better at using it, Dunne gradually develops a little bit more expression for Turing’s speech. Her 1st person and 3rd person performances stand out as distinctly different from each other. I was truly impressed by this audio edition!
If you haven’t figured out by now that I fell in love with You’ve Got Murder, you haven’t been reading my review very carefully. Both the book itself and the audio performance were top-notch and impressed me greatly. This book is so unique in its premise but so accessible to everyone that I’m amazed. May I give it more than 5 stars?
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Click Here for Murder
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 9 h y 16 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Ray Santiago's friends from work know him as a brilliant-but-easygoing systems engineer who spends a lot of time on his favorite online role-playing game. But the game is over for Ray: His colleagues from work, Maude, Tim, and Turing, have just found out about Ray's murder in a dark alley. He was shot, and his laptop stolen. It could be just another DC street crime. But if Turing's password was in that computer‚ and it's fallen into the wrong hands‚ she could be in terrible danger.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I enjoyed this addition to the series.
- De Dawn en 03-24-20
- Click Here for Murder
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
Impresses as an audiobook. Amazing narration!
Revisado: 07-30-21
Turing Hopper gets a call in the middle of the night that Ray Santiago, her employee, has been murdered in Click Here for Murder by Donna Andrews. Since Turing is an artificial intelligence program (AIP), a real sentient person but a computer, not a human, she can’t investigate on her own, so she must rely on her friends, Maude and Tim. As the trio looks into Ray’s death, they are astonished to learn that he was not the real Ray Santiago, that his entire life, except for his most recent jobs in the Silicon Valley, was stolen from someone else. As they seek the truth, they find themselves immersed in the computer role playing game Beyond Paranoia, which Ray had been active in playing. Soon the team, including the new member, Claudia, gets involved in a LARP (live action role playing game) that turns out to involve much more than just a game.
This book becomes really exciting as it continues and gets listeners to continue examining questions raised in You’ve Got Murderof what it takes to be a person vs. a human. Further, in this book, we explore the world of role playing games and their live-action counterparts. When do actions within these games cross the line into being dangerous? How can we offer such games and keep out the criminal element, especially pedophiles? How much influence does the violence on the screen have on players to play out the violence in real life?
Click Here for Murder was recently released on audio, for which I am very happy. Bernadette Dunne performs the narration, and though I have always loved her work, especially her work on Donna Andrew’s more well-known Meg Langslow series, I believe she truly surpasses all the previous audiobooks I’ve heard of hers in bringing this book to life. The book’s narration switches back and forth between third person omniscient, where the narrator knows all that is going on and recounts it, and the first person narrative of Turing, the computer. In You’ve Got Murder, Turing works hard on learning how to talk like a human, but even now she still has a slightly mechanical sound to her voice. It’s obvious enough that Maude is afraid Claudia will notice during their “conference calls” with Turing, since Claudia doesn’t know the truth about Turing. Dunne brilliantly provides a credible voice for Turing, with just a hint of a mechanical tone that still is clearly different from the other voices.
I really enjoyed getting to listen to Click Here for Murder. Though this book was written almost 20 years ago, it still holds up well in its depictions of technology, and the questions it raises about the way we approach technology are just as pertinent today as they were when the book was written.
If you haven’t read the first book in the series, You’ve Got Murder, I recommend starting with that first, but it’s possible to jump in with Click Here for Murder first. I give this book five stars.
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Access Denied
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 9 h y 18 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 22
When Turing Hopper, Artificial Intelligence Personality and sleuth, uncovers information tied to criminal Nestor Garcia's long-dormant credit cards, she sends her human assistants to investigate. But when one of them becomes embroiled in murder, the A.I. detective must find a way to bring the guilty party to light.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another detection by a computer!
- De Victoria J. Mejia-Gewe en 07-30-21
- Access Denied
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
Another detection by a computer!
Revisado: 07-30-21
In Access Denied by Donna Andrews, Turing Hopper, the artificial intelligence personality (AIP), has an enemy whom she has been trying to locate when she sees someone use his credit card to send a package to an unoccupied house. She has newly minted private investigator Tim stake out the house, but after long hours of sitting in the car in front of the house, he falls asleep. Thus he misses witnessing the murder of a man at the building. Turing’s team, which now includes private investigator Claudia and attorney Sam, takes on the credit card scam to look for this enemy. Along the way they find more criminals, break-ins, and murder.
Access Denied shifts a bit from the previous books in this series in containing less mystery and being more of an adventure. In its doing so, I missed getting to solve the puzzle with the team. However, I still enjoyed the book.
As in the two previous books, Access Denied poses philosophical questions to keep the readers’ interest. This time, it skips over the question of what defines a human and instead asks about the implications of having sentient AIPs. If someone steals one, is that property theft or kidnapping? Should such beings be recognized as having the rights of humans? What happens if an AIP goes down the road of evil instead of good?
The amazing Bernadette Dunne continues in performing the books in this series. I have already raved about her narration in all my previous reviews of the books by Donna Andrews, so rather than my repeating everything for the umpteenth time, I will suggest you look at my reviews of Dunne here.
I thoroughly appreciated this audiobook despite preferring the books that feature puzzles more than adventures. I give the book five stars.
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Owl Be Home for Christmas
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 9 h y 32 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 258
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 256
While trapped by a snowstorm at a conference, a visiting ornithologist is murdered. Now, nobody may make it home in time for Christmas...unless Meg comes to the rescue.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another excellent installment
- De Dawn en 10-17-19
- Owl Be Home for Christmas
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
Another great listen!
Revisado: 07-30-21
Who knew that owls could cause such violent controversy? In Owl Be Home for Christmas by Donna Andrews, eminent zoologist Dr. Blake decides to hold Owl Fest 2019 at the Caerphilly Inn just before Christmas, and ornithologists from all over the world show up. There are strange controversies such as arguments over taxodermic labels of owls and whether to kill the bard owls in order to preserve the habitat for the endangered spotted owls. And of course Meg Langslow has been stuck with the job of organizing this conference, which takes place in one of the worst blizzards the area has seen in years. Her whole family, minus Meg’s brother, Rob, and his fiancee, have settled into the five star inn, so Michael and the twins are nearby. Meg, however, is too busy taking care of the logistics to spend much time with them.
The day of the big banquet, as Dr. Blake is examining the banquet room, he gets confronted by Dr. Oliver Frogmore of Buckthorn College, the most contentious, misogynist, and white supremacist person at the conference. The egotistic Dr. Frogmore thinks he should be seated at the head table, despite the fact that Dr. Blake hasn’t assigned a table as the head table, pushing Dr. Blake to designate the table Dr. Frogmore has chosen as the head table. However, no one wants to sit there with him besides his lacky, Dr. Ned Churney. As the dinner progresses, suddenly Dr. Frogmore falls over dead. And now we have another locked room mystery, since the storm prevents anyone from coming or going from the inn.
Anyone who has followed my reviews will know that I’m a huge fan of Donna Andrews and her books. I find them clever and witty, with characters who truly come to life. Owl Be Home for Christmas is a fun book but not one of Andrews’s strongest. I thought the method of murder was very creative. It was also fun to spend time with Ekaterina, the manager of the Caerphilly Inn, though we don’t see her love of conspiracy theories in this book. It was also nice to see Horace be pushed forward in his role as police officer/ crime scene analyst, despite his nerves and low self-esteem.
I understand the challenges the author faces in including the vast number of characters readers have come to know and love over the course of 26 books, but I do miss getting to spend time with the locals of Caerphilly. I also would have liked to see more involvement by the character of Michael, Meg’s husband, who comes across as flat and makes very few appearances in the book. Further, Meg’s mother doesn’t have the same attitude as grand dame that endears her to us in other books.
I still believe that the strongest book in this series is Lark, The Herald Angels Sing, the Christmas mystery from the year before. That book has a strong message of personal and women’s empowerment. Since the series was heading in the direction of great stories with messages, I was a bit disappointed not to find much of one in this book at all. And incidentally, the cover of the book incorrectly calls the aforementioned Christmas mystery Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, taking away from the theme of the titles’ having puns of bird babes in each one.
The audiobook is performed by Bernadette Dunne, who does an incredible job with this series. Each of her voices suits the character clearly, and Dunne makes listeners feel like a part of the book. I highly recommend the audio edition of this book.
Despite my concerns that the quality of Owl Be Home for Christmas is less than other books in the series, I still enjoyed this fun book. I give it four stars.
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Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 8 h y 36 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 550
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 435
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 435
Poor Meg Langslow. She's blessed in so many ways. Michael, her boyfriend, is a handsome, delightful heartthrob who adores her. She's a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations. But somehow Meg's road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very amusing!
- De Jennifer en 03-14-07
- Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
Wild and fun romp
Revisado: 07-30-21
Meg Langslow’s brother Rob has created a popular online game called Lawyers from Hell. In Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews, Meg has agreed to assist Rob at his office while she is unable to do her blacksmith work due to an injury to her hand. This office is inhabited by many crazy programmers, hence the word “loon” found in the title. In addition to the human employees, the office contains a resident buzzard with only one wing who was rescued by someone of Mutant Wizards, the name of the company. Then there are Spike, the 9-pound vicious furball of a dog, along with the 8 or 9 nice dogs of employees who travel in a pack all over the office. And speaking of traveling, there is an automatic mail cart that moves on its own all over the office.
