Warning: I did not finish this audiobook. This earned the Eject! Eject! rating (located on your right in the sidebar).
North of Boston was a title offered to us by the publisher. I also found it offered in audio format from Audiobook Jukebox. As the publisher’s copy came in PDF format ( ;-( ) I thought the audio would be far more enjoyable. Darn it. It wasn’t. Not at all. I’ll simply have to wait to read the book when it comes out in hard copy.
For, the premise of North of Boston sounded intriguing enough to accept it from the publisher, and was one that I did want to read, unfortunately I could simply no longer endure one.more.minute. of that audio narration. Terribly unfortunate, but from the very beginning something was way off about it for me. The voice of Pirio Kasparov didn’t feel right from the start. Something just didn’t click with Marguerite Gavin’s narration. My frustration and annoyance concerning the narration only increased, especially with the narration of Pirio’s friend, Thomasina. Okay, I understand and it is acceptable to be inconsolable as the father of Thomasina’s son has just been killed in what appears to be an accident, but, every time Thomasina enters the story, she is at the bottom of a bottle. Everyone starts to fall to the bottom of a bottle in this story and Gavin is narrating in a drunken voice far too frequently for my taste. Coupling this drunk talk with the talk of f***ing and the use of this F-bomb everywhere and I whipped that audiobook out so fast, I’m certain Marguerite Gavin physically felt it herself.
I am unable to comment further on the whole of North of Boston and will pick it up in hard copy soon enough, however I cannot recommend listening to the audio of it to anyone.
Thank you to Audiobook Jukebox and Blackstone Audio, as well as Pamela Dorman Books for their copies of North of Boston. The reviews and the premise of the book may bring me back to it, but only when I can get my hands on a non-PDF version.
Dennis Lehane meets Smilla’s Sense of Snow: a big discovery in the world of female suspense, about an edgy young woman with the rare ability to withstand extreme conditions
Elisabeth Elo’s debut novel introduces Pirio Kasparov, a Boston-bred tough-talking girl with an acerbic wit and a moral compass that points due north.
When the fishing boat Pirio is on is rammed by a freighter, she finds herself abandoned in the North Atlantic. Somehow, she survives nearly four hours in the water before being rescued by the Coast Guard. But the boat’s owner and her professional fisherman friend, Ned, is not so lucky.
Compelled to look after Noah, the son of the late Ned and her alcoholic prep school friend, Thomasina, Pirio can’t shake the lurking suspicion that the boat’s sinking—and Ned’s death—was no accident. It’s a suspicion seconded by her deeply cynical, autocratic Russian father, who tells her that nothing is ever what it seems. Then the navy reaches out to her to participate in research on human survival in dangerously cold temperatures.
With the help of a curious journalist named Russell Parnell, Pirio begins unraveling a lethal plot involving the glacial whaling grounds off Baffin Island. In a narrow inlet in the arctic tundra, Pirio confronts her ultimate challenge: to trust herself.
A gripping literary thriller, North of Boston combines the atmospheric chills of Jussi Adler-Olsen with the gritty mystery of Laura Lippman. And Pirio Kasparov is a gutsy, compellingly damaged heroine with many adventures ahead. (synopsis from Goodreads)
