Death in Cornwall

St. Just Mysteries, Book 4

By: G. M. Malliet

Narrated by: Lorna Bennett

To celebrate their engagement, DCI Arthur St. Just and Portia De’Ath visit the quiet village of Maidsfell in Cornwall. Upon arriving, they find the villagers in an uproar over plans to redevelop the local seafront.

The fishermen want to build a new slipway to aid their business, but many residents worry it will spoil the view for the tourists who help drive the economy. After a heated village meeting on the issue, St. Just overhears an argument involving Lord Bodwally, an unpopular aristocrat staunchly opposed to the plans. Later, Bodwally’s lifeless body is discovered. It’s murder.

Although Bodwally was disliked, who’d go so far as to kill him? St. Just, although an outsider from Cambridge, feels compelled to help local authorities investigate. Is Bodwally’s death linked to the seafront, his suspect business dealings, or a secret from the past? One thing is certain: The fallout threatens to change Maidsfell forever.

©2021 G. M. Malliet (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Terrible narrator ruining the story

Decent story but narrator using horrible voices ruins it. I bought the two stories with this narrator before I heard one. I have only gotten a third of the way through and thinking of asking for a refund. Then buy the book to read rather than listen.

Great read!

I wish we didn’t have to wait so long between books. I love this series. This one is as good as the others. Intelligently written. The characters are complete and the mystery is well crafted. It held me to the end. Hated for it to be over.

cringy narration and juvenile characters

I liked the first 3 books of this series but this one missed the mark. The narrator of the first 3 books was great, new narrator did a horrible job, The voices are obnoxious and weird and the rhythm is totally odd. Turthermore, the content has shifted the likeable, interesting characters from the first 3 books into immature people sounding like mean junior high school girls (even the male characters). I doubt I'll finish it and definitely won't get the next one in the series (same narrator)

The change of narrator

I found that tthe replacement of Davinna Porter so disappointing.. The characters came across as flat and one dimensional. The narrator sounded bored. It was difficult to listen to listen to this novel.

Terrible narration and not funny at all

I absolutely loved the first three in this series and was so excited for this one! Unfortunately, with the new narrator, it was painful to listen to. The narrator only has two voices, her normal voice and then a near growl. Everything St. Just says sounds like he's angry at everyone and super judgmental and haughty, and everything everyone else said- even the woman with the "melodious voice" - was said like a woman trying to sound like a man with a big secret and failing miserably. Now I wonder if it wasn't just Davina Porter I liked more than G.M. Malliet. The first three were narrated by Porter and were an absolute delight! This? Ugh. I'm returning it and I'm not even finishing it.

This narrator is disappointing

This narrator isn’t nearly as good as the narrator of the previous books in this series. Her pacing didn’t vary from character to character, or whether it was a stroll on the beach or a life or death battle. The voices didn’t seem to suit the characters very well either, or express a range of emotion. the story held my attention. If this narrator had read the first audio book of this series I probably wouldn’t have gone on to the second.

Unpleasant narration

The narrators growling guttural vocalization is quite unpleasant and very difficult to listen to. The story and characters are well done but advise avoiding this narrator

The narrator is like nails on the chalkboard.

Unfortunately I do not know whether the story was similar to Ms. Malliet's other novels which I loved. I tried so hard to listen but the narrator's "voices" she uses for different characters are very irritating to listen to. Makes the story hard to follow and not relaxing at all!!

Terrible narrator, boring story

As others have said, narration is awful. St Just sounds like someone’s crotchety old uncle, Morwenna and Moose have exactly the same voice, and everyone speaks with the same odd cadence. The quality of Malliet’s storytelling varies a lot but I have enjoyed some of her books a great deal. This was not one of them. Please bring back Davina Porter!!