Ted, one of the most odious men in the office, has been having fun riding around on the cart pretending to be a murder victim, complete with fake blood, until Meg realizes that he is no longer faking his death. Ted has been strangled with a mouse cord!
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon follows the investigation of the police chief, who focuses on Rob based upon a blackmail note seeming to be written by Ted and found in Rob’s office. So to save her brother, Meg becomes forced to do her own investigation.
The book is full of humor along with a fascinating plot line. Andrews is a really gifted writer in being creative both with her mystery lines and her incredible humor. The titles of each of the books in this series, this being the fourth, refer to birds, the first book being called Murder with Peacocks. But Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, a take-off of the acclaimed movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, begins Andrews’s pattern of using birds in puns for her titles. What I find remarkable is the way that with a total of 19 books in the series and 16 titles using bird puns, Andrews manages to make each bird relevant to the book. With this book, the buzzard lives in the office, and the loons work there.
This is the first of the books in this series to be available in audio format. It seems strange to me that the publishers of the audio books do not offer the first three books in audio and offer books 4 and 5, along with 14-19, skipping books 6-13, though Owl’s Well that Ends Well, book six, will be released in October. This lack is all the more disappointing given the excellent narration of Bernadette Dunne. With the book written in first person, the choice of narrator is particularly important, as the narrator must portray Meg and not just read about her, and Dunne does a great job of being very believable in her role.
In all, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon is a very fun read or listen, enjoyable to anyone, whether that person has any knowledge of the video game world or has never gone near a computer in her or his life. I give this a hearty five stars!
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No Nest for the Wicket
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 7 h y 1 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 291
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 261
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 260
The hilly terrain next to the old Sprocket house that Meg Langslow and her fiancé, Michael, are refurbishing is the perfect location for an extreme croquet field - even the legs of cows and sheep are convenient extra wickets. Croquet has become all the rage in Caerphilly...until it appears someone in town has taken the rage a bit too literally. While stumbling down a steep bank after her ball, Meg encounters the body of a fresh female corpse with a mallet-sized dent in her head.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Family fun!
- De Sandra en 01-08-17
- No Nest for the Wicket
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
Fun with Xtreme Croquet!
Revisado: 07-30-21
Donna Andrews really comes through with her seventh book in her “bird series,” No Nest for the Wicket . Meg Langslow’s relative Mrs. Fenniman has decided to organize a croquet tournament, but in her own unique style, she can’t run just any old traditional tournament. She has to hold a tournament of Xtreme croquet, with crazy obstacles taking place in pastures of two acres filled with quicksand, rivers, and “walking wickets,” since players can get points for going through a wicket by sending their ball under any animal in the field. When Meg’s ball gets “roqueted” into a sand trap, she finds the body of a beautiful young woman staring at her, but no one in the tournament claims any knowledge of the victim.
Then Michael, Meg’s drama professor fiance, comes home and recognizes the victim as his ex-girlfriend. Fortunately, Michael has an alibi, but his explanation of Lindsey, the victim, reveals that almost everyone in the tournament had known her during her year as a history lecturer at Caerphilly College.
The case seems to involve a battle over a proposed new outlet mall that might be located next door to Meg and Michael’s new farm. This then gets wrapped up in a historical enigma, the Civil War’s Battle of Pruitt’s Ridge, which might have taken place at the proposed development site. But then why had Lindsey been so interested in the topic and hinting that she could show anomalies about it if not given her way in other matters?
As in the other books in this series that have been recorded, Bernadette Dunne does a fine job of performing the narration of this book.
No Nest for the Wicket is one of the best books in this series. Not only is the premise of Xtreme Croquet so wildly ridiculous as to be hilarious, the angles the investigation takes, as they uncover first one person and then another who knew Lindsey, is done very creatively. The historical research also made this book extra enjoyable. I give this book five stars and eagerly await the audio releases of the other books yet to be recorded.
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Murder with Puffins
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
- Duración: 9 h y 19 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 381
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 326
Meg Langslow and her boyfriend, Michael, are searching for some romantic alone time. She knows the perfect place for a private getaway: her aunt's cottage on the tiny island of Monhegan. But when a series of events leads to the couple being trapped in the cottage with her entire family, their private getaway vacation slowly turns into a disaster. Meg doesn't think anything more could go wrong until a resident of the island with close ties to her mother is murdered. When her father becomes the chief suspect, she knows she can no longer sit by the cozy fireplace.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Made me laugh several times!
