Slaves of Obsession

William Monk Series, Book 11

By: Anne Perry

Narrated by: Simon Jones

The year is 1861. The American Civil War has just begun, and London arms dealer Daniel Alberton is becoming a very wealthy man. His quiet dinner party seems remote indeed from the passions rending America. Yet investigator William Monk and his bride, Hester, sense growing tensions and barely concealed violence. For two of the guests are Americans, each vying to buy Alberton’s armaments. Soon Monk and Hester’s forebodings are fulfilled as one member of the party is brutally murdered and two others disappear– along with Alberton’s entire inventory of weapons. As Monk and Hester track the man they believe to be the murderer all the way to Washington, D.C., and the bloody battlefield at Manassas, Slaves of Obsession twists and turns like a powder-keg fuse and holds the reader breathless and spellbound. . . .

©2012 Anne Perry (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

“When it comes to the Victorian murder mystery, no one can top Perry...this is one of her best." (San Francisco Examiner)

“Luxuriant...It's E.M. Forster spliced with Thomas Harris.... Perry is a master.” (The Baltimore Sun)

"Scenes are brilliantly etched.... [Perry is] the most adroit sleight-of-hand practitioner since Agatha Christie.”(Chicago Sun Times)

Excellent

I say excellent but it was an abridged recording so not the entire story. I did read most of the book but was anxious to get to the next audible!

Monk - Slaves of Obsession

Any additional comments?

I love the Monk series. This one seemed to have a few plot holes and Monk seemed to jump to conclusions early on as if the story was put together quickly. However, the story develops well later on. I enjoyed it and would listen to it again.

😊

O have not listened to it read an Anne Perry book I didn't enjoy. I think I have read most of them.

Abridged

I was desperate to listen to Monk rather than read so I listened (there’s a gap in available audiobooks in the series). This left me feeling empty. I got the gist, but I constantly felt like I was missing something, like when you leave the house and have forgotten your deodorant. The reader did wonderful work, the story is more of Anne Perry’s genius. But. Did I leave my stove on?

Now I have to decide if I will read the book to get what I lost.

Missing lots of detail

An abridged edition. Why? Very unsatisfactory. Missing lots of information in the story. Maybe an UNabridged edition soon?

Whole sections missing from narrative!

The book I purchased to my kindle app. I purchase the audible versions to listen to on my hr long commute by train daily. I spent 10 minutes trying to locate the section I left off at reading to resume by audible. That is when I noticed this version had complete sections missing. Not good! The book is very good just skip this audible version!

oops

it's only fair to excuse Perry for this one.
no one can be perfect

Slow it down

I listened at 90% speed, which slowed the story down to normal speech and made it easy to follow.

Left out

The audio left out portions of paragraphs out of the book. I kept thinking I missed hearing this or that but nope, the narrator left out chunks of sentences. Not the same as reading the story but still ok. Would I recommend this audio? No I’d say read the book. 📖

Poorly abridged. A waste of my credit. I would like my credit back.

Because of poor abridgement several items were left very confused. Made it very difficult to follow the story.