Dennis A. Pascale

Great Performance, Okay Story

Reviewed: 05-28-23

I really wanted to love this audio and up until the ending I was pretty hooked. 6 narrators perform this audio doing multiple roles and they all do a great job (even when you can hear one voice actor doing a second role). Sound effects are also included and this helps the audio (hence I give performance 5 stars). Overall I would say maybe that makes this 4 stars but I went with 3 because I think (and based on other reviews) you’re either going to love this book or think it’s ok. The ghost hunting theme is great and making this book episodic (like the novel Dracula) was nicely done. I think the story let down comes simply from personal preference. I love the “haunted house” novels but with these types of novels the endings are hard to pull off. I like a really cool ghost story with scary and creepy happenings but in the end a cool twist happens or an ages long mystery is solved. I kinda saw how this ending was gonna play out and the fact that the solution is more scientific than supernatural is probably why I wasn’t as happy with the ending. Don’t get me wrong, it fits and I understand the idea behind it and why a certain character was the one to get it, but I’d rather have a more clearly supernatural this is the spirit behind it all type ending. It’s a good book well written fast paced and characters you can understand and root far but just not my cup of tea. So be warned you’ll either love it or be meh about it but I don’t think anyone will hate it.

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A Well Researched History of TSR!

Reviewed: 07-29-22

I really enjoyed this book. It was fascinating and though I knew some of the story there was still a lot I learned listening to this. I think Ben Riggs put in a lot of effort and research and has come the closest to filling in a lot of details of the rise and fall of TSR publishers on the Dungeons & Dragons TTRPG. When it was over I wanted to know more. Riggs is fair in his assessment of Lorraine Williams (more so than I’ve heard from others). And he even gives us a bit of history on Wizards of the Coast. The book goes from the creation of the game by Gygax and Arneson and ends with the company being purchased by Wizards of the Coast. I would love to hear about Wizards journey from 3rd to the current 5th edition. Maybe that’s a sequel novel? But all in all a great book with lots of details. In addition, Sean Patrick Hopkins gives a great narration. So if you’d like to know the history of TSR inc. this is a great book for you!

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Not a True Christie, But Plenty of Tropes.

Reviewed: 09-05-20

This is going to be a little hard to review, I may ramble a bit, so bare with me.

First, as for the narration, Julian Rhind-Tutt is great. His performance is what saves this from a one star review. He does a pretty good Hercule Poirot and I'd like to see him read some real Christie stories. Because I used Audible, this felt slightly more like a Christie, but only because of the narration.

The story itself, What did you really expect? Full disclosure, I went into this wanting to hate the book. But curiosity got the better of me. I had to know. Sophie Hannah is a decent author. And I think if this were marketed as a regular mystery with a detective of her own creation, I would rate the overall book 3 stars. But when you try to attempt to write a Christie, well you have some big shoes to follow.

There are so many Christie tropes spread in this novel. My problem is there were too many of them crammed in together. Then I read a review in which Sophie Hannah said in the end she didn't want to try to copy Christie, but kind of do her own thing. Well, that's all well in good, but then, how is this a Hercule Poirot story?

Everything was there, his mannerisms and all. But he just felt out of place. Kinda like how Christie herself felt when her publishers would tell her to stick Poirot in a story just to sell the books. Sometimes she did and in the end hated doing it. This feels like one of those times.

I couldn't understand why Poirot took up rooms at a boarding house in the first place? And we're never given a time frame as to where this event falls in the Christie cannon. I'm assuming it's during one of Hastings' trips back home to Argentina. It feels like it would be a later Christie. Another problem, is that except for Poirot, there are no other characters from any of the Poirot novels. No Inspector Japp, no Miss Lemon, not even George his valet. Again, I understand that the author wanted to do her own thing, but again, if you're making a Poirot novel, no other nod to the main character's past episodes?

Yes, over his career, Poirot has tried to "retire" and even bought a house in the country to grow vegetable marrows. That didn't work out quite so well. But I just didn't buy Poirot staying in a boarding house, somewhere in London which actually has a view of his apartments in the Whitehaven Mansions. (Which weren't even called out by name).

As for Poirot's companion, the Scotland Yard detective Catchpool. You never warm up to him. Okay, we learn he has an issue in his past that makes him hate to be in a room with dead bodies. This quirk sounds like it would add a little to the character, but except for that and the fact that he likes to do crossword puzzles, you never really get attached to him. Indeed, after a while, Catchpool began to get on my nerves. I understand Poirot is going to take charge and solve this case, but Catchpool doesn't seem smart enough to be on the force at all and he doesn't even seem to want to be a part of anything that is going on in this case. It makes it harder to believe he's working at Scotland Yard. I know that you have your bumbling detectives in all the classic crime stories, but even Hastings and Japp from time to time showed some insight. They even at least showed they were trying to help, they may have come up with the wrong answers, but at least they were involved. Catchpool doesn't seem to want to be a part of anything. I can understand him being a loner...but this goes a bit overboard. I don't see what Poirot would see in him, to try and mold him as he does here.

The only other character I really enjoyed and who I felt Christie would have created herself was the coffee shop waitress Fee. She is perceptive and can read people and Poirot always got plenty of information from people like her. I found her a delight and I hope she's added into any other new Poirot stories.

And finally the mystery. I just didn't feel it felt like an Agatha Christie mystery. It was overly-complex and seemed to drag out far too long in certain points. I will say, Sophie Hannah puts tons and tons of clues throughout the novel and when the solution is revealed, she makes a point to cover each and every one and show how it fits into the crime. So yes, it's a fair mystery, but it was so complex, I'm still not sure I get the whole thing. She plays fair, but I'll give you this example to think about: The solution in this audio book takes 2 hours (that's what my counter said) from when Poirot gathers everyone to begin his solution to the murder...and it just keeps going on and on. I mean, And Then There Were None, was a carefully plotted mystery where you had to explain how 10 people are murdered and the killer pulls it all off. That solution makes sense and doesn't seem to take as long getting there.

Some things were also tedious. There is a past crime that is the link to the murders. Catchpool goes to a small village to get answers and even the person who reveals all to him, takes her time. "Come back tomorrow and I shall tell you everything, maybe." Ugh. There were many times listening to the audio in my car that I'd be yelling "Get on with it already!"

As for the tropes, Hannah uses the way people structure their sentences to put Poirot on the scent of clues. Of course, she beats the point to death in many places. There is the trope of the innocent who turns out not to be innocent. Christie used this tactic many times, but to better effect. There were other nods to Christie I caught at the time but I can't seem to recall them.

About halfway through the book I started to get more interested. Then I thought I was going to end up liking the book a whole lot more, but it took a long time to get to that point. Then the solution came and I pretty much threw up my hands. Too complex, too drawn out. Too many things going on. In the end, it was a good effort but as I pretty much expected all along, it falls flat as a Poirot story. I think Sophie Hannah can construct a decent mystery but I don't think I'll be reading or listening to any more of her Poirot novels.

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