- De Anonymous User en 03-02-19
- Murder with Puffins
- De: Donna Andrews
- Narrado por: Bernadette Dunne
Fun 2nd book in a series!
Revisado: 07-30-21
In Murder with Puffins, the second book in the Meg Langslow Mystery series by Donna Andrews, Meg and Michael, in a desperate attempt to find some privacy after being forced to live with their respective families, flee to Meg’s Aunt Phoebe’s summer cabin on the island of Monhegan. This is a place where no one but the relatively few local residents and avid birdwatchers there to see the local puffins bother to visit as the island lacks all but the most basic of utilities. The Central Monhegan Power Company consists of a large generator operated by Aunt Phoebe’s neighbor, and residents get their power by connecting extension cords to the “plant.” It seems the ideal place to hide from the rest of the world.
Imagine Meg’s and Michael’s consternation when, upon arriving at the cabin, they are warmly greeted by Meg’s parents, who have just returned early to the United States after vacationing in Europe on their second honeymoon. Then, while Meg and Michael are still trying to make sense of the Langslows’ presence there, Aunt Phoebe, who at last sighting was at Meg’s family’s house in Yorktown, VA, and their neighbor Mrs. Fenniman walk in and say hello, followed by Meg’s brother, Rob, with Michael’s mother’s 9-pound furball from hell, Spike.
Not only is Meg’s and Michael’s romantic weekend getaway not going to happen, no one can get off this island due to the arrival of Hurricane Gladys. So they are stuck in a tiny three-bedroom cabin with five other people and a vicious little dog, leaving Michael to share a set of bunk beds with Rob and Meg to sleep on the sofa.
The next day, the entire island gets busy making preparations for the upcoming hurricane, bringing all the outdoor furniture inside, boarding up the windows, and stocking up on supplies. To escape being given further chores, Meg and Michael take a walk around the island only to be shot at by the villain of the community, Victor Resnick, an artist who thinks he is more famous and talented than he really is. In addition, Meg is told by several people that Resnick was once the much older boyfriend of her mother when Margaret Langslow was a teenager, something that seems evident when Meg and Michael see the nude portrait of Meg’s mother from forty years before hanging in the entryway to Resnick’s glass house!
In the meantime, Meg’s loony father has run off in excitement to get to watch the hurricane make landfall, so her mother tasks Meg and Michael with the job of locating him and bringing him back to the cabin. Instead, they locate someone, or rather a former someone, else.
Victor Resnick lies at the bottom of the cliff near his house in a tidal pool of water that is ready to take his body out to sea. Observing the cuts on his head and concluding that Resnick has been murdered, Meg and Michael use the ropes in the emergency backpacks Meg’s father has made everyone carry to haul the body up the cliff and then notify the authorities, who think it very convenient that Resnick was once supposedly Meg’s mother’s lover. These people seem to prefer to consider Meg’s father their chief suspect so as not to have to arrest a local or one of the birders, the group that contributes the most to the income of Monhegan.
Fresh from her previous triumph in solving the Murder with Peacocks, Meg determines to work her magic again and this time save her dad from any accusations of murder. The process involves dealing with some crazy people, searching the creepy glass home of Resnick, and coping with Meg’s possibly clinically insane family in the meantime.
This book was a very enjoyable read and sped by very quickly. It kept me up late several nights when I just could not put the book down. The humor was different and not as pronounced as it was in Murder with Peacocks, but I still found it very fun to read through and am thoroughly looking forward to starting The Revenge of the Wrought-iron Flamingos, the third book in the Meg Langslow Mystery series. I heartily endorse this book for 5 stars!
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Dear Mrs. Bird
- De: AJ Pearce
- Narrado por: Anna Popplewell
- Duración: 9 h y 48 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 990
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 893
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 893
London, 1940. Emmeline Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort, volunteering as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent suddenly seem achievable. But the job turns out to be working as a typist for the fierce and renowned advice columnist Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed but gamely bucks up and buckles down.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Keep going...it's worth it
- De Species 8472 en 09-25-18
- Dear Mrs. Bird
- De: AJ Pearce
- Narrado por: Anna Popplewell
Life, love, and loss in the Blitz
Revisado: 07-30-21
In Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce, Emmeline Lake wants nothing more than to become a Lady War Correspondent. And in 1940 London, there is no shortage of war for her to cover. However, when Emmeline answers an advertisement for a job with a magazine, she is surprised to learn the first day she shows up for work that the job is with Woman’s Friend and not with The London Evening Chronicle as she had thought. Her job turns out not even to involve writing or researching but sorting through the advice letters sent to the stern Henrietta Bird. Emmeline has been tasked with weeding out the “undesirable” letters and cutting them into pieces with scissors. Since the list of “undesirable” topics is longer than the list of desirable ones, Emmy is expected to cut up most of the letters.
