K. Mickleson

Sad I missed Entwistle's Flavia before now.

Revisado: 10-24-16

Bradley's Flavia has been a beloved of mine from the first book. His ability to climb into a girl's head just astounds me. But this, my first time LISTENING to her, just had me brimming over with pleasure. Entwistle's narration makes me want to go back and listen to all of them from the beginning, just to be with Flavia 'in the flesh'. The 'smile' in her voice brings one to my face. The story was one of my favorites, though it's hard for me to not think this might be the last of the series.

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Choice of narrator irked me throughout

Revisado: 06-13-15

I'm not saying Nick Sarando is a bad narrator. He performed various characters' voices well. But he sounds like an 17 year old kid, which just didn't fit for the protagonist, Benny, who's a mature veteran FBI guy. There were times his voice was so monotonous I had to go back several minutes to re-hear what happened. I kept wishing Benny was represented by a more adult sounding voice.

The brevity of the chapters chafed at times. It's a plot story for which character development was an afterthought, which is okay for a time filler crime fiction book. But nothing particularly made me care to revisit this Benny if indeed he's in future books.

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Do I love the content or narration more?

Revisado: 05-05-15

I've become so attached to Rebus' predictably annoying neurosis and his friendship with Siobhan that I forgive plot confusions and wonder if my experience of them is my fault for being distracted during the time I'm listening, or, intrinsic to his crafting of this volume. I care more about character than plot, so perhaps that's not so important.

I could listen to James Macpherson read the phone book and be absolutely entertained for hours on end, so am left unsure how to offer an objective review. If you value what I do, you'll enjoy the book. At this stage in the series we fans are just following Rebus qua Rankin as he ages with us.

Younger readers should begin at the beginning, of course. Enjoy learning to perceive imperfections of a knotty character. Such texture in character development--at least in crime fiction--grows rarer each year.

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Great rendering of Louisiana cracker characters

Revisado: 12-02-14

Perhaps I was primed for this romp through Cajun LA by a recent visit to New Orleans, including a trip to New Iberia, Avery Island, and Breaux Bridge.

This was my first Hoag novel, and I'm delighted I listened to it instead of reading it. The reader, Karen Peakes, rendered her portrayal of an array of corrupt cracker misogynists stunningly well. It's not likely any woman could and would choose to endure the torture of trying to be an ethical 'one of the guys' as a deputy in such a rural backwater Sheriff's department, but Hoag made it believable enough for me to hang with it.

The underlying suspense of her dangerous search for the 'real killer' amongst a host of bad
actors evokes my usual skeptic of women protagonists stupidly surging forth where their lives are in danger, but never mind.

Listen and enjoy the ride to southern Louisiana. The story lives in the early nineties, I think, and whether such dastardly law enforcement departments truly existed or exist there still, I don't know. This story captures my imagining of what it would be like. I enjoyed her ‘Annie’ and hope the narrator of Ashes to Ashes is as good as Peakes was.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas

Too sadistic for me.

Revisado: 06-04-14

I'm a pretty hard boiled crime fiction devotee, but I stopped listening to this only a bit into chapter two. I enjoy dark crime fiction. The characters held promise of good, deep development, but the details of a psychopathic sexual sadist's delight in his medieval torture chamber repelled me.

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Well written but not a Joe O'Loughlin book...

Revisado: 05-01-14

I read The Suspect first, and chose this too hastily, hoping for another O'Loughlin book. It is taking place some time after Suspect, with Ruis from The Suspect, now retired and friendly ex-colleagues with Alicia, the feisty protagonist.

Once into it, I came to enjoy Robotham's writing again. The story tells a grim truth about human trafficking, baby selling, and attendant ugly human realities, and a woman sikh D.C.'s effort to wind her way through the knots of a complex set of agendas.

The protagonist is both good and annoying (to me) as Robotham portrays her. She's bright, incisive, aggressive and well trained as a DC. But he wrote her into many scenes requiring too much willing suspension of disbelief for me. He has her behaving like a naively brazen provocateur of bad guys who'd likely kill her instantly. She too often assumes she will be believed and taken seriously by males in the police world, thinking they'll do the right thing, when in fact, the usual self-interest reigns supreme. This naiveté didn't work for me, but there was enough of a good story to keep me engaged.

The narrator was good in Alicia's voice, but not very skilled with male voices.

I'll keep reading Robotham, hoping for more stories with the psychologist.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas

Well written as usual, but hard for me to follow.

Revisado: 03-30-14

Any additional comments?

I'm writing mid-way through listening, out of need to express my frustration. On one hand, I've read Mina's other books (not listened) and appreciated them a lot. She writes beautiful prose and is magical depicting archeology of damaged characters. The reader performs well with a lovely, exacting Scots brogue, which while authentic, leads me to rewind fairly often to be sure I caught what was said.

On the other hand, it's hard to keep track of past and present, who did what to whom, when and why, and what has evolved in the characters' lives from then to now. Some chapters start with the the 1997 date, others with no date, and we're left to assume they're happening 'now', but if you've forgotten a character from earlier chapters, it's easy to feel lost. It's back and forth, back and forth.

Thus far, I'm thinking I'd more enjoy this book as read than listened to, so I could thumb back to previous sections to remind myself of events and people. As it is, I'm disappointed and exasperated, tempted to quit reading but not wanting to. Sigh. Maybe it's just senior brain.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas