The Black Mile

Better than the rest!

Would you listen to The Black Mile again? Why?

Yes, It is an enthralling story. To get a deeper involvement with he story

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Black Mile?

Being at the murder scenes

Which character – as performed by Brian J. Gill – was your favourite?

Charlie Murphy

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

London before the Krays was more deadly

Any additional comments?

The idea base of this story is very good and well written, you feel you are in those dangerous times.
Mark Dawson writes well and this book is no exception, the reader will be captivated by the storyline and
empathise with certain characters while recoiling in horror from others.
I found the story fascinating, the fact it is based on a true story is amazing, and, adds to the gritty realism of those dark days.
Thoroughly recommended reading, a far better writer than certain thriller writers who are household names.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Disppointing

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Afraid not, annoying and erratic narration with mispronounced words and muffed phrasing which only served to make a poor story even worse.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

No

Any additional comments?

Mark Dawson started well with the John Milton series but they got a bit "samey" towards the end, the Beatrix Rose series were poorly written and seemed to have been churned out for the sake of it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Strangulated vowels!

Enjoyable story and an excellent evocation of a period, despite the odd anachronism, but trying to work out the nationality of the narrator becomes a distraction. Accents are generally well done suggesting that Mr Gill has an ear for the way people speak, but in his ordinary speaking voice he must be copying someone like Loyd Grosman as he distorts the language horribly. If a word has an "o" in it he tends to elongate "ooooorange," the "r" in Berwick" is stressed so it becomes "Burrwick," and I didn't realise "Arrskeith" was actually "Asquith" until I read these reviews. I found myself shouting in frustration at this verbal mangling: the chap needs a voice coach or something, or to get out on to the streets and actually listen to people. Incredibly irritating!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good story but hard to follow...

I love Mark Dawson books especially the John Milton Series but I'm sorry the pronunciation of some words drove me mad and I nearly gave up!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The first Mark Dawson flop for me

I've loved Mark Dawson's other works, but I'm giving up on this one half way through.

The main reason is Brian Gill's narration, which is close to the worst torture of spoken English since Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins. His mispronouncing of simple words and misreading of phrases has made it unbearable to continue.

The story also seems to have historical inaccuracies, such as the use of plastic sheets and bags to wrap bodies in a story set in WWII London.

Very sorry to have to be so critical, but I'm going to be much more cautious picking new series from old favourites in future.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

I really wanted to like this book but...

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Crime story lovers who aren't concerned with historical accuracies.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Charlie, obviously but Frank, being the misled innocent got my sympathy.

What didn’t you like about Brian J. Gill’s performance?

To be honest, 2/3 of the reason I didn't enjoy this book was the narration! Gill's pronunciation was nothing short of awful! He really didn't get the basics, never mind the subtleties of the Queen's English; talk about two nations divided by a common language! To pronounce Asquith as "Areskithe" and to flick between the long and short "A" in bath in the same paragraph was inexcusable. Too many more to list...

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story-line was good; bent cops and masons could have been stale, but it was a good story.

Any additional comments?

There were a number of historical inaccuracies that spoilt it: Plastic buckets!, plastic bags on the victim's hands! Tape fingerprint lifting, (1950s at the earliest)

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Poor reading style fails to cast light on the blac

I was given a copy of this audio version of The Black Miles , in return for an honest review.

I was excited to receive this audio book as I had previously read and enjoyed Mark Dawson's atmospheric police thriller set in war torn London. My mother was a true born Eatender and grew up there, acting as a fire watcher when the bombs fell. I wasn't born until near the end of hostilities but grew up with the destruction very evident around me, the still vacant bomb sites, the street shelters and, of course, my parent's stories. The book catches the general feel of the period well and incorporates the street slang of the time so adding to the colour. The book is also cleverly constructed with news bulletins to help drive the plot. This works well on the written page but, sadly, fails when narrated mostly because of the reading by Brian Gill.
I assume that the idea was to replicate the dipped tones of the 1940's newsreaders. If so, it completely failed. Instead, the narrative was harsh, poorly spaced and there were some strangely pronounced words to add to listener discomfort, such as 'beryl' instead of 'barrel', small details which became big irritants as the book progressed The dialogue, on the other hand, was well performed but was insufficient to make up for the stilted, poor narrative between conversations.

I found it very hard to finish listening to the audio version. Mark Dawson is a talented author and well worth reading. But buy the written version to absorb the atmosphere and enjoy the story.

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

The most unintelligible narrator EVER!

I have never, in 20+ years listened to such an awful narrator!
Viscount Asquith, he pronounces.. get this!
Viz-kont As-kith! CRETINOUS
That's one of around 25+ repeated mispronunciations..
English CANNOT be his birth language!
If it is? Then I've been thinking & speaking Esperanto for the last 50 years!
Are there no audio editors?
I'm disgusted!!
Should a publisher sell a printed book with as many stupid howlers in it they'd be laughed out of every bookshop on the planet!
P.S.

I'm getting a full refund!

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Mispronunciation spoils entire story.

Names of places and common words alike suffer and it detracts from the content. The author has, however, tried hard to get vocabulary of the period right.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Does the job of audio editor not exist?

I’ve become a real Mark Dawson fan and have thoroughly enjoyed the John Milton series, so I approached this title very positively.

I have now tried three times to listen to this book but now, again, an hour or so in, have finally given up as I cannot cope with the narration which is little short of awful and does a real disservice to what I managed to discern of the merit of the underlying story.

The narration is too fast for my take on the sense of the pace, style and period of the story, is often unnaturally inflected and is littered with sheer clunkers of mispronunciation, including people and places.

Much as a misprint in written text is unforgivable in that it destroys your concentration on the flow of the story, so a spoken clunker in an Audible book kicks a hole in the fabric of the fictional world in your mind and deflates your investment of time and emotion in listening.

My headline of this review is not un-serious; is there really no-one sitting next to any given narrator checking the pronunciation of any words or phrases that may have obvious optional renderings?

If not, there needs to be. Example at random: it cannot be that difficult for someone to determine that Berwick Street (one of the best-known streets in Soho on account of its market), is not ‘Ber-wick’ Street, as rendered in this production, but is actually ‘Berrick’ Street. Sounds trivial as written but when you want to be smoothly immersed in a fictional story it simply kills the moment when it’s pronounced wrongly.

It’s not a question of US versus UK pronunciation, which can be tricky, but simply what is right for the time and place of the narration concerned.

This problem of the pronunciation clunker is not unique to this title by any means, but coupled with the other shortcomings of the narration it jars particularly here.

This really does matter these days as an increasing number of us listen to audio books - (I get through three or four a month). I’ve never felt motivated to write an Audible review before but was sufficiently frustrated by this narration to put finger to keyboard.

Sorry Mark; this book deserves better - and David Thorpe sets a very high narration standard on your John Milton series which I will continue to enjoy...

0 of 1 people found this review helpful