Mourning Gloria

By: Susan Wittig Albert

Narrated by: Julia Gibson, Theresa Plummer

This 19th mystery in the China Bales series is a cozy herbal treat from national best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert. While Pecan Springs bustles back to life in the warmth of spring, one woman’s life is tragically brought to an end. Assigned to cover the story, an intern from the local paper gets too deeply involved. When she disappears, China is determined to find her—before the young journalist becomes headlines herself.

©2011 Susan Wittig Albert (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

worst narrator yet, made Ruby sound like an idiot

worst narrator I have heard, ruined the characters, made Ruby & Blacky sound like idiots

Great story with weak reader.

Would you consider the audio edition of Mourning Gloria to be better than the print version?

Susan Albert writes a consistently enjoyable series and it has been a pleasure to see these characters grow over the years but listening to this book is not easy. I do not like the all over the south accents that the reader employs. Only one character sounds remotely Texan and she sounds so much like the TV character Flo that the effect is less than perfect. Maybe in East Texas everyone sounds like an amalgamation of all southern accents but in the hill country the accents are distinctly Texas and I do not hear that in this reading. In addition I feel the reader employs her whiney teenager voice a little too often when she is reading characters in their mid 20's and older.
Having said that if you are a fan of mysteries with a theme, Texas life or the details of a gardener who loves herbs this is the book for you.

What did you like best about this story?

China Bayles as a mother is great fun but the best part is the chapter intros about the herbs.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Regional accents are not true and the change of accent in a single speech is disconcerting. I do not recommend these readers for this series. The voicesare pleasant and she might do well with another series.

Great story, bad pronunciation

I love the China Bayles series, and I was really looking forward to listening to one of the books. How unfortunate that the narrator can't pronounce the names of Texas towns and the word pecan.

Refuting a previous comment.

I was looking at the comments before I actually used my points on this book. I hesitated to listen to it because someone commented that the actor voicing Ruby made her character sound like an idiot. I am glad I took the risk because I thoroughly enjoyed the story and thought Ruby’s voice sounded just fine as it does in the other books I’ve listened to in this series.