Small Vices (Audio)

Small Vices (2002) written Robert B. Parker narrated by Burt Reynolds

This audio book was my first exposure to Robert B. Parker.

I was doing mind-numbingly dull lab work, and audio books kept me from losing my mind, so I was willing to try almost anything.

I fell in love almost instantly.

Spenser is hired to find out if Ellis Alves, a small-time criminal, is actually guilty of the murder of a Pemberton college girl.

The deeper Spenser looks into the case, the flimsier the case looks, but the deeper Spenser looks, the harder someone tries to stop him from looking.

I have a feeling I’m going to go back and reread this relatively soon, so I’ll just address the audio portion of the book here.

When I first heard this book, I feel in love with everything about it, including the narration.

The story has held up over time, but I’m not as sure about the narration.

Burt Reynolds does Hawk and Spenser very well, but it’s the secondary characters I’m not as certain about. Spenser works out of Boston, but none of the characters had a Southie–or even Boston–accent. This isn’t something I recognized when I first listened, but it is something I became aware of this time. So, first thing to note: Burt Reynolds can’t do a Boston accent of any sort.

Secondly, the first time I listened to this, I was sitting at a lab bench in a quiet lab.

This listen, I’m fifteen years older, with the hearing loss that comes from too much loud music when I was younger, and we listened in the car. Our small car, that has a not insignificant amount of road noise.

We had to have it cranked very loudly, and even then, some of the narration was hard to get. Burn Reynolds has a low voice, and he tends to frequently elide his words. So some passages were very hard to understand. I don’t think this would have been an issue if I was listening somewhere quiet, but I know lots of people listen to audio books in the car, so that’s something you’ll want to take into consideration.

But mostly, I still love this books, and despite minor flaws, the audio books is as enjoyable as it ever was.
Rating: 7/10

Published by Phoenix Audio

• Browse the archives:
  
• Death at La Fenice » »
• « « A Plague of Zombies