Charlie's Mom

Love the combo of Grainger and Jackson

Revisado: 05-28-22

Gildart Jackson (as always) flawlessly performs Grainger’s work. Loved this one. It’s more about policing than anything. The work done and care taken.

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Beautifully written and performed

Revisado: 05-11-22

This is one worth grabbing. It’s contemplative and gripping. It has something to say about people and trauma as well as being a mystery/thriller. More like a good Tana French novel than another scary thriller. Excellent and worthy.

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Incredibly repetitive

Revisado: 02-24-22

This is a very self serious “thriller”. It doesn’t really have many ideas but the ideas it seems to be taken with, well it repeats then ad nauseum. I felt like I was listening to something on repeat. You know that friend that always has the same question about how to cut her hair? Or whether she should stay in the relationship? And you eventually say to yourself, I like this friend. I do like her. There are many wonderful things about her but for the love of all that’s holy I cannot have the same conversation again as it leads nowhere and accomplishes nothing. That’s sort of the book. The narrator is so sad about it all. The problem. And explains the series of problems over and over and over. I stuck with it. But Oy. It’s not really worth it. It’s not bad. It’s just that it feels sort of weirdly self important when it is just a distracting soft thriller.

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Janine Burkett is extraordinary

Revisado: 01-15-22

She’s just sublime. And Stories with Vera always delight. It’s a great combination and I was thoroughly entertained. These aren’t mysteries you can solve yourself by paying attention. The reader doesn’t have AHA moments. These are cases being worked and character studies. And they are not gruesome but they are compelling. I love them.

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Come back Dick Van Dyke all is forgiven.

Revisado: 09-15-21

Look, Will Damon is an excellent narrator. I've listened to him before. He has read ten thousand books. But he cannot do accents. Not, "Oh, he's not great". He CANNOT DO ACCENTS. Even my teenager was gasping. We almost had to stop listening as more than 2/3 of the book requires accent work. I am not comparing him to Meryl. I am comparing him to Dick Van Dyke's drunken "efforts" to do cockney in Mary Poppins.
We love Derek Miller and wanted desperately to listen to this book. We listened to both American By Day and Norwegian By Night with the EXTRAORDINARY accent work of Sean Mangan. Sean Mangan is truly perfection.
A comfort, nay fluency, with accents is a MANDATE for narrating these books. Mangan was masterful. Will Damron is so horrifyingly bad that it makes you physically uncomfortable listening. Why would he agree? Why not do what he is good at? If someone asks a hip hop dancer who is a terrific hip hop dancer with zero classical training to dance swan lake for a crowded auditorium of ballet lovers, the wise dancer would say, "Thanks for thinking of me, but NO. NOT A MATCH."
Perhaps you think I am now beating a dead horse. But this horse must be beaten because we had to listen to 12 1/2 hours of accent work that was so comically atrocious it made a diffident 16 year old boy howl in pain as we drove to and from school listening in a depserate bid to hear the resolution of the plot.
The book isn't our favorite, it is true. We prefer the two others we listened to. But Miller is always interesting. And I would listen to Will Damron read a phone book. He's a smart good reader. But I don't want to hear him do another accent ever ever again.

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This reader is special

Revisado: 06-29-21

I love the Vera series. This is another really good book. But what I adore is this narrator who so captures the voice of Vera that one keeps shaking oneself thinking there must be more than one reader. Remarkable. Effortless. Makes the book.

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Meh

Revisado: 03-14-21

I mean it’s sort of okay. The narration is a bit heavy handed and pushes so hard sometimes it’s hard to simply hear the story. The story itself is fine. The writing is fine. The reviews that it is excessively violent are inaccurate. It’s not. It never gets particularly explicit in being gruesome and I appreciate that. But I found the hero unlikeable. Not in the drinks hard dark tempered acerbic personality typical way. In the “makes horrendous decisions and never seems to really get called on it way.” The idea of a mediocre detective who makes appalling decisions could be rich of course but that’s bit what this is. It’s not an exploration of the limitations of your average human and the fact that people make mistakes. The hero’s crummy work is used simply a device to allow a story to continue. So I don’t really recommend this book. It’s not bad. It’s just crummy compared to Cleeves or French or many well crafted policiers.

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Vera is the most compelling detective

Revisado: 02-20-21

Because she’s real. So real. Not secretly brilliant behind a brooding veneer. Not secretly desirable behind her distant broken demeanor. She’s a pissy, overweight, fallible, older woman. I just love this series.

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Solid smart feminist

Revisado: 10-24-19

Terrific performance of a tight smart story. Love that it wasn’t dragged out into a full novel. It’s clean and smart and character driven but tight plot. Loved it.

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A thoroughly entertaining philosophical part 2

Revisado: 01-11-19

I do a lot of driving in LA and this pair of novels was a breath of fresh air and a thorough delight. I listened to both with my very bright 13 year old who adored both as much as I did. He did comment- “Miller definitely likes to give his characters lengthy monologues.” This is true. But these long philosophical rants and musings are the heart of the novel and the plot is secondary.
I commend Miller, an excellent reader himself, for his perspicacity in recognizing that the man for the job is the flawless and utterly perfect Sean Mangan. Flawless.
Sad the series is over. Glad I found it on audible. I feel like it made me think and kept me truly content for hours.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas