Author:
Narrator: Scott Harrison
Format: Unabridged-MP3
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: Jan 2010
Genre: Fiction - Mystery & Detective - General
Retail Price: $29.95
Discs: 1
In the unseasonable heat of a spring morning in 80 B.C., Gordianus the Finder is summoned to the house of Cicero, a young advocate staking his reputation on a case involving the savage murder of the wealthy, sybaritic Sextus Roscius. Charged with the murder is Sextus's son, greed being the apparent motive. The punishment, rooted deep in Roman tradition, is horrific beyond imagining.
The case becomes a political nightmare when Gordianus's investigation takes him through the city's raucous, pungent streets and deep into rural Umbria. Now, one man's fate may threaten the very leaders of Rome itself.
Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series of mysteries are entertaining historical fiction. But Scott Harrison is easily the worst reader I have encountered among the hundred or so audiobooks I've listened to over the years. He has 3 voices: his 'regular' voice for the book's narrator, a slightly different voice for all other males of whatever age, and a third voice for all women of any age. It makes it very hard to tell who is speaking in a multiperson dialog since so many are read with identical voices. There is also little emotion, inflection or even any indication that Harrison understands what he's reading. Perhaps Blackstone Audio recruits readers from the local high school to save money. It's too bad that an absolutely miserable reader has ruined a good series of books.