Narrated by Kaleo Griffith
There’s been a lot of buzz about Mr. Griffith’s narration of the Clare I-Team books, of which there are 5 full length and 2 novellas in print. Would he do the popular series justice without reducing the heroines to cartoon character voices? Could he possibly live up to the boyfriend-status-heroes so many had come to love?
Having only read Clare’s historicals, the I-Team was new to me when I listened to Extreme Exposure. What a delight to find these weren’t just hard-driving suspense novels with a romantic twist, but stories with humor, with emotion, with some pretty serious hotness going on too.
Hard Evidence is the story of I-Team reporter Tessa Novak who witnesses a drive-by shooting at a convenience store and takes on the investigation of homeless teens, gangs, and murder as a result. The face in the shadows that she assumes is the killer is actually Julian Darcangelo, deep undercover FBI agent involved in exposing a much seamier, darker subject: human trafficking.
To say that Julian is a hunka-hunka burning love would be a major understatement, and Kaleo had some pretty big, uh, shoes to fill here. He filled them very, very nicely, too, I might add. His own deep voice gives heroes not just the tall, dark, and handsome feel, but also the grittiness, the emotions, the anger, the lust – well, he has all those bases covered. He also developed a series of voices for other characters, both those from Extreme Exposure as well as those newly introduced. Police Chief Irving with his patient, no-nonsense approach and Tom Trent, the paper’s “demanding editor-in-chief” were repeats. His Russian accent for the Red Mafia bad guys was very believable and consistent. His Spanish was serviceable.
I wasn’t quite as taken with his approach to Tessa’s voice, unfortunately. While not exactly the falsetto Minnie Mouse that other male narrators have taken when speaking women’s dialog, it was still a little too Southern-fried for my taste, and pitched almost out of his comfort range. He gave her vocal attributes not found in the text – dropping the “g” from words ending with “ing” and making her sound more uneducated than I think she was written to be. It’s an acting decision that I don’t agree with, I guess. It affected my picture of a woman with the kind of courage Clare infused Tessa with – his Tessa was a little ditzier, shallower, than I felt her to be.
The story itself was excellent – lots of suspense, and even when I knew what the outcome was, who the bad guy was, it still had me on the edge of my seat. There were also humor and love and positive emotions, right next to the fear and loathing and scumminess of the underworld. A big thumbs up for both the book and the narration with just a few points off for the heroine’s voice.
Melinda
Narration: B+
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Escalated fighting – almost Graphic, but stops just short
Genre: Romantic suspense
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Hard Evidence was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.
Great review, Melinda. I listened to Extreme Exposure recently and enjoyed it, but I do agree about the female voices. However, since the male voices matter more to me than the female voices, I’m pleased with the narration. ;-) I’ll admit even Tom Stecheshulte, whom I adore, makes some female voices sound too breathy. But since he makes the men sound like sex-on-a-stick, I forgive him. ;-) I love Julian, so this audiobook is definitely on my to-listen list.