Carnival for the Dead cover art

Carnival for the Dead

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Carnival for the Dead

By: David Hewson
Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
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About this listen

It's February, and Carnival time in Venice. Bright blue skies and freezing temperatures welcome forensic pathologist Teresa Lupo to the city. Teresa has taken time out from her job to find her beloved bohemian aunt Sofia who has mysteriously disappeared. There seem to be no clues as to her whereabouts, but a visit to Sofia's very strange apartment in the Dorsoduro confirms Teresa’s suspicions that all is not well....

©2012 David Hewson (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd Crime Thrillers Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Thriller Crime Italy

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All stars
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I agree with most of the other reviewers. The book needs a serious edit; it's far too long and far-fetched. Teresa Lupo on her own isn't good enough; I'm not sure why the author thought it necessary to eliminate the others usually present in the Costa series. Worst of all is the narration; such a basic error that the narrator and the production team couldn't be bothered to check the correct pronunciation of the Italian words: almost all were either mispronounced or the stress was applied to the wrong syllable. One word (l'arciere) was pronounced as if it were French... All in all, both book and narrator were forgettable. Please take note!

Probably David Hewson's worst book

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Would you recommend Carnival for the Dead to your friends? Why or why not?

If I'm honest...MAYBE in a shortened version otherwise NO
The Unabridged version, which is my usual choice for books, seems, IMHO, to go a long way around to do things. This is definitely not the 'norm' from David Hewson book of this series.
Many times over the last few days I have found myself lost within the story trying to follow things and 'saying' "Get on with it!"
There are MANY sub-stories within this book, which in the end, sort of make sense.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. With all the sub-stories there was too much head-banging and confusion to do this book in one

Any additional comments?

It is definitely NOT a follow-on from other books of the Rome / Nic Costa series. So if your looking for the next story I'm afraid you'll have to wait, as this is not it.
This is Teresa in a solo story with only the breifest of mentions of Nic & Co. and then only in passing.

Toooooo Drawn out....

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Unusual story - but still a 'virtual page turner'. Let down significantly by a 'chick book' narrator with a bad italian inflexion and accent. Just because a woman is the main protagonist, doesn't mean it needs a female narrator. Not sexist - I'm a woman too - but for me, the quality and 'listenability' of the narrator is almost as important as the story. It also needs to be appropriate to the nature of the book. Bring back Saul Reichlin!

Good story: bad narrator

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This was my first taste of Dave Hewson's writing in any form and I'm still not sure what I think of it but I am sure that the melodrammatic reading by Juanita McMahon isn't helping one bit. She acts the book rather than reading it and this distorts the relationship between novel and reader by interposing McMahon's own, florid interpretation. Furthermore, her pronunciation of the Italian words sprinkled through the narrative is just plain bad and that is unforgiveable in a story set in Venice! Surely the producers of the audiobook could have ensured that the reader had sufficient tutoring in pronunciation to avoid this tacky result. A very disappointing purchase, but I will persevere and try Mr Hewson without McMahon's involvement.

Spoilt by reader

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This was truly outstanding. For a little while I worried that this was just going to be clever, convoluted etc just for the sake of it. No - it really is clever, intelligent and extremely well crafted. I’m half Venetian and the sense, the feel of Venice is first class.
The narration too is excellent. No American trying to do a ‘whatsamatter withayou” fake Italian accent. The narrator really manages to give each character- including Venice itself - an individual personality.
All round an A1+ story and performance.

Outstanding

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The author has gone to great lengths to paint a wonderfully evocative picture of Venice...totally let down by the narrator's irritating habit of putting pauses and emphasis in totally the wrong place.

Irritating Narrator

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This is a bit of a departure for David Hewson. Teresa Lupo is on her own in Venice looking for her unconventional missing aunt and has to follow a trail of mystical tails to get to the bottom of why and where she is hiding. It has mystery rather than murder at its centre and the other characters, including Nic Costa, are notable by their absence, apart from the odd related memory or thought. Venice is perfect as a background to this tale, but some of the supernatural aspects might not appeal to all readers.
I miss the usual narrator (Saul Reichlin) whose voice I love and found that Juanita McMahon didn't always get the phrasing right. It also annoys me that directors/editors can't get an Italian expert in to advice on and correct the pronunciation of place names and other Italian words. If you happen to have a smattering of Italian, it takes a while to understand what she is saying as the stress and articulation is wrong - especially the totally misplaced lisping 's' - which is Spanish, I believe.

A bit different

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Irritating and disappointing I stayed with this book because the author is David Hewson. A brilliant story here but a very slow start and padded throughout with long sections of boring repetitive waffle. I could not find the wonderful Teresa Lupo in this book due in part to the narrator whose voice and style of delivery I feel is best suited to children’s bedtime stories.

Teresa unrecognisable

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Theresa the pathologist from the 'Rome series' is the centre of the story as she looks for her missing Aunt, and is guided by mysterious letters and stories, with fact and fiction intertwined during Carnival in Venice. Whilst the stories and unfolding drama were well crafted, they were too much of a digression for me, and I just didn't get the same enjoyment as I do out of the Rome series. Whether this is because there was a different narrator, I don't know. I should say that Juanita McMahon was an excellent narrator. The comfortable style of the Rome series, just didn't seem to carry over to me anyway.

Interesting story not the style of the Rome series

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Like other reviewers, I have enjoyed the Costa series and looked forward to more of the same. This was disappointing and the story was far fetched and slow-moving. I don't know about the Italian accent, but what set my teeth on edge was a) pronouncing "Actuarial" as "Acturial" and b) suggesting that Cambridge University would have a professor of Acturial Science

Not up to Hewson's normal high standard

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