kate in dc

Suspenseful story but be prepared for awful music

Revisado: 02-21-24

This book has the pros and cons typical of early books in this series -- long and long-winded, interesting characters in somewhat contrived situations, etc. There is also a fair amount of gory detail in this book about the bodies of murder victims that is not present in the rest of the books I've read, so be forewarned. The narration was not bad, but I gave it a low score in performance due to the production decision to have interludes of dreadful melodramatic music interspersed between different chapters. The music was so bad (and loud) it was like a send up of an old-time radio drama. I don't know what they were thinking, but this detracted a lot from my enjoyment of the novel. Perhaps it won't be so irritating to a reader who goes into the experience knowing what to expect.

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Great book, glad I was not dissuaded by the negative reviews

Revisado: 05-13-23

The narrator is not my favorite, and I found certain of the chapters -- including one near the beginning regarding John Wales -- to be long and tedious. HOWEVER, the story as a whole is riveting, and Annette Gordon-Reed does a great job of both pulling together factual details and re-orienting the reader's focus from the well-known great man at Monticello to the vast network of people supporting him, most of them enslaved, some of them related to him by blood and marriage. While the story of Sally Hemmings is a key part of this book, Gordon-Reed cautions at the outset that it is not the focus of this study, which looks more broadly at all of the descendants of Elizabeth Hemmings, Sally's mother. I purchased this book after touring Monticello, where I learned so much, but in retrospect, the informative tours of Monticello only scratched the surface compared to this book. While a number of the facts uncovered in this book are not flattering to Jefferson, Gordon-Reed also does a good job of humanizing him as she does all of the people who figure in the book. Both histories and families are more complicated than they appear on the surface, and this book delves into all the complications. It's long but it's divided in a way that makes it easy to listen to a chapter or two at a time, as if you were listening to a podcast. Highly recommended (and I'm sorry I didn't read it when it originally came out)!

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Another great story, great character development

Revisado: 01-14-23

As with the first book in this series, it took me a while to get into this story, but once I did I was hooked by the characters (again). The narrator, Robin Miles, has to be one of the most talented in the business -- really magnificent. However, I found the use of audio sound effects throughout the story distracting from her performance. I don't remember those being so prevalent in the first book, and I hope it's not a trend.

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Least favorite of the George Smiley books to date

Revisado: 09-16-22

I've been reading the George Smile books in chronological order, and this is the first disappointment for me, perhaps because it seems to be more of a traditional spy thriller than the others. Also, while the narrator is a talented voice actor, there were several minor characters who he portrayed with very grating accents, including one who speaks for pages at a time. The book would be good for someone with an interest in Hong Kong in the 1970s, post-Vietnam era.

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A short and riveting listen

Revisado: 08-29-22

I never read this in school, and am glad I listened now. A parable with many lessons for today's world, including the power of disinformation.

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Try it, you'll like it!

Revisado: 07-11-22

An intriguing story that made me want to keep listening. to the very end. I would describe this as more of an adventure story than an espionage tale, even though there are some good passages about spy tradecraft. Vera's character is very compelling, and it feels like one is getting a realistic sneak peek into two very different worlds, one in 1960s America and the other in 1960s Argentina. More light-hearted than profound, but I definitely recommend!

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