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A Death in Summer
- A Novel
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
One of The Chicago Tribune's Best Reads of 2011
One of Dublin's most powerful men meets a violent end—and an acknowledged master of crime fiction delivers his most gripping novel yet
On a sweltering summer afternoon, newspaper tycoon Richard Jewell—known to his many enemies as Diamond Dick—is discovered with his head blown off by a shotgun blast. But is it suicide or murder? For help with the investigation, Detective Inspector Hackett calls in his old friend Quirke, who has unusual access to Dublin's elite.
Jewell's coolly elegant French wife, Françoise, seems less than shocked by her husband's death. But Dannie, Jewell's high-strung sister, is devastated, and Quirke is surprised to learn that in her grief she has turned to an unexpected friend: David Sinclair, Quirke's ambitious assistant in the pathology lab at the Hospital of the Holy Family. Further, Sinclair has been seeing Quirke's fractious daughter Phoebe, and an unlikely romance is blossoming between the two. As a record heat wave envelops the city and the secret deals underpinning Diamond Dick's empire begin to be revealed, Quirke and Hackett find themselves caught up in a dark web of intrigue and violence that threatens to end in disaster.
Tightly plotted and gorgeously written, A Death in Summer proves to the brilliant but sometimes reckless Quirke that in a city where old money and the right bloodlines rule, he is by no means safe from mortal danger.
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- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London. When she starts working at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is matched by the intrigue around the conflicting stories of its discovery.
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Mixed narration
- By Amy Fleury on 08-05-16
By: Jessie Burton
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The Man with a Load of Mischief
- A Richard Jury Novel, Book 1
- By: Martha Grimes
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found the dead body stuck in a keg of beer. At the Jack and Hammer, another body was stuck out on the beam of the pub’s sign, replacing the mechanical man who kept the time. Two pubs. Two murders. One Scotland Yard inspector called in to help. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury arrives in Long Piddleton and finds everyone in the postcard village looking outside of town for the killer - except for one Melrose Plant....
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Love this series, but FYI
- By DCinMI on 03-29-14
By: Martha Grimes
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The Christmas Secret
- By: Karen Swan
- Narrated by: Laura Main
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Alex Hyde is the leaders' leader. An executive coach par excellence, she's the person the great and the good turn to when the pressure gets too much; she can change the way they think, how they operate, she can turn around the very fortunes of their companies.
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Was the narrator Nurse Turner?
- By Sally on 12-24-17
By: Karen Swan
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The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
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Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
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Life Class
- By: Pat Barker
- Narrated by: Russell Boulter
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1914, a group of young students gather in an art studio for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant and Elinor Brooke are two components of a love triangle, and at the outset of the war, they turn to each other. After volunteering for the Red Cross, Paul must confront the fact that life, love, and art will never be the same for him.
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In Love and War
- By Cariola on 07-28-09
By: Pat Barker
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Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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Pietr the Latvian
- Inspector Maigret, Book 1
- By: Georges Simenon, David Bellos - translator
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The first audiobook which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.Inevitably Maigret was a hostile presence in the Majestic. He constituted a kind of foreign body that the hotel's atmosphere could not assimilate. Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands. But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man.
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Long live Maigret
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-19-14
By: Georges Simenon, and others
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The Perfume Collector
- A Novel
- By: Kathleen Tessaro
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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London, 1955: Grace Monroe is a fortunate young woman. Despite her sheltered upbringing in Oxford, her recent marriage has thrust her into the heart of London's most refined and ambitious social circles. Then one evening a letter arrives from France that will change everything. Grace has received an inheritance. There's only one problem: she has never heard of her benefactor, the mysterious Eva d'Orsey. Told by invoking the three distinctive perfumes she inspired, Eva d'Orsey's story weaves through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London.
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Unbearable Narration
- By D McKay on 08-05-15
By: Kathleen Tessaro
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Dear Amy
- By: Helen Callaghan
- Narrated by: Michelle Ford
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Margot Lewis is a teacher at an exclusive high school in the English university town of Cambridge. In her spare time, she writes an advice column, "Dear Amy", for the local newspaper. When one of Margot's students, 15-year-old Katie, disappears, the school and the town fear the worst. And then Margot gets a "Dear Amy" letter unlike any of the ones she's received before. It's a desperate plea for rescue from a girl who says she is being held captive and in terrible danger - a girl called Bethan Avery, who was abducted from the local area 20 years ago and never found.
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Stunning debut
- By Mystery Maven on 11-18-16
By: Helen Callaghan
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The Shifting Fog [also published under the alternate title The House at Riverton]
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks.
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Alternate title for "The House at Riverton"
- By Karen on 12-22-13
By: Kate Morton
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London Fields
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The murderee is Nicola Six, a "black hole" of sex and self-loathing who is intent on orchestrating her own extinction. The murderer may be Keith Talent, a violent lowlife whose only passions are pornography and darts; or the rich, honorable, and dimly romantic Guy Clinch. As Nicola leads her suitors towards the precipice, London--and, indeed, the whole world--seems to shamble after them in a corrosively funny novel of complexity and morality.
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Big chewy novel, excellent narration
- By Sand on 08-21-14
By: Martin Amis
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The Splendour Falls
- By: Susanna Kearsley
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Emily Braden has stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. When her fascinating but unreliable cousin Harry invites her on a holiday to explore the legendary town of Chinon, and promptly disappears - well, that's Harry for you. As Emily makes the acquaintance of Chinon and its people, she begins to uncover dark secrets beneath the charm.
