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The Cracked Spine
- Scottish Bookshop Mystery, Book 1
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
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Summary
In need of a good adventure, Delaney Nichols takes the leap and moves to Edinburgh, Scotland, to start a job at The Cracked Spine. She doesn't know much about what she's gotten herself into other than that the work sounds exciting and that her new boss, Edwin MacAlister, has given her the opportunity of a lifetime.
When she arrives, she meets her new Scottish family; also working at The Cracked Spine are Rosie, perpetually wrapped in scarves, who always has tiny dog Hector in tow; Hamlet, a 19-year-old thespian with a colored past and a bright future; and Edwin, who is just as enigmatic and mysterious as Delaney expected.
But before she can settle in to her new life, a precious artifact - a previously undiscovered first folio of Shakespeare's plays - goes missing, and Edwin's sister is murdered, seemingly in connection to the missing folio. Delaney decides to do some sleuthing of her own to find out just what the real story is behind the priceless folio and how it's connected to the tragic death - all without getting harmed herself.
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- J
- 28-02-24
Agree with other reviews, the attempt at a Scottish accent is astoundingly bad.
The actual Story Line was good, but this was negated by the Scottish aspect of the voice over. All other voiceovers were fine, imo.
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- Sarah UK
- 24-03-24
easy listening
some glaring mispronounciations. Robert Louis Stevenson is pronounced Louie not Lewis. Clerk is pronounced Clark in Britain. etc. Apart from the mispronounced words the Scots accents were a bit dodgy and narrator sounded like they had a blocked nose.
Story line was reasonable and easy listening.
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- Work at Home
- 22-03-24
Dreadful reader - Awful Scottish accent
Such a disappointment that the story is ruined by the awful accents. An insult to Scotland.
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- IAN
- 24-07-16
First in a New Series!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Well read by the narrator Carrington MacDuffie. With a great set of characters. Well plotted and written.
What did you like best about this story?
The mysteries contained within The Cracked Spine bookshop.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
The underground tour.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When Delaney saw Hamlets face.
Any additional comments?
Great start to a New Series. Hope we will get more audio books in this series.
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- RubyRowallan
- 07-10-19
Reasonable first installment but terrible accents
This is a reasonable story. I am sure nobody buys this expecting prize winning literature but it's a cosy crime novel and I was interested enough in the characters to move onto the next two books.
The main character flies half way around the world to work for a person she has never met, moves into the first flat she sees ownd by a cab driver that picks her up on day one, becomes immediate best friends with cab driver and his wife, immediately stars dating the first bloke she meets and is practically married to him, starts investigating the murder of someone she has never met, all by chapter three. She also has a weird talent to hear books speaking to her which promptly disappears the minute her plane lands in Edinburgh so not sure why that was even mentioned as it plays absolutely no part in the story. I suspect this is to attract the Droughlander fans, of which I am one!
The character is supposed to be 29 but she talks and acts like she is 49. Her relationship with the hot Scottish bloke in the kilt is like the sort of relationship we have when we are well past looking for someone to share kids and mortgages with, not the sort of relationship most 29 year old women have. Not expecting anything mucky but she hasn't even kissed him.
Having spent a considerable amount of time in Scotland I regret to report that the only guys that wear kilts in the city are tourist bagpipe players. Oh, I did once see a really drunk guy in a kilt on the No 4 bus to Partick one Tuesday night in 2018 but I suspect this was a one-of. It clearly made an impression on me.
I feel sorry for the narrator because she makes a fair job of reading the work but her accents are terrible. Even though she has a Scottish name she is American and this suits the lead character but every other character is Scottish and she simply cannot do any of the accents. They all sound the same and it is not possibe to tell the male and female characters apart.
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- PC Sussex
- 12-06-22
Narrator's "Scottish" accents a distraction
A standard light who dunnit. Would have been a good holiday read if the narrator had been better at Scottish accents.
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- Perranmaid
- 12-11-23
Written for Americans??
If you can ignore the horrendous narration of any accents other than USA , it is a far fetched murder mystery. It’s free on audible and there are more; so no doubt, the cheap skate that I am will listen to more ..
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- Bel
- 06-04-22
Wrong setting
Well, as cosy mysteries go this was nice enough, but truly hard to believe. I guess it might have been better in a setting the author is familiar with. Choosing Edinburgh/Scotland wasn't a smart move. I can't believe that in a big city like Edinburgh, which attracts tourists from all over the globe, anybody would have made such a big deal of meeting an American woman.
To my untrained ears, the narrator did a fine job with the accents, so the listen was enjoyable.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-01-18
Poor
I cannot believe that I spent money on this book. The story is weak and the narration was quite awful. No idea from what part of Scotland the accents were supposed to come but ..........
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- Inishowen Cailin
- 29-12-17
Slow.There are better cosy mysteries out there.
Very slow and quite dull. Delaney had just arrived in Scotland and I didn't understand why she took it upon herself to interrogate people and try to solve the murder of a person she had never met. I plodded along with this book to finish it but I won't be reading any more of the series. I've read one other book by the same author and also found it quite mundane.
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