Wonderful narration

If you could sum up Evans Above in three words, what would they be?

Warm Welsh mystery

What did you like best about this story?

This is a gentle, fairly slow-paced mystery with a lot of atmosphere and detail about life in a small north Welsh village. There is a lot of humour and some amusing characters, but it isn't too cosy and doesn't skate over the impact of crime.

Which character – as performed by Roger Clark – was your favourite?

I liked the detective, Evan Evans, the best. Roger Clark's narration really made it for me - he is the best narrator I've heard yet on an audio book. His Welsh accent really brings the book alive.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Murder in the Welsh mountains.

Any additional comments?

I got slightly irritated with all the village girls swooning over the detective - it would be nice to see him have a bit of competition instead of having 3 women as rivals for his affections! Perhaps that will happen in book 2, though.

7 people found this helpful

Brilliant story set in Snowdonia

Loved reading a book set in Wales. I hope the remainder of the series is available soon.

4 people found this helpful

A good listen

Enjoyable tale with humour and characterization. Narrator has nice Welsh voice. Somewhat set in a time zone.

3 people found this helpful

Loved it!

The actors that read these books for us are just amazing. Keeping voices up and reverting correctly to the narrator's voice is really hard to do! This book has the added pleasure of Roger Clark's deep lilting Welsh voice. It's soothing and relaxing. The story is really good too. I love the characters and can listen to this over and over!

2 people found this helpful

Gosh, another good Bowen series... yah!!

Having already finished Rhys Bowen’s wonderful Molly Murphy series and the Royal Spyness books, I was delighted to discover Evans Above... such a likeable Welsh bobby and amusing village community! Thank you Rhys Bowen, your books are always such a pleasure and this series will keep me going until your next Royal Spyness book!! :-)

1 person found this helpful

wish the narrator could pronounce places properly

Have read all the books
Soothing narration but being from north Wales the place name pronunciation grates on me .

overall though It delivers .....love it x

1 person found this helpful

Ridiculous

What a disappointment! I have enjoyed Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness books, so I was looking forward to this, however, it is awful! It reads like a book set in the early part of the 20th Century, probably somewhere between 1930 to 1960 with the dialogue, actions and attitudes of that period, until references to video, pagers and helicopters appear. Perhaps it was written to be set in that period then ‘updated’ very, very badly? Having realised by these additions that it is supposed to be set in the late 1999s when it was written, it is just a joke, with old fashioned stereotypical characters and attitudes, bizarrely old fashioned dialogue and a complete lack of modern police procedure (in fact appalling ‘procedure’). Everything about it jars the senses. The narration is ok but couldn’t rescue such a hopelessly amateur story.

1 person found this helpful

Mr. Clark sent me to sleep!

Would you try another book written by Rhys Bowen or narrated by Roger Clark?

I would give Rhys Bowen a second chance but not Roger Clark.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I never got to the end as, for the first time ever, I nodded off so missed the end and did not feel like going back to hear the bits I had missed. I buy and listen to several audiobooks a week, as I am sight disabled, and although I have returned some books as I did not like the reader I cannot ever remember trying to persevere so hard to finish a book, so I think that the story was quite good but Mr. Clark's voice made the book so flat. It was a great relief to start the next book I had bought.

How could the performance have been better?

More spirit, a change of pace and some feeling that Roger Clark was interested in what he was reading. A strong Welsh voice would have been great.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Evans Above?

The book seemed O.K. not exactly a Muir or Ewart Hutton but it did move along quite nicely. The main problem was that as it was read in such a boring way a lot of the book got lost when I got distracted and, unlike my usual listening habit, I did not feel like going back to listen to the bits I missed as it would mean I would have to listen to more of Roger Clark!

Any additional comments?

As my sight is poor I do put more weight on a good reader than others might. I cannot go back and read the original as I know many do. It is disappointing when, who ever does such things, takes little care in matching voices to books. When it it is done well it makes such a difference. I do think that some of the best readers like Peter Forbes add a lot to the listening experience.

4 people found this helpful

Spoiled by narration

As a keen Reader of Rhys Bowens other series, I looked forward to the PC Evans books set in my native Wales. However, from the outset the mangling of Welsh place names jarred to the point that I abandoned the book after a couple of chapters but decided to persevere in the hope that I would be able to ignore the problem. The story line was not as good as those of the Royal Spyness books but would not have stopped me continuing with further books in the series. I will try the next one but unless the narrator is taught the correct way to pronounce the limited range of Welsh words used, I'm not sure that I will go Further.

Felt dated

This was always going to be an 'easy read', possibly formulaic book but I was surprised by the lazy stereotypes and repetitious story parts. One to read whilst you do the gardening and don't need to concentrate at all. The story was fine and could have been so much more gritty and characters more rounded. Some of the fault may be with the narrator who didn't make much differentiation between characters. I appreciated that plot elements were quickly resolved but I won't be rushing to read more in this series.