Entertaining throughout

Beautiful weaving of the real and fiction. Such a good reading voice. Brings the characters to life

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Excellent

I have really enjoyed the glimpses into the life of one of my favourite authors even though written in a fiction manner with fact thrown in. The books are beautifully written and keep the reader engaged with the crime. The narrator Sandra Duncan is absolutely superb and one of the main reasons I have bought the books one after another instead of listening to something else in between

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Engrossing.

Nicola Upson blew me away with 'An Expert In Murder', and now with 'Two For Sorrow' she's done it again. I found the switch between past and present a little confusing at times but that could have been because of the gaps between my listening sessions. As in 'Expert', the protagonist is Josephine Tey, a fascinating character in her own right, and extremely well-drawn and researched by Upson. The mood of both periods - the first few years of the 20th century and the mid-thirties - is beautifully evoked; the atmosphere of the jail is suitably chilling - in both senses of the word. Equally chilling is the murder of one of the characters, terribly cruel and vivid, yet so well written that, squeamish as I am, I found myself pinned to the tableau that Upson has created in this scene by the sheer excellence of the writing and narration. Nicola Upson is now right up there at the top of my list of favourite crime writers.

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9 people found this helpful

Engrossing, interesting, bit violent!

Big fan of Nicola Upson and this is a very well written and read book - although we start to get a few graphic and nasty murder scenes! Another one I had to keep listening to.

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"Where the real person went."

When Josephine Try takes her annual pilgrimage to London to research a thirty years old real case which resulted in the last judicial double hanging of two women in Holloway prison, she stays at her club only to be embroiled in another murder. The plot line of the killings, both past and present (to Josephine) was excellent, the historic detail very visually compelling and, if left at that, this well written book would have rated at least four, if not five, stars. However, the author also included a tedious and long drawn out romantic subplot which not not only lengthened the audio by several hours but made the main protagonist seem dull, dithering and ineffectual. Thank goodness for Inspector Archie Penrose.

Narration was again by Sandra Duncan with an excellent performance in which the numerous protagonists were each given individual voices and the reading was well modulated and paced. She even managed to inject character into the rather flat characters.

I had enjoyed the developing tales one and two with real life Josephine Tey as the fictional sleuth but could not recommend this, book three. The tedium of the overlong and intrusive romantic relationship distracted too much from the otherwise intriguing plot.

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I couldn't stop listening!

This is a wonderful book! It grabbed my attention from the first chapter and I couldn't stop listening. The narrator is excellent and the plot deals with historical issues while weaving in issues which are still relevant to the present day audience.

The author has created a cast of believable and compelling characters. I am really enjoying this series of books and I'm looking forward to the next book. I will also look out for other books with this narrator, she is excellent and she managed to bring a wide variety of characters to life in this story.

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2 people found this helpful

Relationships taking over

Having enjoyed books 1 and 2 in this series I was much looking forward to listening to this - and indeed for the most part I DID enjoy it; that is to say the mystery side of it. I did however find the relationship side of things was beginning to get in the way of the plot and I note from a review of book 4 that this increases. I shall probably go back to the series and look to see if the author got herself back on track in later books but meanwhile I have discovered Josephine Tay herself. First impressions there first rate.

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2 people found this helpful

Excellent

Well written, interesting characters and very well performed. Worth listening again, even when you know who did it.

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wonderful

I loved it this story,. so, much I have listened to it several times over
Performance by Sandra Duncan, was splendid as ever.

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Another hit!

Beautifully narrated, yet again, by Sandra Duncan. Would recommend. Was a little surprised by the explicit sexual references, however.

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