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Photo-Finish

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Photo-Finish

By: Ngaio Marsh
Narrated by: James Saxon
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About this listen

The luxury mansion on New Zealand's Lake Waihoe was the ideal place for the world-famous soprano to rest after her triumphant tour. Chief Superintendent Alleyn and his wife were among the houseguests - but theirs was not a social visit.

When tragedy struck, the peace of the island was shattered. With a houseful of suspects now isolated by one of the lake's sudden storms, Alleyn was to face one of his trickiest cases....

©1980 Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Cosy Crime Thrillers Suspense Traditional Detectives
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Excellent

Really enjoyed this book Nagio Marsh delivers every time. Narration was excellent. Story was good from first to last page.

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A Kiwi Christie

A highly enjoyable murder mystery told with flair by James Saxon, who adopts a number of comic accents that really adds to the wit of the story. Marsh writes with similar lively character observation to Agatha Christie. So if you've read all of Christie's books, I highly recommend trying these by Marsh.

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Lovely performance, entertaining mystery

James Saxon is my favourite Marsh narrator. He gives each character a really distinctive voice and paces his narration well to give the listener time to absorb details. Marsh has a satirical, humourous style and Saxon captures the larger-than-life, rather comic characters so well. The story is clever, with a vivid atmosphere and sense of place and it’s easy to picture the scene.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Troy and Allen disappointment

Disliked this performance so very much spoilt the book for me hated every moment - sorry should have returned it

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Disappointing. Spoilt by the narrator

What disappointed you about Photo-Finish?

Unfortunately I downloaded several Ngaio Marsh titles for a long flight and each time I found James Saxon's narration extremely annoying. In this one there is the added irritation where he suddenly says "End of side 7", which confirmed my suspicions that this is a very old recording made for CD (or audio cassette?) and it seems extremely dated, not in a good way, and is not easy to listen to. My mind kept wandering as I was so bored by the narration, not the story but the way it was told.

What didn’t you like about James Saxon’s performance?

I think he must have been directed to ham it up. His performance is very stylised and each of the characters sounds unlikeable. Never have I found the character of Troy Alleyn so intensely irritating as in this book - and yet I liked her when I read it. He makes her so mealy mouthed. A big pity. His New Zealand accents all sound like parodies.

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

The story is good, it just needs updating with a new narrator. It sounds like it was recorded in the 1980s.

Any additional comments?

Ngaio Marsh deserves an update with a good narrator who can do proper New Zealand accents.

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1 person found this helpful