England

Audiobook Reviews 3.5/5: In Pursuit of Platinum by Vic Robbie

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Audiobooks, historical, thriller , , , , , , , , , ,

Narrated by Curt Bonnem
*Mild spoilers possible in the discussion*

Summary:

Ben Peters is called upon to undertake two big missions at once, escort a woman and her son out of France and smuggle the French supply of platinum away from Germany’s grubby hands. WWII is about to sweep over Paris and down the French countryside. Peters, Elena, Freddy, and the platinum keep barely a step ahead of destruction.

Additional Comments:

– Narration 4/5: A work like this demands a fair number of accents. The performance was overall very strong. Occasionally, it was difficult to distinguish French and German, but that didn’t happen often and didn’t really detract from enjoyment of the story.
– Characters 3/5: For the most part, they’re either likable or pure evil. Seems like the easiest way to portray somebody as evil here was to turn him into a torturer or a rapist. While I’m sure both were rampant during WWII, characterization probably would have benefitted from being a tad subtler.
– Plot 3.5/5: The initial premise – get the woman, her son, and the platinum out of France – was intriguing. Several storylines are interwoven well, but good guys and bad guys blur a bit. There are several down to the second coincidences that are hard to believe, but understandable in a thriller of this nature. There’s also one section at the end of the book that’s like 5 minutes of straight info dumping in case you missed something up to that point.
– Pacing 2.5/5: The actual execution of that plot floundered.
– Ending 2.5/5: The MC pulls through as expected for book 1 of a series, but the other part of the ending was highly contrived. The shocking secret alluded to all book was kind of anti-climatic.
– Content Warnings: Along with a smattering of normal curse words, there are 4 f-bombs and 1-2 very short but explicit adult scenes.

Conclusion:

If you’re suspension of disbelief is good, and you enjoy chase sort of thrillers, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Associate links to follow…

This Book…

Amazon Prime

 

Audible – If you’d like some free codes, please email me at [email protected] with requests for any of my works.

Try The Dark Side of Science.

 


OR


Audiobook Reviews 3.45/5: The Case of the Missing Crown Jewels by Keira Ely and Robert Martin

Julie Gilbert Action Adventure, Audiobooks, London, middle grade, mystery , , , , , ,

 

Narrated by Erin Rieman and Richard Rieman

*Mild spoilers possible in the discussion*

3.45/5 Nicely Delivered Kid Story

Summary:

Keira finds a magic hat that gives her access to knowledge she might not have otherwise. She forms a detective agency with her grandfather (whom she calls Papa).  They’re called upon to discover who stole the crown jewels of England.

Additional Comments:

  • I heard the audioversion, so some of my spellings might be a tad off.
  • Narration 4/5: Very nice. It’s nice to have the male/female parts largely divided between the two narrators. The mother sounded a tad too formal, but Keira’s voice was excellent as were most of the British characters.
  • Characters 3/5: Keira and Papa and Commish are fine characters. They’re a tad stock but in a tale of this size and breadth, that’s fitting. You want your girl detective to be super smart and always wind up on top. That’s part of the charm of girl detective stories. I know Waffles is supposed to be comic relief, but he’s usually just a nuisance. (Question the validity of such a genre? Nancy Drew’s survived quite a few decades as an ace detective.)
  • Plot 2.5/5: Nonsensical at best. I get this is a kid’s book, but that doesn’t mean it should lack all sense. The crown jewels get stolen and they turn to a kid with a magic hat for the answers? They seem overly concerned with finding footprints at the crime scene.
  • World-building 2.5/5: The magic hat’s powers aren’t really well-defined. Sometimes, it seems all powerful, in which case they should have just asked it “hey, who stole the jewels and how do we catch them?” At other times, it gets broken then repaired with duct tape. Magic in a kid’s story is fine, but there should still be an established system of why it works the way it does. Spy and detective are used pretty much interchangeably here, which is annoying because they’re way different jobs. Keira and her grandfather form a detective agency, but she repeatedly refers to what they do as spying, which simply isn’t true. It’s an investigation. The doll angle is kind of cool.

Conclusion:

If you’re very good at suspending disbelief and just looking for some mindless kid charm, this is a decent choice. It’s very well-presented, even if the story is somewhat lacking in sense.

 

Associate links to follow…

This Book…

Amazon Prime

 

Audible – If you’d like some free codes, please email me at [email protected] with requests for any of my works.

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

Or


Audiobook Reviews 4/5: When Dracula met the Jabberwocky by Paul Fitz-George

Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, ghosts, Kindle books, Nonfiction, Paranormal , , , , ,

4/5 Sort of a Paranormal Travel Guide to Whitby, England

Summary:

The blurb sums up the tale. It’s an essay about how Whitby, a town on England’s North Yorkshire Coast, might have influenced the works of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Lewis Carroll and Bram Stoker.

Additional Comments:

– I heard the audioversion. The narrator did a nice job. I might be a tad biased, but so is the rest of the world who thinks the British accent is just lovely to listen to.
– It’s a super-short work. ~35 minutes
– It probably would have meant more to me if I was a bigger fan of those authors. (Alas, Dickens is okay, but I find him a tad depressing and high school English sort of ruined his works for me. I’ve not heard of Wilkie Collins. A movie when I was a kid is probably my only experience with Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland. And I’ve never read Bram Stoker.)
– The other thing that could make the work mean more to me is if I planned a trip to Whitby. I heard a rumor that it’s been called the one book you SHOULD read if you plan to visit Whitby, England.
– I found it kind of cool to hear about the tie-ins to the literature anyway.

Conclusion:

Not sure if this book alone would tempt me to visit Whitby, but if I’d planned on visiting, it certainly would enhance the experience.

 

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Sincerely,

Julie C. Gilbert

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