Jeff C

Depends on future stories

Revisado: 04-17-25

Solid story and the audiobook narration was quite good. This seemed like a good start to a series. It was good enough that I would listen to additional books in the series, but am not sure the story is distinctive as a standalone. I got to know some characters and am now wondering what’s to come. It’s not a cozy but cozy fans could enjoy it; it’s not totally a procedural but some fans of those would enjoy it.

The only part of the story about which I have mixed feelings is the stalking of one of the characters, Sunita. (I listened to the story so am not sure that’s the correct spelling.) I believe including this in the storyline helped the author establish that Sunita is a tough woman who can fight off an attacker (sets things up for future stories) but at the same time is quite compassionate. Fair enough.

The stalking scenario, in which the stalker is someone she had briefly dated, is entirely plausible. What bothered me was Sunita’s tendency to want to dismiss the stalking (showing up unannounced, breaking into the home, etc), when the character was clearly disturbed. Her reaction of being slow to “get” how nuts and dangerous he was also was plausible—except that she’s supposed to be this really smart police officer.

More than anything, though, she had a roommate, and the roommate seemed more concerned than Sunita. What if he hurt or even killed the roommate because she came across him, or perhaps the people he’d hired mistook her roommate for Sunita?

As things unfolded, it turned out that the stalker is married. At one point Sunita proposed going and talking to the wife. Again, it’s plausible that some people might want to do this (lots of people have bad judgement) but not a supposedly smart insightful police officer. This made it harder for me to buy into her character.

Near the end, Sunita wants to raise money for the wife once he’s jailed. It’s nice that she recognizes that the wife is a victim as well—but what about the roommate? She could have been killed, and at the very least she was distraught over this wacko coming to their home, breaking in, etc. Nowhere in the story does Sunita apologize for not taking the roommate’s concerns sufficiently seriously.

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Complex character sketches; cases are solved in the end

Revisado: 09-11-23

I listened to the audiobook. Susan Jameson’s masterful narration breathed life into the characters, making the plot more cohesive. Unfortunately, these days I’m not able to sit for hours reading books and instead I have to read in short bursts, which makes it harder to “get” more complicated plots, nuanced dialogue, and so forth. I don’t think I could read this book a little bit at a time and be able to understand the characters and follow the plot which jumps between several cases as well as the present. It worked great as an audiobook.

I am curious to see what later books are like.

Note: this is not a cozy mystery, and if you are listening to the audiobook, be forewarned that there are passages here and there with explicit descriptions of sex, etc.

A random aside: this book is nothing like Simon Brett’s Fethering series. However, in listening to it, I was reminded of Fethering stories in that the police hardly feature at all in the story in spite of crimes being committed.

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Complex and intriguing plot and superb narrator

Revisado: 06-30-23

The plots and characters of this series are complex, and the superb narrator of the audiobooks helps bring all the characters and twists and turns to life. (I’d listen to him read the dictionary.) The narrator also helps me distinguish different characters and made it easier to get a feel for the different gangs in the story.

These stories might appeal to someone who enjoys stories involving spies, gangsters, or perhaps stories set in places in which the main characters have to work within a system in which there’s lots of corruption below the surface in police, politicians, and so forth. Good guys are seeking justice in a corrupt world.

Sometimes horrible behavior is referenced, but the author doesn’t dwell on that sort of thing. Also, there’s minimal use of expletives and sex/romance is alluded to but not described in great detail—which makes it easier to have the audiobook on when other people are around!

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Excellent series so far; excellent narration

Revisado: 06-19-23

I’ve listened to the series in order through Book 5 now. Something I really appreciate is how the main character has grown over time, and Wensleydale/Yorkshire itself plays a role in this. I also admire the way the plots vary from book to book, as in, it doesn’t seem like the author came up with a great “formula” and is sticking to it. I also love the author’s notes at the end of the stories. They provide a glimpse into how he comes up with stories and they also convey a warmth and graciousness—somehow refreshing nowadays—with which the stories also seem to be suffused.

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Great start to series

Revisado: 05-24-23

My understanding is that most of the series is set during the Cold War, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to check it out. The main character is in the police during WWII, and in pursuing a particular criminal, he crosses paths with people working in various intelligence agencies. This experience, along with his personal background, sort of sets the stage for future books, in which I believe he ends up working in intelligence. Within the world of the book, I found it quite plausible.

The sexual encounters with women are not subtle—something to keep in mind, depending on who else is around when you are listening. (These just happen now and then in the book.) While I don’t believe everyone would have had these sorts of experiences, they are believable. I would imagine that during wartime some people would be less reserved.

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Crying out for a better narrator

Revisado: 04-17-23

I found myself wondering if the book was being narrated by a real person or something computer-generated. The narrator’s voice is okay, but it didn’t seem like she had any feel for what she’s reading. For instance, early in the story Libby is quite ill after being poisoned. Her college-aged daughter calls Libby after being informed by Max about the poisoning. Rather than conveying concern or shock when the daughter gets hold of Libby by phone, the narrator reads the daughter’s lines as though she could be asking Libby about a new brand of dish soap she’s trying, or perhaps a new set of curtains.

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Fun story not helped by narration

Revisado: 02-15-23

This is a fun cozy mystery. The author’s humor seems a bit old fashioned—not at all a bad thing—in that I can imagine reading this book a few decades ago.

The narrator’s voice and accents are okay, but the story would benefit greatly from a more skilled narrator with a better sense of timing, wit, and humor. It seems like she’s reading the words without any sense of what she’s reading, as if it’s a dictionary. As the story went on, it actually crossed my mind that maybe there’s a computer program doing the narration and that this is cheaper than an actual actor! She never speeds up or slows down her pace.

Also, some characters are comical and require a skilled narrator to breathe life and fun into them. I sometimes found myself reflecting, “Oh, that was actually a funny scene.” I realized this based on the words alone, whereas the narrator should have contributed to the humor.

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Unexpected

Revisado: 06-01-22

The two narrators were excellent and believable. I normally would steer clear of a book with a main character still in high school, but this really worked. I could say more but don’t want to give too much away.

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