Darden North

Hang in there for the courtroom drama

Revisado: 02-06-21

Michael Beck’s performance as narrator is superb. He captures the southern dialect for male characters perfectly and does well for many of the female voices. The novel in audiobook is long and often repeats elements of the plot in scenes with different characters, but I found Grisham’s courtroom drama, particularly in the testimony of the principal characters, mesmerizing and as good if not better than “A Time to Kill.”

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Back and forth timeline is challenging

Revisado: 04-04-20

The timeline jumps back and forth, a little disjointed at times which might have been easier to follow in print or digital format. However, the narrator was excellent. A good story with a surprising twist to the whodunnit aspect of the plot.

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Entertaining, but really a treatise on excesses

Revisado: 04-04-20

I hung in there to see the story to the end to discover who was the treasonous soul. There was little surprise once the plot gels. However, the action predominantly concerns expensive aircraft, delicious meals, and expensive wine parings — and a whole lot of sex. Stone, the protagonist, easily trumps James Bond in the bedroom department. Every woman he meets wants and gets him. Since no one ever goes to the gym to work off the exotic meals and free flowing booze, I guess the sex burns off the calories. Tony Roberts’ English dialect is charming but makes the female characters sound elderly — although Stone seems to keep them busy regardless of age and usually more than once a day.

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A new dimension to an exciting series

Revisado: 06-11-19

I had read and enjoyed this thriller a few years ago when it was first released in print, so I jumped at the chance to get narrator Ed Waldorph’s take on the characters and exciting pace of the story. I particularly liked the personal introduction and dedication by the author himself, and I look forward to more audio productions of this series by Doug Dahlgren.

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More than Nine Lives

Revisado: 10-15-18

Protagonist Rachel Sexton is lucky to possess more than the nine lives of the average house cat. What’s more is the fact she and the other characters never stop to eat or sleep in this true to form thriller that could have ended an hour or two earlier. Author Dan Brown does his research brilliantly, so brilliant that if he has made up the science behind this story, the reader would never suspect. I noted a little background noise - breath sounds or turning pages or whatever - but Poe does a fabulous job performing deep suspense as narrator.

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Possibly the best narrator I’ve heard

Revisado: 12-31-17

Fliakos delivers an outstandingly performance with such unique voices and change of inflection that one loses the sense that this is an audiobook and not the sound track of a movie or television program. His engaging interpretation helped me through the last fifth of the novel when it lost luster for me. Yet, Grisham delivered a tidy summation at the end.

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Where was Cleveland?

Revisado: 09-05-16

I guess Grant never reached Cleveland during his tour of the Delta, that vibrant community an antithesis of this liberal discourse on Mississippi race relations, overall poverty, and crumbling education. Regarding the English narrator's cadence in the audio book, it was often repetitious, and he sometimes mispronounced words including names of Mississippi counties, such as Bolivar. The narrator could have spent a little time on research in that regard. Of course, I grew up in Cleveland and Bolivar County, so I guess I'm partial. Grant's own hours spent in research and with live interviews of his subjects sets the memoir apart. His description of race relations is clear and accurate, showing that we Mississippians may actually be very high on that positive list. I envy Grant's knack to describe physical appearances and settings so beautifully although in this well-written, wonderful piece (unlike in fiction), he has the advantage of looking across the table at his real characters and breathing the true air of each setting. While the treatise on race does get long and deep, a happy ending is always a relief.

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Picks up speed and doesn't slow down!

Revisado: 07-18-15

I had not read Harlan Coben in a while--in fact could not remember the title of the book. But now I'm hooked. When protagonist Adam Price is confronted in a bar by a stranger just before the coaches are selecting the local high school La Crosse teams, Adam begins to question the love of his wife and everything he holds true--or thought was true. In "The Stranger" the audio performance initially may seem sing-song or "preachy," but that can be attributed somewhat to Adam's and the narrator's frequent use of simile and metaphor to describe other characters, settings, or situation. While the tension or dread for the reader (or listener) does develop soon in the
novel, I found this unique story slow at first. However, once other characters are developed and the backstory is out if the way, it's obvious that Adam's wife must hold more than just one secret.

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Aptly named story, not for the depressed

Revisado: 06-21-15

In this earlier work by Flynn, miserable character Libby Day's testimony sends her older brother Ben to prison for the brutal, bloody deaths of her mother and two sisters. Now, twenty- four years later, an equally dark group of men and infatuated women gradually convince Libby that someone else may have committed the crime.
Flynn uses foreshadowing masterfully is this truly aptly named work in adding kleptomania to Libby Day's miserable existence, a flaw central to the story's eventual resolution. The narration is excellent and Flynn manages to pull off a successful switch back-and-forth between first- and third-person story-telling.

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"The Girl on the Train" is a high sp[eed ride

Revisado: 04-20-15

What made the experience of listening to The Girl on the Train the most enjoyable?

Paula Hawkins' "The Girl on the Train" is a high speed ride in audio

Early reviewers of this novel touted it as the next “Gone Girl." However, as wonderful as Gillian Flynn's novel is, Paula Hawkins' train overtakes it well before the end of the line. Hawkins' time-stamped structure of the story told in first person by three separate, but deeply entwined female main characters, lets the mystery unravel at just the right speed. The British accents of the three superb female narrators of the audio version of “The Girl on the Train” draw the reader (or listener) into the darkness of the unique tale and its unexpected climax. The voice inflections and diction variations between the jilted Rachel, jealous Anna, and twisted Megan are at times as mesmerizing as the prose.

Alcoholic protagonist Rachel's memory lapses and her struggles with the disease are central to the story line and her human frailty is so exposed and explored that no reader could deny her empathy and sympathy.

The female narrators do an outstanding job as well with the voices and acting of the roles of the major male characters, Scott and Tom, and with the minor male characters such as the red-handed man.

Even if someone has read the print or digital version of "The Girl on the Train," I recommend listening to the audio version, too. After following the narrators' British accents and the colloquialisms, I well understand the fervor shared with millions over the television series "Downton Abbey."

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