Excellent thriller

Would you listen to The White Road again? Why?

John Connolly is a very fine writer of supernatural thrillers. His plots are always rooted in reality with the supernatural elements carefully interwoven and never dominant, these are supernatural books for those who don't do fantasy! Above his plots and fine writing it is his cast of well drawn and intriguing characters that will draw you to the whole series.

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Bring back Jeff Harding

Who is Lewis? 😂😂 we only know him as Louis. I don’t like the narrator as much as Jeff Harding

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Poor poor narration

It is such a shame that this audio book is spoilt by the very poor narration. I am a huge fan of the Charlie Parker books and of John Connolly’s writing but this particular book is hard to follow and much is lost by the monotone delivery of the narrator. Fortunately, I have read all of John Connolly’s books and am now reliving all of them again in audio so I know that Jeff Harding returns to give new life to the presentation.

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Not the best but still ok

The different narrator from the previous novels, story could easuly been added to last novel.

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terrble narration

unfortunately I haf to abandon this , the change in narrator is quite frustrating and to the detriment of the characterisation created in the previous books. Finally whe did no one correct the Louis / Lewis issue ?

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Hard on the ears, almost a series-killer.

I have listened to hundreds and hundreds of audiobooks. The narrator here is the hardest to listen to out of practically any book I have listened to.

Some of it is the dated, stereotypical accents and voices put on for Afro-American language, and the writing of the characters haven’t aged well. But even the voice and accent for Charlie Parker just seems off. It’s like someone doing a bad JFK impression, I am not quite sure if Paul Birchard has a slight lisp or other speech impediment, or if he just sounds like it because of the accent and voice he plays Parker with. He also sounds twenty years older than Bird is supposed to be in this book.

It almost stopped the series dead in its tracks for me.

The story is solid, the horror and paranormal starting to appear as something increasing normal, the development interesting. The backstory of Angel and Louis seems kind of lightweight, like it was rushed or written in afterwards at the publisher’s request.

Apart from that good stuff, I didn’t like the audiobook much.

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Great story usual, but…

Nothing to do with John Connolly or Charlie Parker, but Jeff Harding (especially as Angel & Louis❤️🤣) is Charlie Parker - more than he ever was Reacher!! The narration made me missed chunks of the book just because my mind started wondering which is something Harding never ‘succeeds’ in doing for me. I’m glad I’m past it now as I know Jeff narrates all the rest of the series… the OCD in me just couldn’t skip it though! Thank you John & Jeff!

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The white road

Took too long to get into the meat of the story and at times I found myself wishing he'd just 'get on with it' which is so unusual for a Charlie Parker thriller but it did tie up all the loose ends from the previous books in the series.

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Slightly supernatural, slightly slow!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This is a looooooong book that at times feels to be going at a good pace, and sometimes it's incredibly detailed and slightly slow. The plot is good enough, but it could've been told in a much punchier way.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Good fast paced ending that wove the many strands of this story together.

What does Paul Birchard bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I enjoyed his accent, brought a real authenticity to the book and its location within the story, although I possibly wouldn't choose the same voice for other stories not set in America.

Was The White Road worth the listening time?

Hmmmmm, yes and no. This is the first time I have chosen this author and I'm used to punchier books although I did appreciate his descriptive style more once I had got used to it. I would try the author again, and then discard if it was more of the same.

Any additional comments?

This is slightly supernatural but only a teeny tiny hint, so don't base your choice on it, it's 99.9% detective with just a tiny bit of hocus-pocus!

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Great story very well read.

Not for the faint of heart but a great story and really well read. It's easy to distinguish between characters when they're speaking and this is done really well. Riveting to listen to can't wait to download the next one.

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