Does anyone coach or edit narration?

The Daisy Dalrymple stories are light fare and nice for summer listening, even though the narrator is not one of the best. I can get past the odd accents and so-so character voices, but the many mispronunciations are jarring. Whenever I hear "mis-CHEEV-e-us" instead of "mis-che-vus" I want to scream, even though that pronunciation is now so common that it is practically acceptable. However, saying "indignant" instead of "indigent" is just sloppy narrating and editing. Then there was "bun-GAL-low" for bungalow and the pronunciation of "consommé" was so bad the first time I couldn't figure out what the word was supposed to be (although that might have been in a different DD book with the same narrator). I know that it must be very difficult for a narrator to created different voices or accents for different characters, but if narrating audiobooks is your profession you should be able to pronounce basic words correctly.

9 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Great story, horrible narrator

Please find a different narrator for this great series of books! I've long been a fan of Carola Dunn, but the narrator of this one and at least one other is just awful. Not only does she have an affected inaccurate fake English accent (it would be better to have someone without an English accent at all than this fakery), but she also doesn't know how to pronounce a lot of words properly, especially proper nouns. For example, the South African town of "Mafeking" is NOT two syllables, but three, something anyone with the slightest knowledge of the Boer (another mispronounced word) War would know.

7 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Interesting premise; disappointing execution

Interesting premise of a writer with a Scotland Yard detective fianc/e happening upon murder mysteries in post-WWI England. However, the female characters are again either bitter ignorant virgins, useful fat chicks, loose women or dutiful wives. Disappointing!

5 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Unbearable narration; Daisy has lost her charm

I forgot why I quit the Daisy series - now I remember. The story started fine, but I couldn’t finish it. The narrator has such an affected tone and odd accent - she sounds like my 9-year old pretending to be British. She also narrates too slowly. All the characters come off sounding like they’re in a lame joke. Daisy used to seem like a good lead, now she just sounds stupid. Although with the narration, all the characters sound like idiots. If you like the Daisy books, pick one narrated by ANYONE else. Unfortunately ruins what is probably a fine book.

4 persone l'hanno trovata utile

A bit boring

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This starts slow and is quite tedious and filled with way too many characters.

What was most disappointing about Carola Dunn’s story?

Its a tad boring and hard to get into.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

She isn't really that good and distracts from the book.

Do you think Styx and Stones needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Lord no. Enough is enough.

Any additional comments?

It was fine. I got through it. Not my favorite Dalrymple story.

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Good story, poor reader

I really enjoy this series, but if mispronounced places and words bother you, be prepared to grit your teeth as you listen to the first seven or so books.

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Sorry, no more Daisy Dalrymple for me!

This book was so disappointing. I enjoy reading strong female lead characters but in this book, all the strong female leads were either domineering pigs or uncaring adulteresses. Women from small villages were all uneducated rationalist, while educated male artist from the city were enlighten. And last but not least, people of faith were mentally unstable killers while atheist were educated victims. Did I leave anybody out . . . Oh and I forgot, high ranking military men are drunken abusers. This book was so unbalanced that I stopped it several times and only finished it in hopes that it would at some point turn around and redeem itself. I think this book had an agenda which made it suffer in the writing of it. If the rest of the series is just going to be social agenda lessons, this is my last book by C. Dunn.

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Insipid

Narrator so overdone I couldn’t stand it. And just to WSY TOO many British euphemisms jammed into every sentence.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Decent stories

The stories are fairly interesting, not top notch detective stories, but interesting story lines and characters - sometimes a little bit too much irrelevant information .What's really annoying is the mispronunciation of place names and certain words that are not pronounced in the English English but in American English. Certain words like 'shone' give the game away entirely. It spoils what would otherwise be a creditable audible performance. There really is no excuse for pronouncing Gloucester 'glowster' or Reading 'reading'.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Not the best narration or DD mystery.

I’m pretty sad that this is the last one narrated by Mia Chiaromonte. I accidentally listened to book 8 before this one and that narrator is horrid. However, this was not Mia’s best work. At times her voices were mixed up and I couldn’t tell who she meant to be portraying.
As for the story, I agree with a previous reviewer that the story was incredibly imbalanced. So much hypocrisy everywhere by everyone. It was a story with extremes. At times it was interesting but then it slumped again and they tried to Jack it up with manufacturered conflict. Not the best DD mystery. I was irritated with all the social agendas and making people of faith look like petty buffoons. I’ll continue on and give C. Dunn another chance.