Short Squeeze

By: Chris Knopf

Narrated by: Deanna Hurst

Meet smart-aleck Southampton attorney Jackie Swaitkowski. Her business relies on constant movement of Hamptons' real estate market. After making an odd request to evict his sister-in-law from his home, one of her clients turns up dead. Jackie would have expected that to be the end of it, but an envelope found on the corpse contains an item so unusual that she finds herself working on something bigger, and more dangerous, than real estate.

©2009 Chris Knopf (P)2010 BBC Audio

I wanted to like this book

i'm going to have to READ the book to see if I might enjoy it. I was so distracted by the unappealing narration that I had trouble following the story. While I sometimes go back and listen to a book again to fill in plot points, I don't want to listen to this again.

The narration of this book was so distracting that I couldn't stay connected to the story. The most irritating part of the narration was the introduction of Sam "A-key-oh." Did the narrator ask about pronunciation? Had she ever read any of the previous Southampton stories? Was there a producer with any background on the story? The author has written into the series that Sam's last name is pronounced Ac-quill-oh. I learned it from a review on google before I read the books.

The narration starts stilted and uncomfortable. Too many sentences outside of dialog end on an upward inflection even though they are not questions. It sounds like there is a continuation of a thought coming, but no.

The Jackie voice is ok, but the narrator's other characters, especially the men, are unpleasant. They do not flow naturally and are hard to follow. The voices sound forced and clipped. Some are even cartoonish.

The accents are awful. Dr. Markham rolls from almost-Jamaican sounding to straight up Dracula from Transylvania. I actually broke down laughing at one point. I will say the narrator does have a nice tone of voice for Markham...definitely better than Richard Ferrone's Markham in his two Southampton entries.

As for Sam's voice...many readers are probably familiar with Sam...who spent much of his life in Southampton NY. So why does this narrator's version have him sounding as if he is from below the Mason-Dixon line along with a few other of the men along the way? I found nothing in the story to support that.

I think I will see if I can get the second Swaitkowski book from the library to read instead of trying to listen to another by the same narrator.

Fun read

Enjoying listening to this book. It is irritating when the narrator doesn't pronounce the names correctly though. Anyone who has read the Sam Aquillo books knows that he's touchy about the "LL"s NOT being silent.

Great Witty dialogue, catalogue plus

This is a spin off character for the author. Both books in this series are outstanding. I can only hope that reviews will encourage the author to write book 3.
The narrator has read a few books for me that I just love and this one doesn’t disappoint. Since book one is a catalog plus give it 10 minutes and see if you don’t enjoy it. I do use 1.2 x speed to match the action.
Were my comments of help?

Great Listen - Good Series

I took a chance on this audiobook and loved the writing and the characterization by the narrator. When I listen to an audible.com book the narrator can make or break the experience. After I listened to this book by Chris Knopf I downloaded the rest of the available books. The books and narration by those books were also great. I would recommend listening to them in date order of publication. The development of the characters flow into the next book. If you like unusual mysteries you will love this series by Chris Knopf.

Just couldn’t get thru it

I love this author and wanted to like this book, but the narration is so annoying I couldn’t get thru it. Waste of a credit :(