Susan

First Audible Return Ever

Revisado: 03-13-25

I loved Little Bee. I couldn't finish this Cleave book. Narration was fine. Characters were not. Occasional flashes of interest when characters were actually doing something productive with their war-torn lives...interspersed with long chapters of them perseverating about "Love" or "War" or "Life-Meaning" with adolescent-level boredom. Such a disappointment.

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Insipid & Unbelievable

Revisado: 08-23-24

Having enjoyed a previous Bowen novel (In Farleigh Field), I was looking forward to a light end-of-summer read/listen, but found this plot line and heroine simply TOO, TOO annoying, dahling....The narrator might have done a decent job with various British accents, but even a good performance cannot mask the ridiculous "coincidences" and unlikely events/responses to this immature, headstrong (but morality-weak) character. What a disappointment.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Flat narration + Flabby storyline

Revisado: 04-28-24

I kept waiting for the 3-4 separate storylines/cases to weave together, but they never did. Chee has been relegated to position of "chorus" simply providing a computer or a screwdriver to Leaphorn or Bernie. Entire sub-plot involving Louisa's son felt extraneous to the subject-matter of this novel; might work better in a separate novel?
I'm not sure why this series seems to be so lacking for a decent & consistent narrator. This one sounded like a high-schooler, with awkward pauses and breaths often breaking the phrase/sentence logic, and consistently missing which word should be emphasized to make sense of a sentence (to say nothing of mistaking "conservation" for "conversation").
Both performance & writing would have benefitted from more attentive and careful editing.

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Sadly annoying, and annoyingly sad

Revisado: 06-17-23

Perhaps because this is the 3rd of this series I've listened to in a row, this one just didn't cut it. How often can a "smart" man like Patrick ignore how "tired" he feels (felt like 15X/chapter?!?). How often can Erica ignore how impolite and intrusive her "curiosity" makes her? How often can the author say that one of the detectives figured "something" out and made a phone call, without having the courtesy to inform the reader of her characters' thoughts? This grim story dragged on and on, and ended with a tragic bang (literally). Luckily the next in the series makes up for this one.

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Disappointing writing exacerbated by worse reader

Revisado: 04-26-23

I was so happy to see a female reader for Officer Manuelito... until I realized that Ms. Studi is not a gifted audio-reader. She consistently left gaps in the middle of sentences. As if mistaking periods. For commas. (sic). And Ms. Hillerman's writing in this outing was also inconsistent--devolving into clunky explanations about the politics surrounding Big Ears National Monument, and falling back into cliched "bad guys" language. Unrealistic scenarios (a wife worrying about delivering extra food to strangers after learning her husband has been killed??), a mere mention of "the legendary detective" Leaphorn in the last pages so that his name can be mentioned on the cover? One of the most disappointing Audible purchases ever.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Predictable and overwritten

Revisado: 04-25-23

For anyone who's a fan of Kate Quinn's women spies, not much can measure up... certainly not someone who uses the word "timbre" to describe a person's voice at least 10 times (which is 9 times too many), and whose heroine is constantly having self-doubt "surge in her breast," adrenaline "surge in her tummy" (another word which should not be used in fiction for adults), etc. I wanted to like this book, but ended up with too many eye rolls at the repetitive, predictable style.

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Couldn't finish

Revisado: 03-17-23

Was looking forward to a new series, and this author came recommended... but I can't figure out why. Great premise (national parks) bogged down in endless boring descriptions of boring unlikely (and unlikeable) people. Narration filled with audible swallows, breathing, etc. Oh well.

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Grim

Revisado: 03-16-23

I have so enjoyed Eskens' other books (especially those with Lila Nash), that this outing (his 2nd, chronologically) was a distinct disappointment. The "bad guy" (a Serbian assassin) was so one-dimensionally evil (despite attempts at back-filling his story), and Eskens took such evident delight in describing his evil doings, that it was quite off-putting, as was the overall body-count (especially of female characters). Max Rupert comes off as annoyingly one-dimensional. Skip this one and go right to Stolen Hours to get a richer, more satisfying (and less gruesome) read.

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Surprisingly cliched

Revisado: 12-19-22

Had high hopes for a new author/series, but sorely disappointed. Narrator was okay with accents, but took huge audible breaths before each sentence, which was highly distracting. Plot was predictable, and characters sadly two-dimensional. Oh well.

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More Nancy Drew than Agatha Christie

Revisado: 09-18-22

Such great promise, unfulfilled.
As a Mainer, the attempt at Maine accents was distracting, esp. the error of "Congregational" being pronounced "Congressional" (3X over) ...
And the occasional 30 second repeat of material...
The "good guys" were too good/sappy to be true; and the "bad guys" similarly one-dimensional.
Sigh.

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