Free Range Clickin'

I just can't with the protagonist

Revisado: 06-22-22

As another reviewer said, the longer this series goes on, the less I like the protagonist. He's supposed to be wealthy, living on the millions he reaped when he sold his startup technology company. I have trouble believing that guy could start and build a business worth millions. He seems dim, incredibly inhibited, a mass of unresolved phobias and emotional scar tissue, and when he's not operating based on ridiculous assumptions about people and places, he's busy jumping to conclusions based on no evidence. I enjoyed the stories despite old Alfie, but it was harder to do with each episode. I'm done with this series. Too bad, because Nathaniel Parker's narration is ace.

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Excellent audio drama

Revisado: 04-20-18

Would you consider the audio edition of The Unexpected Man to be better than the print version?

Of course! This is a play, intended to be voiced.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Unexpected Man?

The last moment.

What does David Suchet and Harriet Walter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Life, character, mood, breath.

Any additional comments?

Here are two exquisitely talented actors, performing a nearly brilliant script. Worth every penny it cost me to buy, and every moment it took to listen to it. Bravo!

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Like potato chips - couldn't stop with one

Revisado: 04-20-18

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Cherringham is a nice undemanding series to listen to as I drive around town. I bought the first set of three stories, not sure what I'd think of it. And then I kept buying the next set, and the next, and . . . now I've gone through all of them, because they've been so pleasant to listen to. (Yes, like eating that one potato chip and all too soon the bag is empty. I confess.)The plots tend to be well constructed, the characters generally have some depth, and Neil Dudgeon's narration is excellent. I like the short format for each story; maybe I'm getting old and impatient but I think many full-length novels would be all the better as novellas. There are no dragged-out stories in Cherringham, thank goodness!

What other book might you compare Cherringham - A Cosy Crime Series Compilation (Cherringham 10 - 12) to and why?

I'm not sure there are any contemporary cosy mysteries that really compare.

What about Neil Dudgeon’s performance did you like?

Just about everything! I've enjoyed his performances on British TV shows for years, from the unflappable chauffeur to Diana Rigg's Mrs. Bradley, to DCI Barnaby in Midsomer Murders. I'm delighted, if not surprised, that he's such a master of narration.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No.

Any additional comments?

Yes: Please release more of these in English! I've now listened to all of them and have pre-ordered the next three-story installment, due for release next month.

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Excellent book, flawed production as an audiobook

Revisado: 08-18-17

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Nothing about the book itself (two thumbs up). See below about the performance (thumbs down). I read this book, and loved it. Because it would bear re-reading, I got the Audible edition for my second run-through. Unfortunate choice, as it turns out.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Ike. He was maddening, driven, brilliant, hot-tempered but quick to apologize, a stickler for military protocol but warm-hearted with midwestern American egalitarian instincts. He was a middle-aged Army officer handed an unimaginable job (Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force) and brilliant enough to perform it. But I think he muddled his handling of his relationship with Kay Summersby, and the very muddling convinces me he was deeply in love with her. In the later months of the war, he even risked his career as he tried to find a way to go forward with her after the war was over. There's enough historical smoke to support this fictional treatment of the possible fire that was behind it.

How could the performance have been better?

This is no criticism of the narrator. She did a great job.But I found this audiobook so irritating that I couldn't finish it. The problem is that someone in charge of producing the audiobook was lazy. They must have skimmed the text, seen references to Kay Summersby as Irish, and decided she spoke in a pronounced Irish brogue. The problem is, Kay Summersby was a real person, Anglo-Irish, daughter of a British Army Officer, who passed up being a debutante in London in favor of traveling through Europe. She lived in London from her teenaged years on, was definitely upper-class, and would never have spoken with that Irish accent. Kay was interviewed later in life on video, and there are clips of her speaking on two episodes of the seminal TV series The World at War (from the 1970's). By then her speech was somewhat Americanized, but it's still an English accent, not that Irish brogue. In this audiobook Kay sounds like a naive Irish schoolgirl. She was nothing of the sort. When she met Ike, she was 33 years old, a former House of Worth model, an outgoing, very social upper-class Brit. She'd been married briefly and was in the process of a divorce. She was beautiful, gracious, and discreet. Honestly, I gritted my teeth at the umpteenth iteration in this performance of "Yes, sir!" in that ridiculous breathless Irish brogue.

Did The General’s Women inspire you to do anything?

To learn more about both Kay and Ike - as the new stack of books on my table attests.

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Dreadful narration

Revisado: 06-12-16

What disappointed you about The Late Scholar?

The narration was terrible. The narrator's voice is deep and heavy, although the Wimsey character is a lithe and lively man, described in one novel by another character as "a little English sparrow hawk."

Besides a voice so totally unsuited to the protagonist, the narrator was unable to properly voice other characters as well. His delivery was heavy and ponderous. Passages that carried an emotional punch were recited in as flat a tone as the ones where Peter was looking for a parking place. Also, it was often impossible to tell one character from another during a dialogue.

If all that weren't bad enough, he didn't pronounce key words correctly, including Bredon and Shrewsbury. And he read Bunter's lines in some godawful inappropriate accent.

I haven't been able to listen to the whole book yet, and will probably end up reading it because this narration is so bad I keep getting annoyed and distracted by it.

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

I'm not sure. The narration is so bad I haven't been able to listen to the whole book.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Matthew Brenher?

Edward Petherbridge, or Graeme Malcolm. Or Penelope Keith.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Irritation and anger, as well as disappointment.

Any additional comments?

If any book in the Audible catalogue has ever cried out for a do-over, this is it. Please, someone, produce this book with an appropriate narrator! Matthew Brehner is no doubt a good match for some books, but hopelessly wrong for this one, and didn't bother to learn correct pronunciations.

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