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Dead Line

Liz Carlyle, Book 4

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Dead Line

By: Stella Rimington
Narrated by: Maggie Mash
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Summary

 MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is summoned to a meeting with her boss Charles Wetherby, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch. His counterpart over at MI6 has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source.

The future of the whole of the Middle East is at stake and the deadline for action is drawing ever closer...

©2008 Stella Rimmington (P)2009 WF Howes Ltd Espionage Mystery Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Middle East
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Traditionally female narrators have been disliked by audio book fans. Maggie Mash should put an end to that. She is almost flawless. The one tiny niggle is that she reads a little slowly for my liking. Her cast of voices however is wide and consistent with every character firmly rooted in place and time. Men sound like men and women like women. Which is not true of all narrators.

Americans sound realistically American not just American-ish same for Israelis etc etc . Regional British accents are pulled off well as are Scottish accents. None of which fall in to parody. Although again some people might find it a little slow especially in the last act where things start warming up.

All this is important because the plot of Dead Line is complex and international. A bad reader could have spoiled what is an intricate and engaging book. I found the world of office politics and the blending of professional spy life and personal life very convincing. Although I would have been happy with an (even more) low key ending.
If you like Len Deightons Berlin game you will like this.

Almost flawless reading of an almost flawless book

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In future I'll make sure I don't choose a book with this narrator, for me the 'voices' of the characters ruined the story.

Annoying narrator

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Enjoyed the story. Narrator had some unbelievable accents to differentiate the characters, some rather grating. But overall was good and kept the intrigue going throughout.

Leading lady

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Leaves you wondering how much of this is actually fiction? A good straightforward novel with a good plot.

My first Stella Rimmington book and not disappointed

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That aside, the storyline was good, is a little slow to build at the begining. There are twists throughout the novel. So much so that it can be easy to miss an important clue if you are not concerntrating.

Stella Remington has done an outstanding job (So far) with the Liz Carlyle series. w
Whilst it is best to progress through the entire series, each book is written so 8t can be read as a standalone or part of a series. That makes both the series and the story very enjoyable.

My comments as to the narrator are less important for those listening individual episodes from the series, than those listening from the start. Various characters had very identifiable personality traits and nuanced characteristics which were, in some cases, significantly different in this book, with a different narrator.An example here was Jeffrey Thame. In places he appeared to be totally unrelated to the same character in earlier editions of the book. It was as if he had totally changed his persona. This was not as a result of the author, but more to do with the narrator and their inflections, nuances and characteristocs. These differences would be less noticeable in subsequent editions unless the series narrator changes again. Personally, I believe that Audible would be better placed to have one narrator read every book on that series. I also acknowledge it is not always.possible, so where that isn't re-record the series so that the same narrator, if not the original, reads the entire series.

Of course paperback/hardcover readers would also not be affected by this change.

The regular characters continue to develop in this book

The imagery and detail really bring the book to life and the reader does feel like they are actually part of the story.

As in real life there are some tearful moments. But those moments also help to develop the story moving forward.

I like forward to listening to the next edition in this series.

Much prefer Emma Fielding as the series narrator.

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