All of a Sudden

De: R.P. Wolff

Narrado por: Danielle Brown

On April 21, 2016, three vastly different individuals of different ages woke up on top of their graves. Each of them died on April 20 but in different years, and each of them had not aged since their untimely deaths.

One of them was Beverley Smith, a maid for the Bartons, a powerful Dallas family. The Bartons raped and murdered her in 1969. Her husband and son searched for her for over 40 years. Another was Frank Prescott, a wealthy owner of a famous restaurant chain, who died in 2010 from a heart attack after a confrontation with his son, who was embezzling money from his company. The third person was Madison Keller, a 14-year-old girl who died in a fire in 2007 along with her parents and other younger siblings.

The three struggled to acclimate themselves into a society that doubted their identity. People didn't believe them. People thought they were nuts. Beverley and Frank sought revenge against the tormentors who were responsible for their violent deaths. Madison, who feared being sent to an orphanage, searched for someone to care for her.

Like all of R.P. Wolff's novels, All of a Sudden is a pause resister with unexpected twists that keep the listener guessing.

©2017 R.P. Wolff (P)2017 R.P. Wolff

Intriquing Premise

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This may be the toughest audio book I've reviewed. It has starts and stops to the plot that could be really interesting yet often miss. Some of that is the writing. The narration just needed punched up too.

If you’ve listened to books by R.P. Wolff before, how does this one compare?

This is the third audio book from R.P. Wolff I've listened to and reviewed. It's pretty representative.

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

I'm sensitive to the narration in audio books. Probably like most listeners, I have favorites and some I can't get into at all. This falls nearest the latter description. First thing... There was a "thumping" as in a microphone that was too close to the speaker, for example. One that may be set to loud. I tried listening on higher end headphones and different quality bluetooth speakers and it was there throughout the listening.
Often times, I can listen for awhile to a narrator, and "get used" to the performance. I get that different performances appeal to different listeners. When I took a break and returned to listening, I kept coming up against that "listening adjustment" and maybe it's just me, but I couldn't get into the story easily.

Was All of a Sudden worth the listening time?

That's the question! To me, it was difficult. Others may find it very enjoyable.

Any additional comments?

I feel that there is definitely something here for some listeners. There is a need for more focus and fitting the narrator to the stories.

Despite my criticisms, thanks for the opportunity to listen and offer my opinions on this work!

A review copy was gifted to me at no charge. In return, I am happy to provide an honest review. Also at no charge.

Not a bad story, just needed better editing.

This audiobook was given to me for free at my request and I am providing a voluntary review.

SPOILERS AHEAD! The premise of the book was intriguing, people coming back from the dead to fix the loose ends they left behind. A woman fights for her murderers to be prosecuted, a man tries to fix his legacy, and a girl brings closure to the man who saved her. The dialogue was pretty repetitive, and the narrator was a bit awkward with her phrasing and emotion at times, but overall it was interesting plotwise.

The sexual content felt forced. I find it hard to believe that a 20-something year old woman would see her now almost 80 year old husband and the first thing they want to do is have sex? Not talk about everything she's missed in their lives, not take a second to process the fact that her husband is old enough to be her grandfather, but just hop into bed with him? I dunno, didn't seem realistic. I also thought the rape scene at the beginning was slightly awkward, sounding almost like a porn scene instead of a traumatic experience. But that may just be my personal bias.

With more experience I think this author has some promise, he just needs a better copyeditor.

Interesting plot...

What made the experience of listening to All of a Sudden the most enjoyable?

The plot was very enjoyable. It was an unbelievable tale that the author made seem plausible.

What did you like best about this story?

Mostly, it is hard to say without spoiling the story. The weaving of the eras was done very well.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was not the smoothest. Perhaps a more experienced narrator could have enhanced the story more. She was not so bad as to keep me from listening to the book, but for much of the book, it was if I was listening to someone who was playing and giving voice to barbie dolls instead of good character impersonations. The delivery was very stiff and didn't flow smoothly most of the time.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Perhaps. It was interesting enough to keep it playing.

Any additional comments?

There were some instances where the legal terminology was a little off putting. For instance the repeated use of squash a subpoena instead of quash caused a little annoyance, but I am probably being too particular.

Additionally, better editing of the audio recording would have been appreciated. There were instances where sentences were repeated and the narrator made some mistakes. Simple and expected errors that could have been cleaned up in editing.

I would likely read another of R.P. Wolff's books especially if the narration and editing was more professionally done.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

All of a Sudden

This book consists of a murder mystery and the paranormal. The narrator could have done a better job. She read the story with no emotion and kind of boring.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Good story - narration needs work

Any additional comments?

Overall an entertaining story, unfortunately my overall enjoyment was affected by the narration. Really intriguing and interesting concept. The story itself kept my attention and I wanted to know how it was all going to play out. There are parts of the story that were predictable but the final ending was a surprise in some ways. Not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't what happened. Even though there were several things I didn't care for in the story, it was still a very interesting, engaging and enjoyable story.

It was interesting to see how the lives of the main characters interconnected. I liked that they all came from a different time periods. Good cast of characters. Some more likable than others. You can't help but feel for Beverly, her husband and her son.

Some of the writing is repetitive. The same thing repeated several times in a slightly different way in a short period of time.

The racist remarks were grating after a while. For Beverly it's understandable, mentally she's in 1969 but not for Jerome. It's suppose to be 2016 and he's calling them "those whitey's " or these" wicked white people".

The narration sounds hollow like it's being done in a tunnel.

Even though I have some issues with her narration Danielle Brown has the potential to be a good narrator with a little more experience. She does an good job with parts of the narration. Her voice sounds young. Which works well for some of the female characters but not most of the male characters. Pastor Bryant's voice was really good. The voice she used for Madison who is 14 didn't fit. It sounded more like she 8 yr old. The straight out of character narration was good, the "in character" narration needs work. Her narration is a little flat at times especially in the beginning. It has more" character/life" as the story goes on. It also doesn't flow smoothly at times, there are some awkward pauses in between characters. With how young she sounds, she would probably do really well narrating Children/Teen/YA books. Even with my opinions on her narration she is by far not the worst narrator I have ever listened to and would listen to her narrate another book in a different genre.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily provided this review.

All of a Sudden

What did you like best about this story?

A murder mystery and paranormal intrigue with a touch of romance. I am drawn in from the beginning and will find it hard to put down.

Good, Interesting Story

Where does All of a Sudden rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Narration could have glued me in more, but overall a good story.

Any additional comments?

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost.

Great concept!

Where does All of a Sudden rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Near the top.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The attorney for the 3 returnees. he was compassionate and diligent to find justice for all of them.

Have you listened to any of Danielle Brown’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No but I liked her cadence and knowledge of the characters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Death is not the end.

Any additional comments?

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review”.

A Good Supernatural Mystery

I really enjoyed listening to this supernatural mystery. Beverly Frank and Madison are the main characters who rise from their graves. Officer Walton, Kevin and Brenda were also great characters. It has many twists and turns to keep you interested. I especially loved the epilog. Recommend to anyone who enjoys suspenseful supernatural mysteries. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Thank you

Suspend disbelief - you won't be sorry at the end

In reading some of the other reviews, I suspect some people were too put off by the seemingly impossible premise of the story to allow it a complete chance to explain itself. Sometimes you just have to go the distance and trust the author to explain things in a way that you can accept.

I'll admit that the premise of this book was so far-fetched that had me speculating everything from parallel universe to aliens did it. But I just put my "Oh, come on" critic on the shelf and went with it. It was a super fun ride.

The narrator did an admirable job, although I believe that this book would have benefited from shared narration. The author created each chapter to center around one character, so the entire chapter belonged to either Beverly, the little girl Madison, or the older man Frank. Had the author had chosen two narrators, a man and a woman, he could have had the man narrate the Frank chapters which dealt 80% with Frank, Frank's son, male attorney and a smattering of other male characters, and 20% Frank's female love interest. Then in the Beverly and Madison chapters, a female narrator could have taken the female leads there and managed the heroic male firefighter who saved Madison just fine, and Beverly's long lost husband and son, about 50/50. Likewise, a single male narrator could have pulled off the entire book.

I believe the female narrator chosen did the very best she could, but she dropped her voice to a very low register to represent the attorney (Ben) and it was a little distracting for some of the male characters. Still, I was able to get into the story just fine, and some of the scenes she read were chilling in their emotion, so she succeeded admirably quite often.

although I was provided with a copy of this book from the author, narrator or publisher in exchange for an unbiased review, I would happily pay for another book by this author, and in fact, I plan to go back and purchase the first two books because I enjoyed the roller coaster ride provided by this book.

Take a chance if you like a good revenge book. I like it when bad guys get what's coming to them! R.P Wolff manages that with style in the book.