Vespers

An 87th Precinct Mystery, Book 42

By: Ed McBain

Narrated by: Dick Hill

The murder of a priest in one of the 87th Precinct’s parishes sends Detectives Carella and Hawes on a troubling investigation where everyone has a secret and the truth hides within the lies.

©2005 Ed McBain (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Imagine your favorite Law & Order cast solving fresh mysteries into infinity, with no re-runs, and you have some sense of McBain’s grand, ongoing accomplishment." ( Entertainment Weekly)

"The 87th Precinct [is] one of the great literary accomplishments of the last half-century." (Pete Hamill, Newsday

Distracting narrator

The story was interesting but the voice of the performer was an annoying distraction. Pushed thru for the story.

Terrible narration

Dick Hill is one of my favorite readers but in this case, I was shockingly disappointed. His effort at a Boston Southie accent was laughable. He simply dropped his "Rs" but frequently forgot to do so. His emoting was terribly overboard with soft accents that, at times, could not be heard and, at other times, was so loud as to hurt my ears.

R rated

I was unaware of the foul language and lewd actions that were explicit in this book. I would have enjoyed it more if there weren't these .

I wish I could give it a negative star :( AWFUL!!

I couldn't make it past the 1st chapter! It should be rated R. I couldn't shut it off fast enough.

start with another in the series if you must start

This seemed like an innocuous police procedural series, so I tried this instalment on sale. Know that an early chapter contains a detailed sex scene from a black mass - perhaps the black mass was necessary for the plot (I didn't finish the book for additional reasons), but the amount of detail was not, in a police procedural. A good crime writer can communicate such a context without such detail.

If you are attracted by the title - "Vespers"- thinking this might involve the sub-genre of priest sleuth - definitely stay away!

This also seemed to me to be Dick Hill's narration at it absolute silliest. He is not among my favourite narrators, but I can enjoy his reading - not so here. Perhaps he didn't know how to take the content either!

I don't usually review books I can't finish, but this one needs a warning for the unwary. Some scenes that can pass in text are just not suited to many listeners in audio - and since you can't skim ahead to see what awaits and adjust reading speed accordingly -- this can be disturbing.

My overall rating = Yuk. Don't waste your time or credit; there is too much good crime fiction out there.