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An excellent story marred by simply appalling narration
The narrator is, obviously, not a native English speaker and the pronunciation was grating.

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"Veil of Lies"

I kind of enjoyed this despite myself, so to speak. It was a decent enough story and plot, and an interesting set of characters, but somehow it just didn't hit the spot... I found that I had to keep reminding myself that it was supposed to be happening in 1383, and not in Victorian London, or after the Restoration... There was a lack of atmosphere in general, to be honest, although there was plenty of 'period' detail and constant mentions of bowls, not glasses, of wine, and descriptions of clothes with lo g pointed sleeves... And although I'm sure that Jeri Westerson knows the period well, and spent time researching it, that just didn't come across, we the whole book was just kinda flat.

But the biggest gripe I have, and the reason why I almost gave up before the third chapter, was the quite dreadful, unbearably phoney and misguided 'posh' accent used by this narrator. Quite apart from various mis -pronounciations, Mr Butler, whom I hadn't heard of till now, thankfully, seems to have decided that 14th century nobility pronounced every word with a flat letter 'a'... So instead of the 'a' in 'flash' sounding like the 'a' in apple, it's pronounced 'flaash' like the flat 'a' in 'apart'. And this goes on and on, 'paassage' 'slaash' 'eyelaash' to the point where you want to stick waax in your ears to make it stop !!!

I'm just thankful it was free, or at least 'Included in my membership' .

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1 person found this helpful

strange violent outbursts

disliked the narrators affected voice, it didn't sound natural and was irritating. The story was monotonous and weak

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Weak Mystery

There are two mysteries in the story and neither is very strong. I know the character is designed to feel human by giving him flaws but he just came across as stupid and unlikable.

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Really enjoyed it!

This is the first book of hers that I've listened to. A really good exciting story. I got used to the narrator. what is it with Americans and English accents. Why do they go over the top. But he was well into the story and made it exciting. I just wish he would sort out those elongated vowel sounds. I don't use them. I'm a Northerner but even I know you you don't pronounce passage as pa-rssage.
Anyway I begin to get to know the characters and like them. Hope they reappear in future.

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Veil of Disappointment

Crispin Guest is an interesting character with a huge chip on his shoulder having been demoted from the aristocracy finding a role as an investigator having been unfairly treated by the class of which he was previously a member
Now he is good at his new job which has him mixing with both ends of society
Overall a good story but the narrator is dreadful the accent is totally unbelievable and spoils the story

Fortunately I have an excellent version in my Audible library read by Michael Page . I was intrigued by the new version when I saw it available in the Plus Catalogue l am so glad that it was free as I couldn’t carry on listening

Unfortunately the original version is no longer available from Audible as with several other titles that have been replaced by inferior versions with poor narration.

Audiobooks rely heavily on good narration but so often it fails to deliver as in this case

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2 people found this helpful