Started Early, Took My Dog cover art

Started Early, Took My Dog

Jackson Brodie 4

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Started Early, Took My Dog

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The fourth Jackson Brodie novel: literary crime from the prizewinning number-one bestselling author of Big Sky and Transcription.

A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn.

Witnesses to Tracy's outrageous exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie, who has returned to his home county in search of someone else's roots. All three characters learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished.

'Crime has given Atkinson the freedom to write an ambitious, panoramic work, full of excitement, colour and compassion' Sunday Times

© Kate Atkinson 2010 (P) Penguin Audio 2011

©2010 Kate Atkinson (P)2011 Random House Audiobooks Mystery Suspense Fiction
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I thought it was very clever and I loved the setting. However I felt it was a bit cluttered as there were so many characters and little plots that eventually wove together but were disparate for most of the story.

A clever book

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This is a my favourite Kate Atkinson book. Generally the reading is good, but one thing ruins it for me - the reader's constant mispronunciation of Naimh, which is pronounced Neeve and not Name.

Pronunciation matters

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...of "Niamh". How on earth did it get through? it is limited to this book, the others Jackson Brodie stories haven't butchered the name so why this one?

I get that I am being petty.

I can't get past the awful pronunciation...

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Difficult to keep track of so many characters when listening. I'm intrigued by the interweaving of the plot. Narration great listening but better to leave longer pauses between 'scenes'. Too hard to follow the time differences. I wonder if the narrator should have been pronouncing Niamh as Nieve!!! Found that a bit disturbing. I intend reading more of this author.

Enjoyable Read.

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I was really enjoying the series until Nicholas Bell took over narration. He made the Jackson Brodie character seem weak and the story lack luster. I could hear mouth sounds throughout like his mouth was dry. Very disconcerting.

Awful narration

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If you have read the other books in this series you will know what to expect - multiple story lines, with Jackson in the middle of them all, that somehow come together in the end. I hope there will be another book - as I have really enjoyed this series.

An Enjoyable Brodie Mystery

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Story was a usual Jackson Brodie style, but a bit more convoluted than usual. However the narration really let things down - the mispronunciation of Niamh as “Nee-amh” nearly caused me to abandon the audiobook altogether.

Disappointing narration

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Issues with mispronunciation (Niamh as NEE-ARM instead of 'Neave', and seemed to struggle with 'tiramisu' too!) were very distracting. Narrator also has a slightly wet voice, such that you can sometimes hear him swallowing his own saliva as he goes *shudder*. Shame, because his voice quality was otherwise good. Aussie accent not great but done passably. Fantastic story, of course!

Problematic narration

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Slow to get going. They get there in the end. Decent enough.

The narrator was a bit off here though. he kept saying ‘nye-am’ instead of ‘neve’. And he was bad at welsh place names. It’s a barrier to getting into it. Other wise his Yorkshire with an Aussie twang was ok.

Surely someone should check how to pronounce these things?

Yeah not bad. A bit like previous Jackson books.

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