the narrator let's it down

The book was OK knowing the area the book was set in I would struggle to identify it. The thing that annoyed me was the narrator, the accents were more West Country or Norfolk. When she used real town names she pronounced them wrong. Little things maybe but it annoyed me. If you are going to narrate a book look into the area first.

Story took ages to get going to many muddled up characters.

Some events did not make sense.

I actually believe one of the characters the author based on herself.

The author being the real life daughter of the vicar of the few church where this was set, certainly knew the church and the area.

I was glad i finished it, i suspect in this case reading the physical book would be better

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3 people found this helpful

Whimsical as expected

The book was recommended and listened to with expectations that were largely unmet. A gentle story which is probably of more interest to bellringers but detracted from the story for this non follower of bells

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Good story, but as usual, McDowell disappoints

I keep hoping the next book she narrates will be better. Maybe she will have read the reviews and changed her style? But no, still the same awkward cadences, odd pauses and bizarre emphasis. However, this does not detract too much from this wonderfully atmospheric mystery of Sayers'. Several plot twists and blind alleys make you totally confused before the final revelation. Very enjoyable.

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8 people found this helpful

The reading 📚 is terrible

I love Dorothy L Sayers detective stories. For me they are so much better than Agatha Christie. Unfortunately the reader here is ponderous, boring and can't do accents to save her life. There is no variation in tone either. Whoever selected Ms McDowell for this job needs sacking.

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4 people found this helpful

Great Story...great narration

this is my favourite Dorothy l Sayers book. they reviews which talk about the woeful narration are wrong. the narration was very good and the story puts Sayers right at the top of crime fiction.

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A Fenland adventure

it was fascinating to hear a story set in the area in which I live, but separated by 90 years.

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Loved the story, hated the narrator!

This story has made it into my all-time top books, and that is despite the most awful narrator! It's intriguing, funny, and really quite scary and I can only imagine how it would sound when narrated by someone who doesn't take pauses in the most random parts of sentences.

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The Nine Tailors

This is a great mystery with a mystery with in. I have enjoyed this story very much.

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Didn't need to be so long

This book didn't need to be as long as it is. In fact an awful lot of needless, boring, unintelligible information about bell ringing could have been cut. That would have made the story move along without the really annoying quotes etc at the beginning of every chapter. Perhaps all the names of the bells, the bell ringers, their tone, order, sound etc would be interesting to bell ringers, but to us mere mortals it is like listening to parts of the book in a foreign language.
Not the "best story ever" that I was expecting or that was advertised.

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An absolute joy

Probably the best murder mystery ever written, a superb performance , DLS at her absolute best.

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