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Friend of the Devil
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Series: Inspector Banks Novels, Book 17
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
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Publisher's Summary
One morning in March, on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, a woman named Karen Drew is found in her wheelchair with her throat slit. Back in Eastvale on that same morning, in a tangle of narrow alleys behind a market square, the body of Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled.
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What listeners say about Friend of the Devil
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Claire
- 04-16-18
Great story - awful music
This might be Robinson’s best yet. The story was complex and interesting; Simon Prebble’s narration was spot on.
The music that surged up at the beginning and end and at a few dramatic points in between was gosh-awful and detracted from plotting, timing, and narration. A real shame.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Greg
- 05-12-09
This time Book 4; Reader 5
This is how the Banks series should be read! Try this one.
4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-06-17
Ruined by music
What did you love best about Friend of the Devil?
Simon Prebble is at his usual best here. I like the way Robinson runs 2 investigations simultaneously.
Any additional comments?
What's with the music at odd times? not even between chapters. and it runs over into the first few words of the following section. Definitely a bad idea. I see they do it again in the next installment.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- M.K. Davies
- 09-30-17
Jarring Music in an Otherwise Good Book.
Good story😀, but there was that hideous music/noise. 😱Whatever the purpose of the music, it was distracting. What producer & person in charge of music/sound would ever think this was okay? It was jarring. This audiobook was interesting & enjoyable. I really enjoy the D.C. Banks series & think Simon Prebble does such a good job of narration. I don't enjoy listening to a book where the narrator tries to alter their voice based on gender of the character. I hope never to hear those "musical" sounds again.
2 people found this helpful
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- Kathryn E. Keeling
- 02-11-17
Can't go wrong with Prebble...
Simon Prebble most Excellent. Hated the mixing in of that awful music? Not only awful but made it hard to hear the words at the start of the chapter.
Most suspenseful book so far. Complex story too.
2 people found this helpful
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- Donna
- 09-21-16
Stop the music
the music at beginnings of each part was ridiculous and distracting, to point of interfering with hearing the narration. Otherwise, the story ans Simon Prebble were very good.
2 people found this helpful
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- Ore O
- 07-02-14
Improvement from previous narrator
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Yes, I liked the story. It was very complex and there was a lot of other smaller stories going on in the background with the main character, which added a certain amount of color to the story.
What other book might you compare Friend of the Devil to and why?
It is in keeping with previous books by this author.
Did Simon Prebble do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?
Simon Prebble was definitely an improvement from the previous narrator, it took a little while to get used to the different take on the characters. I really enjoyed James Langton's narration, but this was definitely manageable. It was a little over produced, the music added at random times was annoying, and I am not sure why they felt they had to use that strange sound effect when Banks read Templeton progress note.
Did Friend of the Devil inspire you to do anything?
Yes, I think I might be able to continue with the series, I stopped when I listened to Ron Keith.
4 people found this helpful
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- Nancy in California
- 06-19-15
Another great story by Robinson & Prebble
I really liked this story as I've enjoyed the other audio books by Peter Robinson. For me, Simon Prebble's voice makes the story really come alive.
As someone else mentioned, the music is just wrong! This music does not enhance any part of the production. It's jarring in its intro, is slow to fade and completely ruins the mood created by Prebble's reading. The story & reading are very good-and I would recommend on only those merits.
1 person found this helpful
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- Sharon
- 07-22-12
Ditch the music
The addition of distracting music which certainly isn't part of then book is totally unnecessary. Let the book stand alone not. Don't mess with it.
3 people found this helpful
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- melanie fauntroy
- 03-26-22
Enjoyed, but...
Always enjoy Simon Prebble as narrator. The yarn was a fun one. My only gripe is the music. Honestly those instrumental interludes grated on my nerves. I have ear buds and it was so obnoxious one can barely hear the narration.
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- Gail J Elverd
- 10-23-19
Excellent story!
Another excellent story and an enjoyable narration by Simon. The accompanying noise, pretending to be music almost spoilt the book for me! 🙏