If Books Could Kill

A Bibliophile Mystery

By: Kate Carlisle

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Murder is easy - on paper.

Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is attending the world-renowned Book Fair when her ex Kyle shows up with a bombshell. He has an original copy of a scandalous text that could change history - and humiliate the beloved British monarchy. When Kyle turns up dead, the police are convinced Brooklyn's the culprit. But with an entire convention of suspects, Brooklyn's conducting her own investigation to find out if the motive for murder was a 200-year-old secret - or something much more personal.

©2010 Kathleen Beaver (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Brooklyn's uncommon occupation drives the well-constructed and smoothly executed mystery. Offbeat secondary characters contrast nicely with the more level-headed Brooklyn.” ( Romantic Times)

Book was good but narrator not so much

Narrator not good with male voices. Also, misspoke several and obviously never sews — grosgrain is pronounced like ‘grow grain’

Enjoyable

I read/listen to books strictly to be entertained and get my mind off my work stresses. This book was a fun listen with interesting characters and settings.

Bad, Bad Narration

I only finished this book on Audible because I like Kate Carlisle books. I almost gave up halfway because of the lousy narration. This narrator cannot do British voices. Period. And her male American voices were terrible, too. In fact, there were only a few characters that had a voice that seemed appropriate. I listened to the book a second time, just to see if my opinion changed. Nope. The main character's voice, except when she was "speaking", was flat and devoid of personality. I might try another Kate Carlisle book, but not with this narrator.

Good book ,narration a little hard.

I very much enjoyed the story and have read other books from the author. I did however struggle with listening to the male voices. Sometimes the voices you imagine are hard to blend with the voice that the narrator gives to the character. The male voices were a little either over the top or not quite on the mark. I wanted to enjoy the story so I listened and enjoyed the story. The voice for the main character is very on .

The story was fun and informative. I learned terms for bookbinding techniques and tools of the trade that I had never heard before. Usually while reading a book with a subject that I don't know very much I about I have to trust that the author did their due diligence. And this one definately helped me understand the process better. The story line flows well and there were moments that I had to stop the story and go find someone to share a funny scene or something I learned.

If you can get past the male voices the story is very entertaining.

Great story, poor British accent

I love Kate Carlisle's books, but the narrater's British accents was terrible. A couple times the voices of different characters sounded the same.

Practice Makes Perfect

I must make a note to avoid the first efforts of romance writers when they take on a new genre. I don’t do romance and for good reason. I picked up Carlisle’s Bibliophile series after listening to her Fixer-Upper series. I knew from a glance at her website that she a done romance, so I just rolled my eyes when a bit of romance, well more than I would have expected for a cozy mystery, crept into that series. But it was a grave mistake for me to pick up the Bibliophile series because Carlisle had most definitely not gotten the romance genre out of her system when she wrote those. Sadly, I found the first two books in the Bibliophile series to be repetitive in plot line and character development, padded with unnecessary romantic blather that often got in the way of the action. Because of that, I couldn’t get a feel for the stories themselves, or a feel as to whether there was indeed any depth to either the stories or the characters. I was most fortunate to pick up Carlisle’s third series first for I feel she was really beginning to step out of romance and into cozy mystery. Now if she’ll just let her characters, particularly the men, be a bit more realistic in appearance and conduct, she’ll have a winner.

As for the narrating abilities of Eileen Stevens, I have no problems. I think she did the accents well, though her female English accent was much better than her male English accent. I have to say, though, that doing male voices is challenging enough without having to add the English accent. I felt, however, that both her male and female Scots had their accents down pat.

Overall, I would surely listen to another narration by Stevens, and I’ll be keeping an ear out for Kate Carlisle and hope she deepens her plots and fleshes out her characters. She does have the ability to keep the listener engaged despite those moments of teeth-gritting frustration, and I can only see improvement in future works.

Great series for smart readers

If you like to learn while enjoying the story of your cozy mystery this is a great series for you. The characters are smart and charming. And, it’s fun to learn about the art of book binding as the story progresses. This one even has some Scottish history in it. It is definitely a fun read.

Love the story but recording had missing pieces

The story and reading were just fine and I'll download all the books in the series, but this is the first Audible recording I've purchased with errors. I have the actual book in hand, and this recording is missing all of page 114 in chapter 7, and several sentences of chapter 10 are missing as well (top of page 162)

If books could kill

Unfortunately I agree with many others. Not a fan of this narrator. Shrill notes in her voice were quite distracting. Mail voices were contrived and not believable.

Set in Scotland, my favorite place in the world

Any additional comments?

Of all the audiobooks I've ever listened to, this is my very favorite. I love the Brooklyn Wainwright series and this book tops them all off. Kate Carlisle does a brilliant job of continuing our heroine's lively escapades. And wherever you are, Eileen Stevens, my hat is off to you for the fine job you did on all the accents. I want to read ever so many more books that you have narrated. My dear, I wish you narrated all the Wainwright books. Although the other books are also very well narrated, you are my favorite.