Great story, mediocre reading
I love Robin Jarvis' Deptford Mice trilogy, and have since I was a child. However, these unabridged audiobooks leave a lot to be desired. Nothing against Roe Kendall's narrating talents, but I just don't feel her voice is right for these stories. Non-fiction readings would be, I think, more her strong suit. These are thrilling novels full of horror and suspense, but the overall narration is rather dull. There are some characters Kendall can perform quite well, such as Audrey, Madame Akkikuyu, Twit, and the Starwife. In fact, in those roles she sounds quite like I imagined their voices in my head while reading the books. However, the vast majority of characters sound almost the same, with hardly any variation in tone. For males, she simply lowers the pitch of her voice most of the time, perhaps making it only slightly more accented or gruffer for characters like Thomas. In the 1990s, abridged audio cassettes of The Dark Portal, The Crystal Prison, and The Final Reckoning were released, read by actors Tom Baker, Martin Shaw, and Jon Pertwee respectively. Their narrations were excellent, conveying the right amount of emotion and drama. It's unfortunate that the books were not then recorded in their entirety. Still, I would suggest seeking the tape sets out if you are looking for audio versions of the Deptford Mice books as they are superior performances.