A Spider in the Cup

The Joe Sandilands Murder, Book 11

By: Barbara Cleverly

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

At dawn one morning in 1933, an amateur dowsing team digging the banks of the Thames for precious metals unearths the body of a young woman with a missing toe and a priceless gold coin in her mouth.

The case falls on Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard Joe Sandilands’ turf, but he’s been given another assignment - and a very high-profile one. London is hosting a historic global economic conference to try to solve the global Depression, and political tensions are running very high, as very influential participants are starting to take positions allied with or staunchly against the rapidly militarizing Germany. Sandilands’ job is to protect and keep an eye on the visiting American senator Cornelius Kingstone, right-hand man to President Roosevelt, throughout the conference.

When a strange set of coincidences links the river bank body to the senator, Joe realizes his assignment is much bigger than he’d thought, and that Senator Kingstone is caught up in a very dangerous game - one that might cost not just one but thousands of lives.

©2013 Barbara Cleverly (P)2013 AudioGO

Narrator ruined this book.

Would you try another book from Barbara Cleverly and/or Steven Crossley?

I am completing the series by reading the last book, but probably would not have if Steven Crossley was narrating. He was not a good match for the central character, Joe Sandilands,

What could Barbara Cleverly have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

This plot line was murky and too unrealistic to satisfy. There was a lot of unhelpful padding. The detailed asides and descriptions did little to shed light on the characters or the political climate as in other books in this series. The author may be out of steam and lacking fresh ideas for new challenges for Joe Sandilands. This book dropped Dorcas altogether while hinting at her reappearance, but the lack of continuity felt forced.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The range of different voices was distracting, not a positive. I felt the narrator was too cartoonish for this series particularly his over-the-top cockney accent for the Julia character and his accent for Lydia that made her sound silly. His voice for Sandilands veered off into a high pitch that was quite distracting. His exaggerated variations made it more difficult to follow the arc of the story. He would be better suited for more broadly humorous fare.

Any additional comments?

The low-keyed and nuanced performances of Tony Wale, Simon Prebble and Andrew Wincott are a much better fit for this series.