Disappointing

The writing is lazy. Characters are shallow and undeveloped, and plot developments are telegraphed miles in advance, as well as not being very plausible. And, for all her inside knowledge, the sense of being conducted through a secret world by an insider is not a patch on either Le Carre in one direction or Andy McNab/Chris Ryan in the other.

2 people found this helpful

Good story very bad recording quality

Really enjoyed this story as with other Stella Rimington books.

However, the standard of recording was very poor and muffled sounding.

But for my enjoyment of the story and the performance of the narrator I would have returned it.

For the record I am using good quality headphones and the enhanced standard recording of the audiobook download and have not had this problem with any of the several other recordings that I have listened too.

1 person found this helpful

Fascinating and enjoyable

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the characters have developed as the series has progressed and I find they are convincing. The sense of place adds interest, London, Greece, Paris, Birmingham, Africa, quite an adventure, worth the time to listen.

Keeps you guessing and enthralled .

I found books by Stella Rimmington recently and now enjoy hours listening to them.

A well crafted novel

The characters were most credible, the plot consuming and the narrator was excellent.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book - as I have the other two of her novels already

Poor narration

I have listened to all the books prior to this one and have loved them, this was diminished by the pedestrian narration and very poor pronunciation at times. The voice did not seem to suit the book in hand although some of the accents were passable. Sadly the next in this series is also narrated by the same person and I am wondering if I just buy a hard copy! So very disappointing as I love Audible.

another good espionage novel

Touch of the 007 about this - a lot of action and a rather contrived plot. I prefer John Le Carre.

dull story and narration

never grabbed me. having been written by one of the uk s most senior spies I thought it would be full of technical trade craft and procedure. it wasn't. the narrator sounded like she was reading a romantic novel and injected no excitement or understand ing at all. some very weird pronunciation too.

Wonderful listening

A very gripping story that is fully rounded, even to the very last word. Thank you

Exciting and believable

This is a really good book with a busy but easy to follow plot that comes together well in an exciting conclusion. Although Julia gets some criticism about the narration, I find a woman imitating male accents a whole lot better than men trying to be women. But I guess two narrators would probably work better. If you have not tried any of these books this would be a good one to start with and would probably see you back for more. Ash