Jenny

Harrowing but riveting

Revisado: 11-01-16

A fabulous but heartrending account of the search for 6 ancestors who simply disappeared during WWII. It is well structured and well written. Although the Biblical references seem to be a little pedantic and tedious they do make sense and give the listener reason to pause and reflect on how the narrative reflects on them personally.

The reading was superb except for the Australian accent which sounded more Cockney. This distracted me for a while until I realised what it was supposed to be

Any one who is interested in history, WWII, Jewish history or simply family research would appreciate this book

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Poor narration spoils the story

Revisado: 08-21-16

The story is an adaptation of Shakespeare's play and quite a good adaptation. However, clunky mispronouncations detract and distract from the narrative

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Brilliant historical research

Revisado: 05-15-16

This is a beautifully crafted and brilliantly researched account of the sinking of the "Titanic". I had to repeat several sections so I could completely understand what I was learning.

The only disappointment, which was probably unavoidable, was the mangling of the English pronunciation by the narrator. However I tried to ignore this and simply concentrated on the splendid way the characters and circumstances were presented.

A joy to have read this book which has given me a much better appreciation of this tragic incident.

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Not quite as good

Revisado: 03-17-16

A bit disappointed in this one. I found the plot a little contrived and the characterisations overdone. I was most disappointed in the use of American terms used in a story set in an English village, for example "fall" for Autumn and "diaper" for nappy. I know a lot of readers may be American but verisimilitude needs the correct terms

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The best Georgette Heyer

Revisado: 02-29-16

I have read this book over and over since I was very young. The historical research and detail are quite brilliant and the underlying story,which brings in so many characters featured in earlier books, simply gives the story of the Battle of Waterloo a human perspective. I never fail to learn something new with each reading. The performance was good but the novel is just brilliant

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Heyer at her best

Revisado: 02-16-16

A beautifully crafted and historically accurate story by Georgette Heyerdahl masterfully and brilliantly read by Julian Rhind-Tutt

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What a hero

Revisado: 09-02-15

Would you consider the audio edition of If I Should Die to be better than the print version?

Yes. Will Rycroft is a fabulous narrator

Who was your favorite character and why?

Joe of course. What an amazing young man with a truly heartfelt story to tell

Which character – as performed by Will Rycroft – was your favorite?

They were all good - it was so easy to distinguish each character in the narrative. Will's performance was so good I stopped doing anything and just listened.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The presentation at Buckingham Palace and stabbing the tyres.

Any additional comments?

More please. More of Will, more of Joe and more of the great detective team.
I was particularly impressed by Joe's (Matthew Frank's?) views on war and the obvious background knowledge and/or research that went into the book

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The trouble with accents

Revisado: 08-06-15

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, it was very frustrating. The narrator was so bad that I could only listen for a few minutes at a time so the story was really choppy

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The relationship between Tony and Kate was the most interesting and the least interesting was the story of the party goers. Pity more can't be made of Mrs Bahr - but when it is so hard to differentiate between characters the listener is just in a mish mash of horrible sounds.

What didn’t you like about Jack Wallen’s performance?

Americans can't do English accents and his Pakistani was even worse - made DS Bahr sound quite scary. His very clipped accent was like reading this font - sans serif. It made me very uncomfortable and his characterisations were poor. I was surprised to read that the series is about Lord and Lady Hetheridge because it was always pronounced Etheridge!

Did Blue Murder inspire you to do anything?

No

Any additional comments?

Won't be buying another of these series until there is an English narrator.

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Highly disappointing

Revisado: 08-02-15

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Anyone who is not interested in good writing

What was most disappointing about Elizabeth Mansfield’s story?

Everything. There was no research into Regency manners, dress, food etc. I had trouble recognising what period it was set in.

How could the performance have been better?

It was OK but had no substance - no characterisation. I really hated the American twang,

What character would you cut from Regency Sting?

All of them. They were universally horrible and unbelievable

Any additional comments?

I have no idea why this book was ever published. This author needs to do a lot more research and read authors such as Jane Austen an Georgette Heyer.

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Dark, dark August

Revisado: 07-03-15

What would have made Black August better?

I viable story line

What do you think your next listen will be?

Nothing by this author

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

He did his best with characterisation but it was difficult. I had trouble with his (native?) accent

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Black August?

It just didn't seem to run as a coherent story and I'm not sure that cutting anything would have helped. I struggled through right to the end because I'm an optimist but, alas, there was nothing to grab hold of in this book. None of the characters had any appeal and I certainly had no common ground with any of them.

Any additional comments?

Being an optimist and a romantic I love all the ends to be neatly tied and in this book they weren't. Did his daughter have her baby and was it a boy? Was he just going to walk away from the apparent corruption in both forces? What happened to his goddaughter - did he ever have dinner with her????????? I really hate books that just end as if the author has met his allocated number of words/pages/chapters.

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