Excellent Beginning to Series

I am always delighted to discover a series that is new to me, which is entertaining, clever and well-written. So I am very pleased to have found the Dalziel and Pascoe series, which begins with "A Clubbable Woman."

First published in 1970, this book establishes the characters of Inspector Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ELL) and Sergeant Pascoe, members of the police in a medium sized town in Yorkshire. They are a fairly new mismatched pair -- the Inspector is a grizzled veteran who is large, messy, ill-mannered and loud, and who scratches a lot. The Sergeant is younger, a University graduate, nice looking and very well-mannered. A fairly large part of the story involves the partners' adjusting to each other. This requires Pascoe to attempt to understand Dalziel - not an easy thing.

The mystery involves the murder of the wife of an old star Rugby player, and the investigation centers around the local Rugby club, the social center for all of the current and former players. The plot is quite involved and the solution was not given away until quite near the end.

The book was quite enjoyable and was made even more so by the excellent narration of Brian Glover. The majority of characters spoke with Yorkshire accents, which Glover handled very well, at least to these American ears. The addition of Irish, Welsh, and Scots characters, as well as University and aristocratic accents were equally well done.

I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys well drafted plots, colorful characters, and very little graphic violence and sex.

14 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Good Story nearly ruined by Narration

Narrator Brian Glover has got all of the different UK accents down pat. However, his volume range is extreme. So, as I was driving, I was constantly adjusting the volume knob on my sound system. It was terribly frustrating, and there were some segments too quiet to understand, no matter how far up I turned the knob. And, if a loud character chimed in after a quiet character had been speaking, the resultant explosion of LOUD dialog made me jump right out of my seat.

To be fair to him, there is another aspect of this book that makes it tough for audio. The author has written "thoughts" as well as dialog, and these thoughts are frequently and tightly enmeshed with the spoken word. So I often wondered, "Is he saying that out loud? Is he just thinking that?"

All in all, this book should be read.

Author Reginald Hill writes a good story, and I would like to know what his characters do next. This is a series of books following the same policemen on various adventures. It was also made into a British TV series that I have never watched.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Poor Quality

Difficult to understand; too soft or too loud; accents are not easy to understand; story grinds on and on.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Audio Awful!!

Reader alternates between way too loud and way too soft. Had to keep adjusting the volume over and over. So annoying I couldn't even finish the book.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Horrible narrator

The narrator was horrible. Once i got accustomed to his accent I still couldn't understand him because he would go from too loud to too soft. I listen while driving and am constantly changing the volume just so I could hear him.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

I like this series from Reginald Hill

I like this series from Reginald Hill. Unfortunately, while narrator Brian Glover uses a hearty accent, it was difficult to tell the difference between male and female voices and this made it difficult to follow the story. Others in this series, with different narrators, are easier to follow because changes from male to female voices are easier to recognise.

Wonderful narrator

It’s rare to find a narrator with so much feeling. Brian Glover is just perfect for this book. There are some technical issues with the volume. And one chapter, Or at least some pages, are out of order. If you get confused because of this you’ll get caught up eventually.

Maybe if it were young adult

I really wanted to like this series, but “Babe”, it reads like it was written by a 16 year old girl.
...and the tunes - just no.

Sadly, I couldn’t finish this

The combination of unsympathetic characters and the tough accents in the reading made me finally give up on this book.

Chapters out of order

The chapters of this audio book are out of order - seems chapters 4 and 5 are switched