However, the more letters Emmeline reads, the more she dreads having to cut them up. She finds herself identifying with the problems of the young women who write about love, loss, and fear amid war. So when Emmy reads a letter from a young woman that pulls especially at her heart, she can’t resist writing back to the correspondent, signing Mrs. Bird’s name to the letter. Gradually, Emmeline adds to the quantity of her private letters while in the meantime, she herself faces many similar challenges in life, love, and friendship during the war.
There has been a lot of resurgence of interest in World War II lately, and that has led to many recent historical fiction books being set in that era. Dear Mrs. Bird shows listeners the experience of civilians trying to soldier on in the midst of the chaos of the Blitz. The book demonstrates what it was like to be hit by bombs and face issues surrounding love in wartime. The letters sent to Mrs. Bird give listeners a first-hand account of people’s experiences. Though Dear Mrs. Bird is a fictional account, Pearce seems to have done plenty of research in order to give realistic portrayals. Further, it is just an enjoyable listening experience.
The audiobook of Dear Mrs. Bird is performed by Anna Popplewell. Using an educated British accent, Popplewell speaks with high energy, whether in excitement, terror, or grief. She does an especially memorable job when performing the role of the frequently belligerent Mrs. Bird. The advice columnist truly comes across as an overbearing, bitter woman.
Though I have listened recently to more powerful World War II historical fiction audiobooks, Dear Mrs. Bird will delight and keep listeners’ attention. I appreciated the unique angle of viewing life during the war through the lens of an advice column. I did feel that the audiobook ended with a mild cliffhanger. Readers of my reviews will know how much I hate cliffhangers, so I wish Dear Mrs. Bird had fully resolved all the issues rather than make us wait for book two to come out. However, this audiobook will bring pleasure to listeners. I give it four stars.
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Code Name Verity
- De: Elizabeth Wein
- Narrado por: Morven Christie, Lucy Gaskell
- Duración: 10 h y 3 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 10,618
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 9,625
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 9,596
Code Name Verity is a compelling, emotionally rich story with universal themes of friendship and loyalty, heroism and bravery. Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends. But then a vital mission goes wrong....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Do Not Read Any (other) Reviews of this Book!
- De HDJ en 12-15-12
- Code Name Verity
- De: Elizabeth Wein
- Narrado por: Morven Christie, Lucy Gaskell
Incredible!!!
Revisado: 07-27-21
Code Name Verity is a powerful historical fiction book set during World War II. The following is the official publisher’s summary as found on Audible:
Code Name Verity is a compelling, emotionally rich story with universal themes of friendship and loyalty, heroism and bravery. Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends. But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in Verity’s own words, as she writes her account for her captors.
This audiobook was an outstanding novel that was both very well-written and incredibly performed. Author Elizabeth Wein effectively uses a unique writing style, with the main narrative entirely in the present tense. The complexity of the narrative is written so well that listeners hardly notice the complicated style. Listeners follow the full story through journals written by first Verity and then Maddie, seeing actions as they unfold. This proves to be a powerful technique, keeping us in the moment and drawing us deeper into the story. Wein makes listeners see, hear, touch, smell, and taste the atmosphere of World War II.
As an epistolary novel, composed of journals by Verity and Maddie, the audiobook of Code Name Verity uses two narrators. Morven Christie performs the role of Verity, while Lucy Gaskell performs the role of Maddie. Both women blew me away with the quality of their performances, each demonstrating a wide range of emotions. Christie drew me into the audiobook from the first minute and kept me riveted throughout. From the opening of the audiobook, which introduces the key detail of Verity’s being scared while in the Gestapo prison, listeners connect to her fear and feel the pain of the torture she has endured. Just as powerfully, while Maddie tells about her time in the cockpit, Gaskell gives listeners the sense of her tension, full of both fear and excitement. As Maddie’s nerves reach their limit, Gaskell conveys the anxiety and further challenges of the pilot.
I highly recommend Code Name Verity to listeners. The book is classified as a young adult level audiobook, but it is certainly not limited to YA readers. Adults will also appreciate the book and connect deeply to it. I particularly recommend that people listen to the book instead of reading it. The narration was so incredible that I can’t imagine being able to enjoy reading it as much as I was stirred by the audiobook. It is now a full day since I listened to this audiobook, and I have listened to another, very different book since Code Name Verity. However, I still am haunted by this incredible, powerful audiobook! What an amazing listen!
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