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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Why oh why ruin a Fab murder Mystery??

Up until now, I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two books and the strength of writing and the outstanding narration has been amazing!!

But now this book is going down a completely unnecessary path with Josephine and I REALLY don’t need to hear all the details!!!! When I’m thoroughly absorbed in the plot and Archie investigating! and then I’m interrupted by a whole chapter of inconsequential rubbish by the author, it’s REALLY frustrating!!

Archie, his cousins and all the other characters are fab! And this would have been 5 stars all the way if it wasn’t for the above.

So ironic that a line in this book is Josephine wondering if it’s right to take the past and turn it into a fictional story without knowing the facts!! As this is exactly what Nicola Upson has done!!

I’ve never read a Josephine Tey novel, but if someone wrote a series of books about me, when I’d passed and made the HUGE assumptions that Nicola is, I’d be turning in my grave!!

Incredibly odd way for Ms Upton to commemorate an author she claims to be a fan of!!

So sad when Ms Upton is clearly very talented and could have written a fabulous series without Josephine even featuring! I honestly don’t feel her character adds ANYTHING to this book.

Sandra Duncan is just stunning in her Narration so 5 stars incredibly deserved by her :-)

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Interesting Plot, shame about the love story

I found this fascinating but it got lost in a melodramatic teenage-style love story. It had no real set up in previous books and just appears out of nowhere and adds nothing to the main plot. It's a shame as the story is so interesting and well researched and explores this particular crime from so many angles it really is worth a listen.

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Good but maudlin and boring in parts

I mainly enjoyed this book but found the love interest to be utterly maudlin and boring. It has put me off a bit as I am not sure if this aspect is going to be carried through into later books in the series.

It seems to me that some modern writers somehow translate the ‘grey’ of the old black and white films of the period into a flat, colourless way of feeling and living.

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1 person found this helpful

excellent story

loved it
couldn't stop listening. Will now get the series. very well read. great buy

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excelllent

so enjoyable, well read ,full of interesting characters and twists. not just a murder mystery soo Munich more

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