Cat L.

Never met a metaphor she didn’t use!

Revisado: 04-16-25

Intriguing, different, filled with snarky humorous observations, but the end was anticlimactic and somewhat vague - did the perp get away with it? Also, dialogue exchanges never have a chance to build up momentum and energy because every line augmented with Pek’s apparent love of explanatory metaphors and similes, which frankly became tiresome. Good characters though, and in hopes of her maturing as a writer (i.e., relaxing enough to not need to demonstrate her cleverness on every page), I’d give Book 2 a chance.

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Torture porn

Revisado: 03-21-25

Disturbing - had to quit. Also, what’s with British narrators who give Norwegian characters a variety of British regional accents? Very distracting! But it was the subject matter that did me in - he lingers over details of rape and torture of women.

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Outstanding - setting, cast, performance all great

Revisado: 04-10-24

What a wonderful surprise to have discovered this series! It's a fantastic combo of murder mystery, armchair travel and food.

First warning: do not listen if you are hungry! Frequent mouthwatering descriptions of food!

Super cast of characters across the board - you'll feel like you could travel to Gravina, drop in at Sotto il Fico and see them all there: Nico, Pereillo, Daniele, Tilde, Stella, Gogol, Nellie. ! I am really looking forward to reading the next installment.

The narrator, Angelo Di Loreto, was superb. Beautiful, fluent pronunciations of the frequent Italian words and phrases, no hesitation at all, just a seamless performance that made the considerable authenticity come to life. I loved that his approach brought a suggestion of "hard boiled", which was appropriate to the fact that Nico is a former NYC cop.

The author herself is Italian-born and raised so the whole book rings with authenticity. Many touches of dry humor throughout.

A note to the uninitiated: as much as I loved this audiobook, for the rest of the series, I'll be reading the Kindle editions because for some baffling reason the producers got a different narrator for Books 2-4 who is absolutely dreadful - flat reading, constant and erratic mispronunciations of words, no ability to do even a suggestion of individual voices. Why they didn't keep Angelo Di Loreto on for the whole series is mind boggling! I feel bad for the author because a bad narrator can ruin a good book and so Books 2-4 have suffered poor ratings they don't deserve based on content alone. But don't let that stop you listening to di Loretta's super reading of this one as a way to get started on the series!

My only quibble (SPOILER ALERT- stop here if you don't want to know what the story hinges on) is the use of rape. I have begun to avoid books that rely on rape as the inciting incident, it's too hard to read about and imo it's so easy to use it that it becomes gratuitous. I know it happens constantly IRL but I don't need that in my chosen entertainment. That said, I think Trinchieri used it as sensitively as possible and once I found out that's what was involved, I did not stop listening. And I'm glad of that, because now I have a new series to get through!

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Whole thing devolves into a hot mess

Revisado: 02-27-24

I read the first DCI Lomond book and liked it enough to go on to this one, #2 in the series. Yikes, it's just a mess. The thinly-veiled caricatures of real life ultra-famous crime writers (James Patterson, Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Richard Osman, JK Rowling etc) is amusing at first, but the story itself is so implausible, total lack of logic and believability over and over again, plus places where it's just downright sloppy (a 42-year old woman's daughter died 14 years ago at the age of 21??? So the mother had her at 7? I mean, come on!). I have struggled to finish it. Also, - Angus King, the narrator. I have listened to other books narrated by him and thought him very good. For this series, however, he adopts an overdramatic tone that wears thin very fast. Overall, do not recommend.

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Pretty dull

Revisado: 02-17-24

Just didn’t take off for me, no life to it . Loads of exposition, hard to get involved in such cardboard characters who are all tell and no show.

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Outstanding series

Revisado: 01-02-24

Gritty, fast-paced, engaging cast of recurring characters. Each entry so far has been better than the last.

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Baffled by good reviews

Revisado: 09-14-23

Dull main character, awful dialogue, mostly telling not showing, no depth to the characters or themes, plus the resolution of the “mystery” was appalling, just a long boring explanation of backstory stuff that hadn’t been properly developed during the story. Really shocked by the swooning reviews. Also, the narrator left a lot to be desired. It’s possible that a really top-flight narrator could have elevated some of the dialogue through expressive delivery, but not this guy.

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Nobody does it better

Revisado: 07-26-23

Jack Irish- one of the all-time great creations. Stories are always complex and engaging, brilliant writing. Narrator superb- did the book justice. A crying shame there won’t be any more Peter Temple books - nobody does it better.

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Ten stars if I could

Revisado: 07-03-23

Top marks across the board - great story, building nicely to the reveals, fantastic setting and packed with fun details about Oxford, all spectacularly brought together by a first-
rate narrator. Wow. Going to be hard to find something to listen to next - anything will pale in comparison!

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Unbearable narrator

Revisado: 01-18-23

Had to pull the plug - narrator flat, unable to do different voices and seemed really tentative and uncomfortable with words that weren’t everyday English. Unbearable to listen to.

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