Soft Target cover art

Soft Target

Soft Target, Book 1

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Soft Target

By: Conrad Jones
Narrated by: Ellery Truesdell
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About this listen

Conrad Jones has done it again with his Alec Ramsay books - crime thriller writing that will have you chewing your fingers as you listen!

Soft Target is the first book in a series of thrillers that follow the hunt for a nefarious killer. The book begins in famous US tourist destinations where suicide bombers cause carnage before attacking the United Kingdom.

©2008 Conrad Jones (P)2014 Conrad Jones Crime Thrillers Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction

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Most relevant  
The story is spoilt by the dreadful accents of the narrator. It was difficult to concentrate on the story as I was fascinated by the dreadful English, Irish, Liverpudlian and Middle Eastern accents which was a shame.

Awful narration

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A good story ruined by terrible narration. The narrator couldn't do any of the accents.

awful narration

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Not enjoying this series at all. Stay away the attempt at accents is just dire.

Terrible narration

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I nearly gave up on this audiobook after just a few chapters as I couldn't stand the narration. As I was interested in the story I decided to change speed to 1.5 and put up with the grating voice, awful accents and mispronunciation but I wish they'd employed a British narrator or an American who was good at accents and understood British English or who just read the book without bothering with accents as that would have been easier to stomach than the preposterous attempt this narrator made at English regional and Irish accents. I'm afraid it detracted so much from the story that at the end of it I wasn't really sure how good the novel really was. If the same reader is used for the rest of Conrad Jones's novels I'm going to have to decline to continue with the series. Not an enjoyable experience.

Terrible narrator

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I did not manage to listen to one chapter as the narration was too slow and boring. The accent was atrocious, why on earth use an American to read an English book. Just no right. I am so disappointed because I brought all five in the series as I have previously read them and found each book excellent. But there is no way I can listen to them. Waste of money.

Could not listen to it.

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Great story but the various English accents and town names were way off the mark. The narrator would have been better keeping to his American accent and letting the listener use their imagination

The accent just didn't do it

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I am two hours or so into this book and I’m already ready to slit my wrists.
I’m finding it very difficult to focus on the story, the narration is just abysmal … not sure I am strong enough to see it out.

GOD, where did they find this awful narrator?

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If you could sum up Soft Target in three words, what would they be?

Gritty, brilliant, entertaining

Have you listened to any of Ellery Truesdell’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No I haven't. I have to admit I didn't really like Ellery's performance. His attempt at accents wasn't brilliant to say the least.

Any additional comments?

If you haven't yet discovered Conrad Jones, what are you waiting for?!!

Amazing story

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I had to finish this audiobook despite it making Dan Brown sound like Dostoevsky. I can only imagine that the actor set to read this novel didn't turn up and, in a fit of panic, they got the studio caretaker to sit in for him.

Comedian Tony Law has a great joke....Books are good aren't they? But not if the acting in your head is s%@t !

Audiobooks are good aren't they? But not if the person chosen to read them is unable to pronounce words is his own voice - let alone attempting others.

If I had endless time to kill I'd go back and sift through this book for the words "tourist" and "terrorist" it would make an interesting quiz to see if people could make out which word the reader was actually saying.

One might think that a book set in Liverpool might have someone with a little local knowledge read it.
Instead what we get is something akin to an old man in his shed doing the voices for the Action Man toys he's playing with, if he thought they all should sound like a combination of characters from Scooby Doo and John Wayne tribute acts with a speech impediment.

I've grown up in Liverpool and regularly went on holiday to Anglesea (or Angler sea as our narrator says - we won't even go into his attempts at Trearddur Bay or Penmaenmawr) and my great grandmother lived on Holyhead (holey head as Ellery says) so the settings of the book were of real interest to me. As was the story, a terrorist plot set in Liverpool and North Wales.

This book made me laugh out loud for all the wrong reasons. Mainly when the author had read out a passage of speech and the author (in order to colour the scene) says what accent they've just spoken in. Ellery's Liverpool Chinese, Liverpool Asian, Oxbridge, North Wales and Belfast accents would leave accent connoisseurs bemused and wondering which planet they were from let alone which UK region.

Were it just the accents it would probably be OK but the ability to read and pronounce words is so important and Ellery seems incapable. Whoever directed this audiobook needs a good talking to. The word "quarry" is pronounced "kwore ree" for compost we get "com post (as in mail)" and as mentioned the "terrorist verses tourist competition" is hilarious.

So bad was the performance that I couldn't tell if the author was actually any good. One friend asked if it was read by a computer. Alexa might have done a better job and would, at least, know how to pronounce Warrington!

If Wayne Rooney read Tom Clancy audiobooks

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