Whose body?

The Peter Wimsey stories need no introduction to cognoscenti oh Golden Age crime; if there is a weakness in this one it would be for me the lengthy confession in which the murderer describes his modus operandi.
I think a male narrator would have been preferable, and there were some avoidable mispronunciation ( such as Balliol) and unexpected reading mistakes. Does anybody listen to the recordings for howlers?

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Dreadful narration

When the lead character is male why choose a female narrator?
The narration, pronunciation and inability to remember which voice belongs to which character really spoils a good story.
I would have purchased the whole series, the use of this narrator throughout has made it highly unlikely.

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10 people found this helpful

Awful Narration

What did you like best about Whose Body?? What did you like least?

I have always enjoyed Sayers' work and her eye for detail both in plot and characters. However the narrator of this story is truly awful, employing high pitched unbelievable voices and at times screeching lines pivotal to the plot. This simply detracts from the brilliance and indulgence if Sayers.

Any additional comments?

I would avoid any further novels by this narrator.

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7 people found this helpful

An excellent production of a DLS LPW story

The narrator made this a very easy book to listen to. The LLPW story is an excellent one and this productin is to commended.

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Terrible Narration

It's such a shame to have such a wonderful series ruined by a dull inappropriate narrator. It's so difficult to work out who's dialogue it is because she sounds the same all the way through except when she shouts, which is not helpful either!!

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1 person found this helpful

Smart, fast-paced fun

Narrator is good: variation, characterisation and wit. Others may've not liked it but as a fan of the books and characters I thought her performance was strong and suitable. The story? Of its time, but timeless.

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Pleasantly surprised!

What did you like best about this story?

This is a humorous introduction to Lord Peter Wimsey and the characters that appear in this excellent series.

Which character – as performed by Jane McDowell – was your favourite?

I enjoyed all the characterisations - and the reason I entitled the review 'pleasantly surprised' was because of negative reviews from others. To my ears, Jane McDowell captured the capricious nature of Lord Peter nicely, and it is worth remembering that, in the printed copy (and TV adaptions), like so many aristo's of his day, Lord Peter dropped the 'g' from pretty much anything ending in 'ing', and also used 'ain't' more times than one can shake a stick at which is probably why some people thought he sounded like a cockney!! I especially enjoyed how Jane read the Dowager Duchess! I also didn't think she read too fast, although I tried slowing it down as had been suggested, but was quite happy with the standard speed.

Any additional comments?

I'm always a little bit sorry when I guess the murderer early on in the book (I'd really rather not be able to guess at all!), and this was the case here, but it is an enjoyable romp, and I would say well worth a credit! I will collect the entire Lord Peter series, and look forward to hearing Jane MacDowell reading them.

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4 people found this helpful

Good story impaired by poor narration

The story was good and well structured. Sadly, the narration was not. Obviously, such long narrations have to be recorded in chunks. In this case there were obvious changes in tone between sections. The narrator had the habit of occasionally pausing mid-sentence producing what sounded like two sentences which, inititially, was coburg until mentally stitched together. Another problem was differentiating different characters. The narrator's tone didn't always help to identify which character was talking. However, it was good enough for three stars.

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1 person found this helpful

Whose Body

Whilst I adore the Lord Peter Windrunner books it was spoiled by the narrator who mispronounced words, (Arbuthnot has a th in it not a tt), put pauses in the wrong parts of sentences and sounded as if she hadn’t prepared for reading this at all. In future I shall be wary of any books read by her.
I did manage to complete it but struggled. I got used to her LPW voice but several other voices grated.

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Great story, bad reader

Have enjoyed the shorter Whimsy stories on radio and the longer version is better. Darker with more misery and intrigue but still witty. But I did not enjoy the narrows voice, high pitched and difficult to distinguish the characters, possibly appeared worse in comparison to the full cast stories I have heard befor, but the plot keeps me listening.

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15 people found this helpful