Loved the story, but poorly read

Great story, carefully built up, well paced, loved meeting known and new characters, but poorly read, all characters sounded similar, and a bit monotone.

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5 people found this helpful

Even better

I always enjoy Val Mcdiermid books and unlike a lot of the reviewers I actually thought Past Lying was one of the best of the Karen Perie books. I agree the narration wasn’t the best and at times it almost seemed that it was read monotonously. However because the story was so strong after a while I forgot that. I do hope Karen considering going overseas is not going to be the last we read of her.

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1 person found this helpful

Learn to read aloud!

The reader completely spoilt this great story. She splits sentences, uses no intonation and should NEVER be asked to read another audio book!

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1 person found this helpful

Great story -get the book

Great story as always but felt thee narrator to be flat, so hard to move to a new narrator. Mid way through a series

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Story very good telling of it not so!

The narrator sounded more like she was reading a book to herself then tell me a story, very flat in places & boring

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A very original plot

I really enjoyed this book.

I don’t agree with the numerous and over the top comments about the narrator. I thought she was fine.

As usual with Val McDermid, there was a great main plot and multiple sub plots. It took me right back to lockdown and all the nonsense and rumours at the time.
I did guess the twist earlier than Karen Pirie did but this didn’t spoil my enjoyment.
The only slight disappointment was the ending. It ended as a bit of a damp squib: with the PF just deciding to prosecute… I won’t go further for spoiler reasons

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Good story but …. Horrendous narration

After having listened to all the other titles in the series I was looking forward to this one.

The story is good but oh my word it’s SOOOOO difficult to listen to. The narrator and those who directed the narration should know better. You can hear the struggle in the speech, you can hear ALL of the edits where they have gone back and changed things. It’s SO difficult to follow because of it too.

Honestly if you haven’t listened to the rest of this series don’t even bother with this - it will put you off the author for good. Read the physical book instead.

This is a great series but this book is utterly ruined by the change of narrator.

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Twisty!

As always Val McDermid had me guessing who, why and where. Many twists and turns add to the superb storytelling and excellent insight into police work not to mention the well loved characters KP nuts and the mint. The author’s portrayal of the early days of the first lockdown in 2020 brought back many memories of empty streets and scary encounters on our dog walks. Well done Val McDermid for another page turner (on audible this time).

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Very enjoyable

I’ve listened to all the Karen Pirie books and this was as compelling as the others. Lauren does a great job of narrating. Already looking forward to the next one.

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excellent story

the narrator's voice was too fast, I did slow it down. Her voice didn't have the right level of clarity for Alexa or my phone on loudspeaker

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