Crime fiction obsessive Martin Reed is the proverbial butt of everyone's jokes. Working as a glorified accountant at Southern Toilet Supply and still living with his cantankerous mother, he has become resigned to the world in which he lives - the school bullies now pick on him in the workplace, women still spurn him and his arch enemy is now his supervisor. But then he arrives at work one morning to find the police on site. A co-worker has been brutally murdered and her body abandoned in a ditch. And the overwhelming evidence points to Martin - especially when he can't or won't admit that he has an alibi. When a second victim is found in the company bathroom, things really conspire against Martin. The one bright star on his otherwise bleak horizon is the beautiful and sympathetic Detective Anther Albada, but even she's beginning to have her doubts about his innocence. Could Martin be guilty? Or is he just misunderstood?
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Who'd have thought that the disrespect and indignities Wayne Knight suffered as Newman on the Seinfeld series would have been just a warmup for the silly, tasteless and at times repugnant, racist and unfunny material that Slaughter has provided. The author's original audio novella focuses on murder suspect Martin Reed, an über-wimp who lives with his shrewish, nagging nightmare of a mother and who works at Southern Toilet Supply. His home life is an indication of Slaughter's originality; his occupation suggests the level of her humor. Knight, making his audio debut, gives the material his best, which is considerable. His familiar image also adds much needed dimension to Martin's flimsy construction. But the novella is so unnecessarily ugly and hopelessly lacking in either invention or humor one can only presume that the potential for Martin Misunderstood was, well, misunderstood. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Review
"The undertone of violence is pervasive, even at quiet moments, amplifying Slaughter's equation of intimacy and menace and placing her squarely in the ranks of Cornwall and Reichs." -- Publishers Weekly
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
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More About the Author
Karin Slaughter is a New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author. She is a native of Georgia.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An appropriate employer for Martin,
By
This review is from: Martin Misunderstood (Audio CD)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Not even the excellent vocal characterizations and considerable talent of Wayne Knight can save this mediocre audio novella from crashing and burning.
Being accused of double murder is the most exciting event to ever occur in the life of Martin, a 36 year old loser whose abysmal world is populated by obnoxious and unsavoury co-workers, and a harpy of a mother who appears to have a galloping case of Munchehausen by proxy. Investigating the murders of two of Martins co-workers is Detective Ana Albada, object of Martins cerebral love affair and herself a prime candidate for Dr. Freud's couch. In MARTIN MISUNDERSTOOD, author Karen Slaughter was obviously going for sardonic humor and to be fair there are a couple of laughs to be had. Unfortunately they are few and far between and ultimately, Slaughter only manages to achieve a tale filled with pathetic, silly and completely unsympathetic characters caught in situations that are ill conceived, tasteless, and at some points downright lewd. This listener can understand why Martin is misunderstood.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
X-rated Humorous Murder Mystery (solved),
By
This review is from: Martin Misunderstood (Audio CD)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is the first time ever that I listened to an audio version of a book and found it quite delightful and amusing. Wayne Knight did an outstanding job in performing a variety of voices for the different characters (both men and women) in this book. This is my first exposure to the writing of Karin Slaughter and I am positively impressed. The author displays a great sense of humor which is brought to life by Wayne Knight's amazing nuanced voices. First, Martin Reed is a geek-like character who lives a rather dull and uncomplicated life in a small town in Georgia. His most notable facial feature is a hawk-like nose, which made him self-conscious. His nickname was "Beak" and even after he had a rhinoplasty (commonly called a "nose job" which fixes and remodels the nose through plastic surgery). His friends continued to call him "Beak" despite the improvement in his looks (which they never acknowledged). He went to school with essentially the same people who work with him, at Southern Toilet Supply. It was a family owned business when he started there but it was bought by a German company who put on the pressure to sell their prodcuts. They did a down-size of about 50% of the employees after taking over.
Martin is an account executive who has a rather sassy black secretary named "Unique". She likes her first name pronounced in a French manner with an "a" sound at the end. Martin lives at home with his mother, Evelyn, called "Evie". She is a bossy woman who continually harps on some aspect of Martin's character or behavior and she peppers her pronouncements with the word "luck" but subsitute the letter "F" for the "L". She has a strong southern accent created by Wayne Knight which is very characteristic for the region and quite funny. When Martin arrives at work at the Southern Toilet Supply company he learns one of the employees was murdered. Martin is a prime suspect because Sandee had pulled a practical joke on him using a most embarrassing item which could've been viewed as the 'motive'. Martin is jailed, interrogated and let go. However he develops a mental love affair with the female detective. At home, Martin ponders how his uneventful life has suddenly gotten so exciting but as the reader will discover for the wrong reasons! He remains the prime suspect solely because Martin does not want to reveal his whereabouts on the night of the murder. The listener/reader learns Martin was involved in some X-rated activity which would make him look ridiculous if revealed. He simply would not open up about the matter. When, a second dead body is discovered at Southern Toilet Company, this time it is his secretary Uniqué, all suspicion is cast on Martin again. People at the company *know* Uniqué suddenly found Martin irresistable and their spontaneous very physical encounter was heard by all ... I was stunned, I did not see it coming (pun intended). Obviously because Martin was so directly involved with the deceased, circumstantial evidence points to him and he is not released from jail. Amusingly, the book provides some amazing twists and turns in the developing mental love affair between Martin and the female detective. The fact is Martin seems to like all the attention he is getting for being the prime suspect. It seems for once in his dull and boring life, he is finally in the spotlight, he relishes the attention he is receiving. Martin *finally* achieved notoriety and he is enjoying all the media attention. While I actually did figure out who committed the murderer and likely other listeners/readers will too, it does not take away from the enjoyment of this book. I am very impressed with the author's creativity and superior wit. She provides unexpected twists and highly amusing descriptions of each character, all with true to life attributes that are exaggerated. Her choice of Martin's employment is very funny. She makes the most of it by describing various products the company produces which makes for great comedy. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Raunchy, Darkly Humorous Novella In Audio Book Format,
This review is from: Martin Misunderstood (Audio CD)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Though I love books this was my first experience listening to an audio book and I enjoyed it more than I expected. Listening to this short (two hour and thirty minutes) novella on CD by bestselling author Karin Slaughter as I cleaned my kitchen made my housekeeping tasks go quickly. The story is read perfectly by character actor Wayne Knight who is best known as Newman on Seinfeld. Knight does an amazing job of creating separate mostly Southern accented voices for each of the story's characters. The plot, of course, is total nonsense and the characters' simply caricatures but the story is amusing and entertaining enough for those who like their comedy dark. One caution is much of the language and many of the situations are definitely "adult" so one should be aware and not play this in earshot of children or anyone easily embarrassed.
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