Mer

Authentic accent cannot compensate...

Reviewed: 11-01-24

....for poor voice acting. Though Mr. Brassard has a background in both acting and singing, it didn't translate into being a good voice actor. He is an adequate reader, but audiobooks are and should be more than someone merely READING out loud. Other than how he voiced Armand Gamache (which I especially disliked) all the other characters sound too alike. As another reviewer noted, this made it necessary to rewind several times in order to follow who said what.

As to the story itself: the premise of such great threat would have been better served, in my opinion, with more attention to depicting the person/persons behind it. I guess this proves that the premise of a 'shadowy villain' can be taken too far for said villain to seem powerful or motivated enough to carry out the threat. I disliked that Three Pines regulars barely figured in this story, having random cameos here and there, but did enjoy the tie-in to a previous favorite story in the series. I am struggling to finish this book which is disappointing.

I don't know how much weight Audible reviews have with production decisions--I suspect not enough. I doubt that I will be pre-ordering future Louise Penny books with this narrator.

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49 people found this helpful

Extreme personification

Reviewed: 09-25-24

I stopped a third of the way through. Soothing narration couldn’t compensate for information riddled with fairytale-like descriptions of trees screaming, mourning, etc.

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Don't do it

Reviewed: 05-20-24

This should have been a standalone, though even that wouldn't change much. I've been trying to think of a single redeeming feature in this story. Cannot. And don't get me started on the ending.

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A little melodramatic

Reviewed: 05-17-24

Dialogue veered into melodrama too often for my tastes, but given that I enjoy this author’s other series, I’m willing to give this one another chance. The narration was truly awful, He made the simplest lines sound either trite or fraught. Ugh.

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Ugh

Reviewed: 05-14-24

Don’t do it. Save your time and your credit for something worth both . This isn’t it.

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Sigh

Reviewed: 05-12-24

Other than the performance by the amazing Zara Rama (tbh, the only reason I even gave this a twirl) this was painfully long, improbable and tedious. I wouldn't even have cared much about the rest of it IF the way the police responded to the lil old ladies hadn't been so ridiculous. Sharing information about the investigation? Really? I mean, C'MON, Mr Boland! Even a little bit of realism wouldn't have been remiss, you know?

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2 people found this helpful

Changing narrator on a purchased book??

Reviewed: 11-20-23

Why does Audible feel it's acceptable to change books that are already in customer's libraries? As another reviewer mentioned, I too chose this particularly to have Joan Hickson as the narrator. Maybe Audible feels that not that many customers re-listen to books, but I DO. Narration is a make or break thing for me and to discover the change was not at all okay. It's like having a vintage book and discovering someone replaced it with a cheap copy.

I thought the book I bought was mine. Period. Now I find out that it's not. Not cool. I have over 1000 titles, but that doesn't mean that I don't care if any of them are tampered with. Very unhappy.

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1 person found this helpful

Narrator made a disappointing book excruciating

Reviewed: 11-10-23

Where to start? It's not only that Angus King is a hard act to follow, this narrator has a nice enough voice, the inconsistent speed she read at detracted from the story. The fact that there was a lack of......gravitas? seriousness? in her manner no matter how gruesome the scene was is very off-putting. For a different genre, I'd probably enjoy her voice. But not this genre.

I'm a huge JD Kirk fan. I have all the Logan books and have listened to them more than once. I could barely get through this one. Heather has a sad back story, but it doesn't balance out what a dislikable person she is as well as what an improbable law enforcement character she is. The best part of this book is Ace, the neurodiverse character. I only finished the book because of her. The only smiles this story gave me were her scenes. (I love Kirk's usual humor and missed it here) Don't know that I'll give any further time to whatever further additions there are to this series.

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Take my word....

Reviewed: 09-11-23

....give this a miss. Every sort of domestic abuse known with too many clueless characters. Nothing redeeming. I stopped and deleted from device. I have several of this author's other books, so felt confident in purchasing this w/o looking at the reviews. I paid for them (severely discounted price, should of been a clue, I guess) and discovered that nowadays, Audible books paid for instead of using credits are not eligible for return. Good to know, right? New policies make me less and less willing to take chances on books.

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Stinker

Reviewed: 09-11-23

The last third of the book is beyond ridiculous. By the time this hits the courtroom scenes, I was muttering under my breath and shaking my head. I can't believe I gave it so long before stoping the book and deleting it from my device.

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