2 good ones in 1 package - bonus for 2 narrators

It's so delightful to hear Hugh Fraser speak as Hercule Poirot, and his narration really makes the story come alive for me. Once you get to Orient Express, you'll wonder how Dan Stevens switches so quickly between all the characters -- it's remarkable.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Wonder stories, wonderful execution

Two wonderful stories by Agatha Christie, performed by two captivating readers! What a wonderful blend!

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

one of my favorite books + best performance!!

this book kindled my lifelong love for mysteries and Dan Stevens is the BEST!

More than delightful!

Greatly enjoyed listening to Hugh Fraser (Poirot’s Captain Hastings), narrate a Christie story I haven’t read or seen filmed. Spoiler ahead: I’ve never known of Hastings to have a love interest, which added to the fun, and in my mind the part of Cinderella, by her second appearance in the story when I first suspected she’d have an important role, was played by the younger version of Belinda Lang, Fraser’s real-life wife. I’d also never heard Fraser perform a book; he’s so good I’ll have to look up what other things he’s done.

As to Dan Stevens, he’s my very favorite book performer, and his extraordinary acting talents are brilliantly on display in a densely populated story such as Murder on the Orient Express. He gives to each character such a unique voice that once the listeners know their voices, we almost don’t need to be reminded by the text who is speaking, unless our listening has been interrupted. What we DO lose track of is the fact that it’s just one person, Dan Stevens, who is creating this whole roomful—or dining car full, in this case—of distinct individuals, because thanks to the author we’ve imagined a different face and physique for each. I’ve seen all the films and TV shows of this story, but none have I enjoyed more than Stevens’ audio version. His Poirot is more like David Suchet than any other actor who played that role—also my personal favorite. But even when he doesn’t have a full panoply of characters to voice, Dan Stevens’ perfect vocal command of every human emotion make all his audio performances profoundly rich. On film he is equally versatile. In his recent role as a robot he managed to subsume such tenderness and generosity to the required automaton template that I found myself greatly moved, thinking if people, at least in fiction, can believably program machines to be truly loving, how is it that in reality so many of us act as if we’ve lost that ability? We know all about the qualities we need to get along successfully with each other. We just repeatedly fail to recall and apply them, under duress.

2 great Poirot classics

loved hugh Fraser performance as usual. the accents done for the orient express were interesting

So disappointed

High Fraser is my favorite narrator and I actually prefer his Poirot to David Suchet's- but this was the first that didn't work for me. Maybe it was because he had to do so many different French characters all at once, but his Poirot didn't sound like good ol' Poirot AT ALL. You'll know what I mean when you hear it yourself. It's not really noticeable until a scene where you have 3-4 characters all speaking with accents. Then Poirot gets lost. Several times I had to rewind 60 seconds to make sure Hugh was speaking as Poirot because even though the conversation was Poirot it didn't sound like him at all. I really wanted to like this and am so disappointed