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Odd story with a worse narration
- By MV on 01-18-14
By: Susanna Kearsley
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Amberlough
- A Novel
- By: Lara Elena Donnelly
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Covert agent Cyril DePaul thinks he's good at keeping secrets, especially from Aristide Makricosta. They suit each other: Aristide turns a blind eye to Cyril's clandestine affairs, and Cyril keeps his lover's moonlighting job as a smuggler under wraps. Cyril participates in a mission that leads to disastrous results, leaving smoke from various political fires smoldering throughout the city. Shielding Aristide from the expected fallout isn't easy, though.
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good story, terrible voices
- By Josh on 04-29-17
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I love Benjamin Black
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What listeners say about A Death in Summer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-27-15
Fantastic Story, Beautiful Language but . . .
Any additional comments?
John Banville/Benjamin Black is a brilliant writer. Passages are often more like prose poems. This book is very good and the writing sublime. But the narrator was so bad I had to turn it off sometimes and so bad that it spoilt the book for me.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Keenan
- 01-28-17
Elegantly construction
Would you listen to A Death in Summer again? Why?
I'm going to listen to it again immediately to study Black's construction of scenes, his graceful transition from one point of view to the next, his prose and his dialogue.
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
It was the blossoming revelations of the characters and their interactions that was most compelling.
What does John Keating bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
John Keating is one of the best male narrators at performing female voices. He also has an ability to differentiate clearly different Irish accents without making them cartoonish which helps to differentiate the characters.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
There was one laugh-out-loud moment but I don't recall where it was.
Any additional comments?
The student of writing mysteries could do well to study this book.
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- "mariseldv"
- 01-20-23
Reading is unbearable
I tried for an hour to listen to John Keating reading. Black/Banville’s prose is monotone and totally lost in it. I couldn’t take it anymore so I switched to Spanish. It’s really annoying to have spent the money!
Timothy Dalton read the first three Quirke books. Though he did not bother with character voice differentiation, he totally understood how to bring the poetry of the prose to life.
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- Elaine
- 10-26-11
Fantastic writing
The author's ability to create characters whom you can clearly see and hear, reflects his skill, as he is actually John Banville, the Booker Prize winner.
That he chooses to write mysteries is a gift to readers/listeners b/c his voice is so clear
and he paints remarkable pictures with his words.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Denise Heikinen
- 12-28-17
Compelling but boring at the same time.
I listened to it all so it must have been compelling but it wasn't satisfying--too artificial or maybe boring? Also monotonous and hard to keep my attention. Yet compelling, so go figure.
That French woman always looking for the right word got on my nerves. Too many cover ups.
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- Mara
- 08-02-12
Narrator Sounds a Bit Jaunty
I am just now listening to this audiobook, and after reading the opinions of the other listeners of this audiobook and I have to agree with them that after listening to listening to Timothy Dalton read the first 2 Quirke books, I wish they would have let Mr. Dalton do the narration rather than John Keating do it.
I'm sure that Mr. Keating is a good narrator for different type of Irish books, but to me he sounds a bit to jaunty for Quirke. It needs the moodiness of Mr. Dalton's voice to make Quirke sound more believable and moody as it was portrayed in the first two books.
Hopefully Mr. Dalton will be asked to narrate the next "Quirke" book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Stephen Laudig
- 01-13-22
Tobacco rituals
Which once noticed became predictable and quite annoying were empty of narrative utility stretched short chapters into long ones and disrupted flow. Interior dialog kept it interesting enough.
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- Aviva Dankner
- 11-17-23
A Very Lacking Performance
This is my fourth Dr. Quirk book. The first three were compelling and a great audiobook. The performance in number four drove me to reading it on my Kindle. The readers performance was annoying. He has a tinny voice and he is a terrible actor. It is too bad,a good story ruined.
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- Sam
- 12-16-12
This narrator stinks
If you could sum up A Death in Summer in three words, what would they be?
So the darkness of Timothy Dalton is gone and instead the narrator sounds about eleven years old. I don't know about the story because I couldnt listen past the first chapter.
What did you like best about this story?
I couldn't listen to it, but I love Benjamin Black so I gave his part of this 5 stars.
What didn’t you like about John Keating’s performance?
He puts the emphasis on the wrong places in the sentences. He does not convey any meaning to what he says. He has an annoying voice. He isn't a good actor and it's an incredible disappointment after Timothy Dalton. What happened to him?
Any additional comments?
That's about it. Isn't that enough?
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3 people found this helpful
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- Ralene
- 10-18-13
I miss Timothy Dalton
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
If the friend really liked the Quirke series, I would recommend it.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
Is everyone in Ireland this grim? Was every institution in the mid-20th century in Ireland this corrupt? It's getting old - maybe Quirke needs to go to the Bahamas on vacation.
Did John Keating do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?
The characters are interesting, and Phoebe is becoming more of a real person.
Do you think A Death in Summer needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
Maybe if we spend more time with Phoebe.
Any additional comments?
I really miss Timothy Dalton as the narrator. He gave a real sense of danger and menace that was missing with the narration by John Keating. Keating did a decent job, but either this particular book is a lackluster followup or Dalton was giving some extra spice to the previous books that is now missing. Maybe I'm getting tired of the grim corruption that pervades these stories.
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2 people found this helpful