disappointing narration

What did you like most about One Good Turn?

I always enjoy Kate Atkinson's story-telling and style. Unfortunately this was spoiled sometimes by the narrator's seeming lack of feeling for the sense of what she had written, resulting in errors of pronunciation, stress and intonation which altered the meaning of the text!

What was one of the most memorable moments of One Good Turn?

I'm not sure that this is a book about moments. The plot is a mesh of interwoven stories -most memorable are the characters.

Did Steven Crossley do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

Yes he did. I have listened to him reading other novels. The characters do have different voices but those voices are not always those which I should allot to the characters. I often find his female voices extremely irritating, their regional accents heavy and overdone, giving an impression of a lack of intelligence. He didn't learn how to pronounce Niambh until Book 3. His ugly pronunciation jarred every time.

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

Yes. I enjoyed the book despite the narrator's efforts to prevent this. I had read the novel some years previously and had read too quickly because of my need to know what would happen next - listening at reading pace meant that I savoured the text more slowly. To continue the metaphor, however, the dish was nearly spoiled by the seasoning of the narration.

Any additional comments?

The narrator made mistakes. This is important in a novel where the narrator is 'all knowing'.We the listener/reader assume that he or she knows the story. This is not the case here. One gets the impression that the narrator had simply picked up the text for the first time and had no more insight into what would happen than we had. I'm surprised that the errors were not picked up. Surely there is an editing process?

10 people found this helpful

A good read, with some annoying elements!

This was a really good, clever, interwoven story, full of rich characters and many twists and turns. Sometimes Kate Atkinson's habit of wandering off into another story, or adding in a mass of detail, became annoying. But overall better than your average thriller. Stephen Crossley is an excellent narrator, and managed to convey a vast cast of characters clearly and distinctly.

I'll continue to follow Jackson's adventures - and his unfortunate love life!

9 people found this helpful

Intricate and intriguing

Story telling at its best: I was absorbed from the first paragraph until the end of this intriguing novel. Each character was brought to life through cleverly woven sub plots and the whole brought together with style and panache. A great read.

5 people found this helpful

Not enough mystery and suspense

An average light read, I wouldn't know how to compare it to the average Jackson Brodie story, because I haven't read very many. After finishing the book, I couldn't help thinking that it was as if Kate Atkinson herself graded the book/ and series as average crime novels, through her character writer, also her description of the average reader wasn't very flattering either. That was the irony and tragedy of the book. Good imagination, but few of her characters were a bit shallow. Well, if Kate Atkinson feels that it is time for her to write a more serious novel, then I hope she can live up to the challenge, but why undermine this story by sharing the frustration.

5 people found this helpful

Entertaining but spoilt by silly women's voices

Enjoyed this book overall, but was increasingly annoyed by some of the narrators voices for a couple of the women, Julia and Louise who for the most part sounded rather supercilious, and not entirely how they were written, from where I was sitting anyway. Not enough to put you off completely, but irritating and spoilt the listen. His male voices were very well done.

3 people found this helpful

Great listen

This was my first Kate Atkinson. I really enjoyed the twists and turns and despite being slightly implausible-was great fun. I’ll be trying other titles of hers!!

3 people found this helpful

More than a mystery

Kate Atkinson is such a good writer. This book had gripping moments broken up by great humour - she made each character very real. She is gentle with her people but you get a sense of how bad the 'baddies' are and all the characters are well observed making for some funny comments. The plot swung along well too. I wish I had it ahead of me to listen to still.

3 people found this helpful

Entertaining and ironic

I loved the way the author reflected both upon the characters and the genre.

Some brilliant observation of human behaviour and I particularly resonated with the shy decent character of the writer Martin when "trying to urinate quietly" in the bathroom of the hotel room where events had conspired to force him to share with the character - clearly 'dodgy' who transpired to be a paid assassin. How many of us are over-aware of their existence and worry about how we feel we may impact upon others, whilst we tolerate the behaviour of others without question?

Full of gentle amusing irony which felt to me as much the point of the novel as any possible crime and hunt for perpetrators, by entertaining quirky detectives.

Not many detective/crime novels have you laughing out loud; that has to be an achievement.

2 people found this helpful

Not for me

I couldn't get into this drivel, but it seems to be popular. However, it was well read.

1 person found this helpful

So disappointing

Kate Atkinson is a well known prize winning author but this book is boring boring boring .She keeps going off the point all the time which makes the story long winded and difficult to follow . I literally ‘lost the plot’.
It is well narrated though.
I suspect this is yet another case of a publisher not daring to edit a book by someone so well known.

1 person found this helpful