Silent in the Grave

Happily surprised

In the 12 years I have been an Audible member I have only purchased two or three romance novels. I can't recall what prompted me to use a credit for SILENT IN THE GRAVE, but I am glad I did. The great period detail shows Raybourne did her research. Be sure to listen closely because the author sprinkles quite a few clues throught this clever story. The narration by Ellen Archer is spot on, not sure why some reviewers disliked her.
If you want to listen to a riveting mystery laced with humor, romance and cleverness then SILENT IN THE GRAVE is a great choice.

58 of 60 people found this review helpful

Adequate story, but hard to listen to.

I bought this book as a mystery, not as a romance, so I was happy to have the story pretty light on the romance side -- more a tantalizingly slow build up of romantic tension. The period detail was good, and the plot was interesting, although the author did sometimes telegraph what was going to happen next. I liked the characters, minor ones as well as major. I had a little trouble getting into it at the beginning, but I think that was because it started out sounding a lot like many a Victorian or Regency romance. Thank god it never developed into the bodice-ripper I was dreading. All in all, it turned out to be a satisfying story with an interesting ending.

My problem with this book was the narrator. At first, the voice itself bothered me because of a rather saccharine tone, but I got used to that and it fitted the story fairly well. This narrator did a fairly good job with different voices, but different accents did not come out well. One of the servants was supposed to be Scottish, but the accent used sounded so artificial, with words really stretched out of shape, that it was hard to listen to. Another character, said to be Italian, sounded more like a Scotsman. Also, in the course of delivering lines of dialogue being spoken by the upperclass British characters, every once in a while something slipped and a word or two came out not in the right accent because the pronunciation of the vowels had shifted.

But finally, the part of the performance that drove me wild and greatly detracted from my enjoyment of the story was the mispronunciations. It seems obvious to me that when a reader prepares to record an audio book, one of the obligations on that reader is to make sure that he or she knows how to pronounce every word in the text. This reader does not seem to have done that at all. I will grant you that I am not British, but I have listened to and watched a large number of performances of British books, movies and plays, and I believe that I have an ear for the pronunciation of most words, even when spoken by the English. For instance, I know that they do not pronounce "Viscount" as "Viss-count". And I suspect they do not pronounce "bibelot" as "bible-ott." There were many other similar examples in the recording of this book. The fact that the reader did not know how to pronounce the words was her failing. And the fact that the editor, assuming there was one, did not catch the mispronunciations was the failing of the company producing the book.

I would listen to another Lady Julia book, but not if it is read by the same narrator.

48 of 51 people found this review helpful

Not a bad historical mystery

I'm not a big romance reader, but I love a good mystery. I like historical fiction well enough, too. This was a good combination of mystery, historical fiction and chick lit. It was not full of ooshy-gooshy romance (a relief), nor was it full of bodice ripping passion. It was, however, a pretty good mystery and the author did her research for the historical component. The narrator does some pretty terrible accents, though. Everyone who isn't English sounds like an English person doing a caricature. Also, she makes some pretty glaring mispronunciations.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

Narration Ruins It

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No. The book itself, yes, but not the audiobook. I don't write reviews often, but the accents were do god-awful to listen to in this one, that I wanted to warn others. I try to keep an open mind about narrators, and I often read really cruel condemnations of narration that I find to be just fine. This narrator has a pleasant enough voice and even does a pretty good job at creating different-sounding voices for different characters, but her accents are SOOOO terrible. I had to finish the book in short installments because I kept getting so frustrated with it. I will never understand *WHY* they hire people with American accents to do books where the vast majority of the characters are British. But it would have been better if she had just stuck with her own natural accent. It almost makes my teeth hurt to listen to, there are so many mistakes:
-- "viscount" should be pronounced "VY count" not "VIZZ count"
-- words like "pale" should still have something close to an "ay" sound, not be pronounced like "pell"
-- "park" does not have an American "r" in the middle
-- she can't get the "a" vowels right at all in words like "past"; it should be more like "ah"
-- way overdoing the pseudo-upper class vowel in "hear" so that it's fully two syllables like "hee yah" or "appear" like "uh PEE yah." ugh!
-- "privacy" should be "PRIV uh cee" not "PRY vah cee"; "progress" should be "PRO gress" not "PRAW gress"And on and on and on.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Ellen Archer?

Barbara Rosenblat. Always and forever. Here's a test for publishers:

Publisher asks: We're thinking about hiring an American to narrate a story with entirely British characters. Should we do it?

Test: Is that person Barbara Rosenblat?

If so, proceed.

If not, HELL NO!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Pretty good book, bad narrator

This is a pretty good historical suspese/romance with apparently fairly accurate depiction of life in the Victorian age. Unfortunately, the brightness of the story is dimmed by the narrator. Clearly not British, it's hard not to notice the lapses into American and/or the stilted supposed British accent - sometimes, it works, sometimes, it definitely doesn't. Also, the narrator has a tendency to read. In a very. Staccato. Way. which is infuriating and just about murdered my enjoyment of the book.

Good enough that I'll keep an eye out for the sequeal, but only if it's read by someone else.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Decent Story, Annoying Narration

I almost gave up a few times during the course of listening to this book. Although the plot moves along nicely and the charater development is good, Ellen Archer's narration is weird and irritating. She inserts pauses between words for no apparent reason, giving the story...an...odd...halting...quality. I will read the second in the series myself rather than listen to her again.

15 of 17 people found this review helpful

Mystery-heavy, Romance-lite, Narrator ok

If you buy this book looking for a romance you will be disappointed, as the *intimation* of a romance is there, but in the end, the actual romance is holding out for the sequel. (So don't be mislead of the Harlequin title -- this isn't sugary-sweet over-the-top romance book, which in my case was a concern, although ever since Poison Study, I stopped judging a Harlequin book by its publisher :-)

The mystery/plot is fine, although there is a little too much deus ex machina towards the end, but not enough to ruin the book for me. The characters don't always play to societal norms, but it isn't as if this book is trying to pass as accurate historical fiction, so it is forgivable. There are a number of interesting side characters, including pets. Overall fairly well-written gothic/Victorian mystery mix -- good, but not perfect.

As for the narrator, I don't think she is British. It wasn't that the accents were off completely, just occasionally, which to my ear was slightly grating, and at times the "class" of the accent didn't match the "class" of the character. I expect most North American listeners won't be bothered, but British listeners might cringe at times.

From me, the romance gets a 2/5 (although the potential for a really steamy 5/5 exists for the next book). The narrator ranges from 2.5/5 to 5/5. The story gets a 3.5/5.

25 of 29 people found this review helpful

Neither Your Standard Mystery or Romance

Deanna Raybourn has created memorable characters here in Lady Julia Grey, and Nicholas Brisbane. The former is an aristocratic lady with a charmingly eccentric family, and the latter is handsome, dark, exotic -- but Raybourn avoids the traps that could turn him into a Sherlock Holmes clone. Grand fun.

I gave only 4 stars because the reader is only moderately adequate to the task. At times she sounds a bit strangled, which I put down to RP being not her native English accent; and many of the characters sound rather alike, the men particularly. This definitely reduces the listening pleasure, but not so badly that I don't recommend the book.

13 of 15 people found this review helpful

Wonderful story with awful narration

This is a wonderful story about a murder and a bumbling (in my opinion) investigation. The characters are entertaining and the setting is believable.

However, the narration is terrible. I found the accent inconsistent and the pronunciation, in some cases, so wrong that I had to stop the book to figure out what she had said. The book itself is wonderful, but I found the narrator detracted from my ability to loose myself in the story.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

World's worst dialects!!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Narrator or have her STOP trying to do British accents

What did you like best about this story?

Campy, relaxing

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Her ATTEMPTS at British accents are incredibly BAD. The worst being a male Scottish
character. I was born and grew up in the U.K Scotland to be precise. I am USED to the
futile attempts to copy the dialects/accents. This Narrator should consider sticking to her own accent and just read the book.

Her indescribable attempts at these dialects distract from the story.

What would have made this romance irresistible?

The victorian setting and the mystery. Romance just did not come off very well. Too many stereotypes.

Any additional comments?

It's a cosy book for a rainy day when you are cooking soup and you can tolerate the attempts at British dialects.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful