Last Lemming

Great book

Revisado: 10-04-24

Inside the prosecutions of some of the West Coast’s worst criminals. Brilliantly written & just as brilliantly read by the author himself. Just very well done.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Extraordinary book about extraordinary ordinary men

Revisado: 02-03-24

A book about rowing & how it impacted 9 brave young men who came out of the Great Depression in America & rowed to victory in the 1936 Olympics. Beautifully written. Brought to life by a great performance. It doesn’t get any better than this.

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Story line to carry you away

Revisado: 08-25-23

The tale of US Gov v. Silk Road. Each side gets a detailed hearing & neither side comes away entirely clean. Excellent.

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Just a wonderful book

Revisado: 12-21-22

Very sorry to have finished this book because I know the next book I read will be—if I’m lucky—only half as good. A pleasure from one end to the other.
The reader is a long time favorite. As usual did not disappoint.

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Just the best narrator

Revisado: 08-02-22

Good books can be killed by a bad narrator. This narrator does Chandon’s diaries’ prose such excellent service that it is hard to imagine these words w/o this voice. Extra kudos for the occasional Churchill quote done in Churchill’s gravely baritone. All first rate.

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Diary of a man on the Wrong Side of History

Revisado: 07-20-22

An fascinating glimpse into the 1920s-1930s Great Britain by a man who supported a King who abdicated & a Prime Minister who has gone down in history as a great & unsuccessful appeaser. The narrator—where good audiobooks often go bad—is brilliant both as narrator & occasional actor. Channon has been well served.

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In depth review

Revisado: 08-23-21

While this podcast reviews widely known information, it also takes several scenic detours through less widely explored subjects such as Epstein’s business relationships & money making ventures. Details of sexual exploitation’s are addressed more tangentially than one would expect, but the roll thes played in Epstein’s relations w/ the billionaire class is examined in a rich & detailed way. Highly recommended.

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Great story about a great and terrible war

Revisado: 01-30-16

What did you love best about Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant?

How many generals have a writer's ear for prose and an artists eye for telling detail? The prose is the man, unadorned, straightforward and honest.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant?

There are so many. Let's see: a page long justification about why he was so sloppily dressed at Appomattox (he hadn't meant to slight Lee, he notes); Lincoln's jokes; Grant's discussion of Sherman's March to the Sea (as I understood it, this was an army stranded in alien territory, performing the then revolutionary maneuver of cutting itself loose from supply lines); Grant's detailed explanation of how telegraph wires were set up at each command post.

Which character – as performed by Robin Field – was your favorite?

Well, who could outshine Grant himself?

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

That would be one long sitting.

Any additional comments?

Plunge in!

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Medically inaccurate, risible narrative

Revisado: 01-30-16

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If I had listened to a different book.

Has Death in Hellfire turned you off from other books in this genre?

About the book: an author should not think of fiction as an opportunity to demonstrate his or her own ignorance of reality. Deryn Lake cannot seem to distinguish primary from tertiary syphilis (there is a difference); despite making some verbal handwaving in that direction. He (or she--I don't know and don't care) appears to have no understanding of medical knowledge and treatment of the era and little understanding of nature of a disease central to the narrative.

As to the characters: the villains are a all mustache twirling, menacing evildoers as obvious as the heavies in silent movies. The hero, despite his claims to medical knowledge, never does more than exclaim, at one point, "I am an apothecary!" (I choked on my coffee at the time and still can't stop mentally giggling about it.) Despite the hero's claims of medical knowledge, he makes no effort towards getting the poor syphilitic victim some treatment for his disease. (I believe mercury was called for in some way.)

Have you listened to any of Michael Tudor Barnes’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Michael Tudor Barnes is one of on my favorite performers and my only reason for picking up this audiobook. Here, though, even he seems not at his best. I attribute this to the material. 4 stars for the fact that he stayed awake.

What character would you cut from Death in Hellfire?

All of them.

Any additional comments?

The second half of this book may be the finest written in the English tongue. I will never know. I couldn't finish.

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Leisurely stroll through a police procedural

Revisado: 06-22-15

I was quite surprised at the negative tone of other reviews. Perhaps we have read different books. This volume seems very much in keeping with others in the series. There is the leisurely pace, the telling detail, the slightly grotesque ancillary characters, the mild fantasy element (he's an earl! she's a veterinarian! Let's solve crimes!) along with some deft plotting and some quite moving moments. One has no feeling of an author coasting or merely going through the motions. E. George has produced a novel very much in keeping with her previous work.

That being said, this remains genre writing so the ascent into the "4 star" territory is a bit precipitous, however an extra point should go to balance out the undeserved "1 star" ratings.

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