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A review by versmonesprit
A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
My rating reflects the quality of, or rather lack thereof, the audiobook; I’d rate the book itself just a tad bit higher, though not by far.
To start with the issues of the book itself, the biggest disappointment was the lack of atmosphere. I was hoping for a better established tropical setting, but the story was so removed from its setting at its core that it could have been set anywhere else without it impacting the story!
The other issue is that while Miss Marple’s bits are wonderful, she’s absent from so many scenes which makes them terribly boring. It’s only Miss Marple’s easily likeable personality that livens up the endless chain of conversations. I don’t know if this is one of the censored versions from which they removed Christie’s racist slurs — bearing in mind I didn’t hear any racial slurs, I found the book quite adamant in its rather feminist remarks, which made the book feel beyond its time. That was an unexpected but great surprise!
Finally, without giving any spoilers away, there are far too many affairs that it becomes a stupid choice.
Onto my issues with the audiobook… of course, they reside with the narrator. As usual the narration is excruciatingly slow, to the point some portions of dialogues sound perfectly regular at 2.5x speed! I’m a slow reader myself, but there’s a huge difference between reading at a pace you enjoy and having to listen to someone speak in slow motion.
As if this is not enough of a bad thing to allow a narrator to do, they certainly made up (!) for the lack of racism on Christie’s part by allowing the narrator to do something nauseatingly disgusting. The very much white narrator does mock accents of South Americans and Caribbeans. Yes, you read that right. Mock accents. Yikes!
To start with the issues of the book itself, the biggest disappointment was the lack of atmosphere. I was hoping for a better established tropical setting, but the story was so removed from its setting at its core that it could have been set anywhere else without it impacting the story!
The other issue is that while Miss Marple’s bits are wonderful, she’s absent from so many scenes which makes them terribly boring. It’s only Miss Marple’s easily likeable personality that livens up the endless chain of conversations. I don’t know if this is one of the censored versions from which they removed Christie’s racist slurs — bearing in mind I didn’t hear any racial slurs, I found the book quite adamant in its rather feminist remarks, which made the book feel beyond its time. That was an unexpected but great surprise!
Finally, without giving any spoilers away, there are far too many affairs that it becomes a stupid choice.
Onto my issues with the audiobook… of course, they reside with the narrator. As usual the narration is excruciatingly slow, to the point some portions of dialogues sound perfectly regular at 2.5x speed! I’m a slow reader myself, but there’s a huge difference between reading at a pace you enjoy and having to listen to someone speak in slow motion.
As if this is not enough of a bad thing to allow a narrator to do, they certainly made up (!) for the lack of racism on Christie’s part by allowing the narrator to do something nauseatingly disgusting. The very much white narrator does mock accents of South Americans and Caribbeans. Yes, you read that right. Mock accents. Yikes!