A tribute to Agatha

Of course if your new to the Falco series, the advice is to start with book 1. The end of this book is straight out of Agatha Christie with our Roman Poirot revealing the murderer to a room of assembled suspects.

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1 person found this helpful

Good story, shame about the voice.

A n excellent twisty plot rendered difficult to listen too by an almost ladylike delivery.

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3 people found this helpful

Inappropriate narrator, good story.

The reader has been badly chosen a first-person narrator representing the plebeian, ironic, canny Falco. If Christian Rodska had told this tale, I’d have chuckled out loud several times- even on second or third listenings. Griffin reads slowly and enunciates clearly, even pedantically. Perhaps the publishers thought this bland performance would be more accessible for those for whom British English is not the mother tongue. The story is good, a nod to 20th century “body in the library” whodunnits, with a Poirot style denouement but with well-researched background on publishing and banking, and casual cultural jokes, like the dubious publishing house rejecting the writings of a certain Martialis as “crap”, unmarketable.

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8 people found this helpful

Another great read from Lindsey Davis

A true portrait of the Roman lifestyle alongside a remarkably good Murder mystery plot

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Homage to Agatha Christie?

Pausing, having just happily completed my 12th Falco listen/read. Of all of them this seems to me to be the closest to an Agatha Christie, but improved by the fact that there is a warmth in the development of repeating key characters and their domestic circumstances. When, initially, I saw that there was a list of characters to be questioned I drooped, but not for long. It was an intriguing listen/read and one where the villain was not impossible to predict. I like the 'drip-feed' of Roman details, enough to find out what a particular drink consisted of, for example. Davis wins over some other detective series writers by the humour, irony and sanguinity often to be found. Other writers of 14 hour-plus listens might learn from this. She also wins by plot outlines safe in their twists but never being convoluted beyond measure. I have enjoyed the journey with Falco, friends and family and look to the remaining adventures in the series. The reading performance was clear, direct and far more insightful that earlier performance. The irony is smoothly delivered. Listen to this adventure confident that it will please.

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I hate this reader!

Lindsey’s wonderful story ruined by this reader. Wrong emphases, wrong tone, wrong for the book

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7 people found this helpful

Another Falco story let down by poor narration

I'm so glad this is the last of the Falco series narrated by Gordon Griffin. I find myself distracted with almost every sentence he reads, by his misplaced emphasis (which suggests he has no grasp of the meaning of what he's reading) or by his annoying tone, and voices which are very little like how I imagine the characters. I have stuck with his recordings as I wanted to listen to the complete series - but doubt I'll ever want to hear these again.

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Great story, but badly let down by the narrator

Story excellent, as you'd expect for a Falco book. However, the awful narrator almost spoils it.

The narrator sounds far too old for Falco, with none of the required sense of humour for his character. He does the female voices incredibly badly - so much so that Helena Justina comes across as a controlling, whiny woman, instead of the strong, capable partner she is. He puts the emphasis on the wrong words in many sentences (I struggle to believe he's actually a native English speaker!) and has the annoying Australian/teenage girl habit of raising his tone at the end of a sentence, as if in a question? I could do far better - in fact, my 12 year old niece could do far better...

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Badly read

Soo badly read that it was difficult to persist with even though I am a great fan of the BBC versions of Falco. Ponderous.

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love FALCO books but gettimg harder to not have

Christian RODSKA reading them I have to go back and 're read the RODSKA books again

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4 people found this helpful