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Why We Die

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Why We Die

By: Mick Herron
Narrated by: Julia Franklin
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About this listen

When Zoë Boehm agrees to track down the gang who knocked over Sweeney’s jewellery shop, she certainly doesn’t expect to wind up in a coffin. But she’s about to become entangled with a strange collection of characters, starting with suicidal Tim Whitby, who’s dedicating what’s left of his life to protecting Katrina Blake from her late husband’s brothers, Arkle and Trent.

Unfortunately for Zoë, Arkle has a crossbow, Tim has nothing left to lose and even Katrina has her secrets.

©2006 Mick Herron (P)2020 Isis Publishing Ltd Crime Crime Thrillers Mystery Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction Suspense

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All stars
Most relevant  
Another outing for Zoe Boehm with usual complex plot and Herron's amusing wordplay. As with the previous two books I find the inner musings of characters unnecessarily long, but that is a minor gripe.

Crime + Philosophical musing

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Mick Herron is a highly entertaining author; when a new "Slow Horses" book is published on Audible I put aside the time to enjoy the audiobook in as few sessions as possible and immediately feel a pang of regret that I shall have to wait a year or so until the next one appears. Much of that is because Sean Barratt's narration is a joy. Herron's earthy, downbeat sense of humour is relished, character voices are distinctive and the plot is delivered clearly.

However, for this title a narrator has been employed whose, upbeat, enthusiastic style would be more suited to romantic novels or lighter fiction. She doesn't seem to "get" Herron and, for the first time with his stories, I find my mind wandering. In particular, subtly funny lines which should raise a smile for the listener are skated over rather than delivered effectively. Sadly, though I am only a few hours into the book, I'm not sure I can be bothered to stick it out to the end and may well return it to Audible for a refund and buy the print version instead.

Come on, Audible; this happens too often. The right reader for the right publication is essential and this is a ball which is dropped too often.

Herron's wings clipped by naff narration

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A plot bordering on incredulous made real buy a wonderfully witty narrative description, which is at times too uncomfortably real.

Superb

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Herron really gets inside people’s heads and explains clearly their feelings motivation and actions. Very enjoyable. One character particularly gets under the reader’s skin and it prickles with the sense of evil.

Brilliant listen.

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Nothing is told to you. You have to piece it all together. This is a really enjoyable book, very well read and assembled by you as you go along. Very clever.

Wonderful distractions

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Have read all the other books in this series so far. Started with Slow Horses books. These are different but have the same cleverly crafted plots. Love Zoe Boehm too!

Great story with wonderful characters

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I prefer the man who did all the other books. This lady is hard to listen to.

Don’t like the narrator

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Slough House author Mick Herron's Oxford Investigations series is as cleverly plotted, wittily delivered and full of the seamy side of life as you might expect. "Why we die" begins with hero Zoë Boehm facing certain(?) death, and there's great satisfaction in seeing how she reaches this point in the plot. The pleasure continues through to a conclusion that takes interesting twists and turns along the way.

All the central characters are brought to life beautifully, with distinctive personalities and plausible back stories, albeit with everything turned up to 11. There are plenty of clues (and red herrings) along the way to a conclusion that is satisfying (completing the puzzle) and horrifying (looking back on the many casualties).

The performance (by Julia Franklin) is strong, with just enough in the vocal characterisation to provide interest without distracting. There are some "punch and roll" editing glitches, mainly in the final part, but these are few and very minor.

The cover art (at time of writing) is a bit daft, with a picture of Oxford's Radcliffe Camera. Oxford is always a character in these novels, but not the Oxford of dons and Inspector Morse.

Overall a great experience that I would recommend to anyone who loves their thrillers every bit as messy as real life.

Pacey, witty thriller with twists aplenty

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Zoe on the trail of the bad guys again. Fabulous characters brought vividly to life by excellent narration. Really enjoyed this, unravelling the intertwining sharply drawn characters.

Another gripping story.

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Written prior to the Slough House series but with lots of the stylistic quirks and beautifully depicted flawed characters we witness in the Jackson Lamb books.

Highly enjoyable

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