Willful Behavior

A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

By: Donna Leon

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Mystery lovers everywhere are addicted to Donna Leon's ever-honorable Commissario Guido Brunetti and her portrayal of Venice's beautiful but sinister byways and canals.

In Willful Behavior, Brunetti is approached for a favor by one of his wife's students. Intelligent and serious, Claudia Leonardo asks for his help in obtaining a pardon for a crime once committed by her now-dead grandfather. Brunetti thinks little of it - until Claudia is found dead. Soon, another corpse and an extraordinary art collection lead Brunetti to long-buried secrets of Nazi collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews - secrets few in Italy want revealed.

Death in Venice: investigate more of Guido Brunetti's cases.

©2002 Donna Leon and Diogenes Berlag AG Zurich (P)2011 AudioGO

Italy with a British accent

Italian setting, characters and culture. With a British accent?! Narrator good — just a poor match. Doesn’t convey the nuances of previous stories with distractions of mispronunciations etc.

Slow start but...

strong finish to a classic plotline. Leon pulls it off again. A good read indeed.

Couldn't stand the narration

Where does Willful Behavior rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Near the bottom.

What did you like best about this story?

Guido Brunetti.

What didn’t you like about Steven Crossley’s performance?

He was the wrong person to narrate a Guido Brunetti story. I have listened to every Guido Brunetti story and David Colacci is the man!!!!!!!!!!! Mr. Crossley reminded me of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and HELP! It was just too much for me - I listened because I wanted to hear the whole story but I won't re-listen.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not really - couldn't get past the narration long enough.

Any additional comments?

Of all the Brunetti books this is my least favourite and I'm not sure how much of that is OTHER than the narration. I'll re-listen to the others.

British accent narrator

British accent narrator is really distracting

Fairly ambitious story with honor subtext. Good tale in the collection

Disappointing Narration

The story was okay but the narrator was distracting with his British accent. You would think he would at least learn how to pronounce Italian names and other words. Actually made it hard to follow the plot. I enjoy this series but will avoid any other books with this narrator.

English Accent???

While the story was as enjoyable as all the Brunetti mysteries, the performance was awful. Listening to an English actor made me feel I was listening to a Agatha Christie mystery - certainly not a story set in Venice.

Disappointing narration

The story is above average for this series. But Steven Crossley With his British accent diminishes this audio version. His narration gives no nuance to any of the characters and if you are accustomed tolistening to Donna Leon‘s books narrated by David Colacci, It is quite disappointing.

Not the same

The characters just doesn’t have the warmth and depth — the connections to each other that David Colacci brings. It was well done, I suppose, but I was so terribly disappointed it wasn’t narrated by Colacci that I couldn’t get past the first chapter.

Crossly placed on my "go to narrator" list

This was my first Donna Leon book. As always before purchasing an Audible book, I first listen to the narrator and then read the reviews. I saw where there was much criticism for Stenen Crossley's narration. I found both the author and NARRATOR a refreshing and positive listen. I will miss Mr. Crossley's narration in my next Donna Leon book.

C from a Mid-Atlantic state.

The narration was terrible. Ruined the story for me personally

The narration was terrible, ruined the story for me
Coluc I is amazing makes it all so enjoyable