Brother Cadfael's Penance Audiobook By Ellis Peters cover art

Brother Cadfael's Penance

The Twentieth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael

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Brother Cadfael's Penance

By: Ellis Peters
Narrated by: Sir Derek Jacobi
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It is nearing the end of the Year of Our Lord 1145. A monk vows to abandon all earthly ties, but how can Brother Cadfael obey when his son is captured in battle? Olivier de Bretagne is one of many young knights taken prisoner in the current power dispute in Britain, but he is also Cadfael's son, and the monk cannot be objective. A council is planned at Coventry to try to appease the warring factions, and Brother Cadfael asks leave to attend, knowing he must do all in his power to find and deliver his son. This most thrilling and humane of Ellis Peters's novels is filled with excitement, intrigue, and a meticulously depicted medieval background.

Tony Award winning actor, Derek Jacobi, performs the narration, lending a powerful voice to this twentieth chronicle of Brother Cadfael.

©1994 Ellis Peters (P)1996 Phoenix Books, Inc. Mystery Traditional Detectives Fiction Detective Exciting Suspense
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I have every one of the cadfael books from audible. Love them. Also watched them on public television.

Listened to them many times. Derek Jacobi is fantastic both as an actor and as a narrator.

The only thing I am sorry for is that the author has passed on and there will be no new Cadfael stories forthcoming.

Some of my favorite things!

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If you could sum up The Brother Cadfael's Penance in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, fun, thoughtful

Who was your favorite character and why?

Brother Cadfael who keeps his broad prospect inspite of confining surroundings and violent circumstances

Entertaining mystery in a turbulent time

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Ellis Peters should definitely go down in history is one of the greatest mystery novelists of all time, and probably should straddle into the historical fiction novelist upper strata as well. having audibly devoured all of the Patrick Tull narrated books, I was deeply disappointed that Derek Jacobi, as fine an actor as he is, was the alternate narrator for the final book. I should not have been concerned, his performance is nothing short of masterful, although I still prefer Tull. that, this is a shorter novel than her previous ones, and a bit less focused on the mystery of the murder and more on the interpersonal entanglements typical of her previous novels. All in all though, an absolute joy to listen to

A fine closing chapter in one of the best mystery series ever written

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What made the experience of listening to The Brother Cadfael's Penance the most enjoyable?

Derek Jacobi is a superb actor who is able to bring all his talent into his voice for this superb performance of a wonderful story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Brother Cadfael - cause he is a real 'mensch'

What about Derek Jacobi’s performance did you like?

Jacobi is familiar with this character so he brings much humanity and authenticity to the performance.

If you could take any character from The Brother Cadfael's Penance out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Brother Cadfael - want to hear about how it was during the crusades.

Any additional comments?

Ellis Peters novels are always wonderful and historically correct.

Medievil mystery greats

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I have read scores of Brother Cadfael books, all of the them good. I felt this one is the very best and very different from the others. In this book Brother Cadfael goes out looking for his son. Lots of suspense, twists and turns, and hidden agendas.

Each book in the series is different

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I Love this series. I am just disappointed that this recording is an abridged version. I wish I could get the whole series, unabridged, and read by Patrick Tull.

Disappointed in Abridged

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I've listened my way through every one of Cadfael's adventures, enjoying each one immeasurably. All of them were unabridged, and most were narrated by Patrick Tull. While I have no complaint with Derek Jacobi's narration...I sorely regret not being able to listen to this last adventure unabridged!

Truly missing the UNABRIDGED version

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I love Jacobi’s reading and I love the author, characters and story. I do NOT love buying a book to find it’s been abridged, cut down to plot points, losing all depth and nuance. Whole journeys and conversations are missing! I really wish audible or the recording company would label the abridged books. What a disappointment.

Abridged abridged abridged

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