Murder At The Front Door

The true and bizarre story of the murder of Robert Cushing Sr. by off duty Hampton Police Officer Robert McLaughlin

By: John Tommasi

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In August of 1975, Hampton, NH Police Officer Robert McLaughlin arrested Robert Cushing Sr. for disorderly conduct. The following month, McLaughlin arrested Cushing's neighbor Gladys Ring. As a result, Robert Cushing and his son Renny, attempted to get McLaughlin and another officer fired for their "heavy handed tactics." The officers were cleared of any wrongdoing but McLaughlin didn't forget and blamed Robert Cushing for his lack of advancement in the police department over the years. The resentment simmered and built while McLaughlin's stress level from previous life events and the job increased exponentially. It finally came to a head on June 1, 1988 when in an enraged and inebriated state, McLaughlin dressed in black and brutally murdered Robert Cushing, a prominent and beloved figure in Hampton, NH. Follow the events of the investigation and the subsequent arrest of Robert McLaughlin and his wife Sammi who planned the killing.

Good story ruined by virtual voice

This was interesting and a good review of this case. The author’s notes on police procedurals were particularly helpful. The voice and repeated sections detracted from what was essentially a good story. If you like true crime, you will enjoy this, just be prepared for the voice…

virtual voice is terrible.

I will not spend a single cent or credit on anything that is "recorded with virtual voice" as long as it is like this. I'd bet if an author heard this, they'd agree.

Virtual voice

It was easy to understand but there are grammatical mistakes in pronunciation and other errors in where to pause,etc

Virtual Voice is not my favorite

I did not like the parts where virtual did not say the word proper. The entire story is filled with what is supposed to be “yeah” and VV called it “yea” or “yay!” Which took a while to get used to and changes how the story is received

An Interesting true to life account of a tragic murder by a policeman. Virtual Voice worked for me.

I listened the author’s other book “murder at the back door”. This time I found virtual voice easy to listen to.

(It would be nice if some app maker e.g. for an iPhone, could provide virtual voice to read other texts.)

No surprises or tension in the investigation. But worth a recreational listen as a free book in my library.

Two oddities, but only a bit distracting. The common conversational word “YEAH” is pronounced “YEA”. Second, I don’t know if it’s the author or virtual voice, but every time the two state names involved are mentioned the name is stated as “NH” or “MA”

great book, except for virtual voice

for the most part, VV gets things right but when it's not, it's awful. in particular, saying yay instead of yeah is really disconcerting. Also, sometimes during "conversation, cadence and nuance is inappropriate. The story is intriguing and not one I had heard before and I listened at no additional cost beyond my membership, so it's hard to complain too much.

Not a fan of AI voice

I like the story, but I struggled with the AI voice narration. Yes, it sounded like a real person, but words, phrases, locations, etc. were mispronounced.

Never again!

The machine narration is the most awful thing I have ever encountered. Words are mispronounced or sound robotic, I will never again listen to another book narrated this way, get a human!

This book is ridiculously bad!

AI pronounced the word yeah as yay through the entire book!
Seems written by AI as well as read by AI!