Kept Me Guessing!

Read Between the Lies by Andrew Hixson is so well done! I love it when I do not have it figured out and have to keep guessing. The author is greatly talented and writing suspense and mystery. I liked the character of John Handful. I thought the narrator, Gerard Marquez was great bringing the characters to life. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review. I will definitely listen to more books by this author and narrator.

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Fabulous

I Enjoyed this audio book very much
Hopefully they will be more audio books
Must read on your list

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Another great listen.

The series continues to improve. It was a good series when it started and it just gets better book by book. I would definitely recommend this audio-book and the John handful series as a whole.

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Little green men or a monster

I did enjoy this book but in my opinion this is the weakest in the series, as there was no mystery just lots of deaths, car crashes and running lost in the woods. I liked the character of John Handful and was eager to see who his new contact in the police force was after the death of his friend, so was really surprised to find out he had lost another one in the form of his girlfriend, when is John going to get a break?
John Handful is hired to look into the death of a man who made a discovery on the local air force base. Something went on that night and all the witness have turned up dead. Aided in the investigation by a local reporter, John and Yazmin must survive car crashes and encounters with strange men as well as the airbase personal to get to the bottom of both the deaths and the lights in the sky.
The narrator was okay and did sound pleasant enough but the editing stopped it from getting five stars, as he repeated several sentences throughout at the book
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Read between the lies

Format: audiobook
Narrator: Gerard Marquez
The narration is a bit stiff and stilted, he mis pronounces Peugeot and repeats words/phrases countless times throughout the story, now, was the audio not checked before it was released? I haven’t read this book so it could be written this way but if it’s been through an editor then I doubt it.
This book has a Good storyline with mystery, intrigue, grisly murders and plenty of tension but unfortunately it doesn’t flow well from this narrator.
4 stars for the story but 3 stars for the narration.

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☺

I like this audio book i have gave it 5 out of 5 I have all 3 of Andrew Hudson audio books I have there are more to come

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murder mystery

I Enjoyed this audio book.

A great listen. ”

A great series . I would definitely recommend this audio-book .

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Enjoyable!

This is my second venture into the John Handful universe and the story told here is a great journey into the world of the private investigator and his life.

I really like Andrews writing and he does a great job of writing John into thrilling situations while humanising him and not shying away from his physical and emotional weaknesses with those around him. It’s a very British story with a very British feel and I also appreciate that close to home feeling that shines through Andrews writing.

Overall, Gerard did a good job with the narration. He’s clear speaking, understandable and attempts accents for the characters. The biggest thing I enjoyed about Gerard in this book is that he really conveys emotion in more fragile scenes - which is often neglected in audiobooks. He has a talent of making the characters fragility and distress shine and I really enjoyed listening to that. He has a soft voice which is very easy to listen to as well.

However. In the production of the narration in this one, there are plenty mistakes left in the audio. Repeating sentences, obvious cuts to the audio that are retaken and yet all left in. There’s a couple points where the narrator speaks and corrects himself. It’s quite a jarring listen and those moments which happen often throughout the book, really take you out of John Handfuls world and crashing back to reality.

I also felt that the narrators accent took me out of the story quite a bit as the dialogue parts with English accents really sounded quite off. For having an Australian accent, he is quite neutral sounding but it’s still quite strong and I think that made accents a lot weaker. As well as that, I found that, the narration didn’t sound quite as natural as it could have and I wonder if that was in part from the setting of the book.

Overall, good story, good narration but I didn’t feel that the two were a good match.

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Story let down by editing and narration

I'm not sure if it was just my downloaded book but both the editing and narration ruined what may have been a good story. The editing is very flawed and often repeats parts of sentences ruinIng the flow of the story. I also found the narration quite poor, I felt the narrator kept changing characters voices/accents, sometimes mid sentences. I tried to persevere but even with only 1hour left I had to give up. This is is a shame as I think the story itself could have been quite enjoyable and intriguing with better editing and narration.

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Easily the Worst Production I've Heard

This book was being given away for free on Reddit, and now I see why. This book is easily the worst thing I've listened to. The prose is really clunky, and odd word choice makes your stumble over the text. Actual examples of quotes from this book below:

- "Repeatedly she repeated"
- "Mist rose like steam off a horses back"
- "Lips hinting at a sensuality the rest of her tried to deny"
- "She wore her pregnancy well, lucky woman."
- (Talking about a search party) "The atmosphere should have been festive"
- "In the half-light I couldn't see her. Only her eyes."
- "A humanoid figure with what seemed like things growing out of its head"
- "A prolonged yell of horror and anguish came across the marsh. "What was that?" "
- "The moan had been the parting of his soul."
- "The sound was like... no, I didn't want to guess"

Radioactive sperm is also a serious plot point.
The female character Yasmin is just a damsel in distress for the main character to be attracted to and have sex with. She has zero personality and spends 100% of the book either frightened or crying. It got to a point where I dreaded any female characters appearing because I knew he was going to mention their sexuality or sensuality.
The conclusion was so unsatisfying, with deus ex machina after deus ex machina.

The narrator for this on Audible was also easily the most dreadful I've ever come across. So many mispronounced words e.g.
He pronounced the bow of a ship like a hair bow, he talks about "un-leed-ed petrol", he talks about "Hoat Cuisine" and says "swath" instead of "swathe". At one point there was just a long breath in & a sigh in middle of sentence. And lets not start on bad and inconsistent accents. Yasmin sounded Scottish, then Yorkshire, then Irish, then her accent was abandoned. His tone was not matching what he said, leading to half his lines sounding sarcastic.

The audio production had awful editing, with repeated words and sentences. It felt more like an audition tape, getting to hear him try a sentence 3 or 4 different ways.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this in every way that you can.

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