Voices

Excellent story but didn't like the male voice interpretation. Female voice same each character, terrible.

5 people found this helpful

Good listening.

Almost gave up on this book due to the annoying way that the narrator gave all his female voices the same voice!!!!

4 people found this helpful

Who are these people?!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Firstly, let me make this clear; Damien Boyd is a great writer and the 'Nick Dixon' stories are really good. Better still if you know the area in which they are set. So; I have no truck at all with either the author or the storyline/characters etc.

However; who in the name of all that's holy picks the narrators for these things? This guy - Napoleon Ryan - seems to voice all of his characters in different joke voices. Nick Dixon for instance seems to be a mixture of Sam Spade and a local radio newsreader from the 1980s. The breathy voice of the female performer is almost indistinguishable between characters...

The voice of Harry Unwin actually made me laugh out loud; a 1950s 'B' movie villain seems to be the inspiration here!

All of this is terribly sad. It tempered my enjoyment of the book so much that I had to skip great swathes of it in order to stop listening to the truly terrible voices.

Damien Boyd - if you ever get the chance to a) read this review and b) choose your narrator, PLEASE choose a different one. And if you can't find a good one, I'll do the whole thing for expenses only. I can't offer a professional history in voiceovers, but I can promise one thing; I can DEFINITELY do a better job than this joker..

Seriously; Vladimir Putin and Pat Butcher ( yes I know she's not real ) would have done a better job...

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Napoleon Ryan?

ANYone. Seriously. Ron Pickering would have been a better option. John Prescott could have done a better job.

Seriously? How about someone with a modicum of talent?

Was Dead Level worth the listening time?

Not at all. Read the book and get some actual pleasure from the story.

Any additional comments?

I wish I'd known I could return the book...

4 people found this helpful

Dull

Worst narration I have heard. Caricature coppers and a dull hero. two female officers whose voice is never more than sultry whisper. and the continual he said, she replied, he yelled is just so unnecessary.

3 people found this helpful

Dead level

The story line was a bit poor,and it was not helped by very poor naration.

3 people found this helpful

A great read - yet again!

An excellent story which builds up the suspense without revealing the conclusion until the final chapter. Hopefully, we will not have to wait too long for another in the series.

3 people found this helpful

Another winner

Would you consider the audio edition of Dead Level to be better than the print version?

Not better, but a great alternative when driving or walking.

Any additional comments?

Another winner from Damien Boyd, great story line. I love his books, living in France it really reminds me of home, I love all the mention of local places. Damien writes great stories without over complicating and manages to keep your interest right the way through. He has not written a bad book yet, roll on the next one. This was the first audible version of his books I have purchased and was not disappointed! Napoleon Ryan read the book very well and got the characters spot on.

3 people found this helpful

Half-decent story spoilt by narrator.

This is not the best story I've heard, by some way. It seemed a bit clunky in characterisations. However this was as nothing compared to the narrator. Napoleon Ryan has a rather deep voice which led to many of the male minor characters having what I can only describe as cartoonish voices. How he managed the female voices I'm not sure; either his voice was digitally altered, or a female narrator was brought in but not credited. Either way, it's a cheat.
The story had some potential, but the characterisations and narration will prevent me hearing another Boyd story or anything spoken by Ryan.

2 people found this helpful

Narration really highlights the poor dialogue

What didn’t you like about Napoleon Ryan’s performance?

The intonation was frequently completely wrong and made some of the sentences meaningless. The women's voices (done by a female narrator) were all breathy and very similar to each other. None of this was helped by tedious and poorly written dialogue. I managed to skim over it in the book (the audio download came with kindle unlimited) but I had to listen to it in excruciating detail on the narration.

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

The story rattles along at a fair old pace.

1 person found this helpful

brilliant

loved all of DCI Dixon's stories and especially the audio narrated by Napoleon definitely worth a listen/read

1 person found this helpful