Study of Royal Assassins

Interesting study of all the would-be assassins of Queen Victoria and how they shaped England's treason and criminal insanity laws. Performed by Mark Whitten who does great voices of the assassins and Queen Victoria.

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a great slice of history book

Would you consider the audio edition of Shooting Victoria to be better than the print version?

This book is well written and very well narrated. It successfully weaves together a history of the Victorian era, a sort of joint biography of Victoria and Albert, the story of the evolution of policing, and a number of CSI-like crime stories. I was afraid all that would be too much to get in a not-so-very long book, but it was not the case. I enjoyed each episode (which is clustered around one of the six or seven assassination attempts) as a stand-alone and the weaving of all of them together to make an entertaining history.

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4 people found this helpful

Interesting story, wrong reader

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. An interesting examination of Victorian England and the multiple assassination attempts against Victoria but it suffers a bit from the narration.

What didn’t you like about Mark Whitten’s performance?

Jarring mispronunciations and accents/acting. Whitten's voice is pleasant enough but this particular audiobook probably would have benefited from an English reader.

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5 people found this helpful

Thorough Account of the 7 Attempts

This was an interesting book about the seven attempts on Queen Victoria's life and how they affected her and changed her kingdom. It is of note that each attempt strengthened her popularity and led to changes in the laws and policing of the era. Bios of the seven are included, as well as the state of the nation and monarchy at the time of the attempts. Major events of the Queen's life are covered as well. The research on this book is incredible, it really gives a feel for the era. I read this book using immersion reading, while listening to the audio book version. Narration was rote, bland and dull. The attempts to read portions in a British accent were sad as well. A British narrator should have been chosen.

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Assassination attemps on Queen Victoria

I found this a fascinating book. Murphy goes into detail about each of the eight people that attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria. He also covers some detail about Queen Victoria and her family that helped to create a picture of that period in time. Each of the men that that attempted the assassination were found to be mentally ill. I discovered a pearl of information I was unaware of, Daniel McNaughton was one of the men (he also tried to Kill the P.M. Peel) and he was acquitted in 1843. The first man was tried and executed under the High Treason Law the next also acted like the first and reveled in the attention he was paid. The government then tried to find a way of dealing with the mentally ill so they would not get the attention they craved and not be changed with treason. Everyone was unhappy with how McNaughton was handled. So Queen Victoria and her counsel posed a series of hypothetical questions about the deference of insanity defenses to a panel of Judges. The result from the Judges became known as the McNaughton Rule and is still used today throughout the commonwealth and the USA. It is the standard test for criminal liability in relation to mental disorders. It is also a shame that in 173 year plus we not improved the mental disease problems related to crime or the care and treatment. The book was well research but did ramble a bit in the middle of the book. Mark Whitten did an acceptable job narrating the book. I think a British narrator would have been more appropriate choice to have narrated the book. Overall I learned a great deal from the book. If you are interested in history this is a book for you.

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4 people found this helpful

Fantastic true thriller.

This is one of the best books I have listened to. I knew nothing of the attempts on Victoria's life and their effect on her reign: the first one rescued it. The relationship between the Queen, Albert, the court and the police and how these attempts helped to modernize the police force and establish Albert's place in England are well researched and described .A really good detective story taken from records of the time.
That said I wish I had read it.

The narrator is not English and went to no effort to do his homework regarding speech patterns. Victoria was raised by her German mother and a German confident. (Albert hardly spoke English when he first married Victoria). The Upper class accents are ridiculous and if he had done some preparation he would have known the correct pronunciation and emphasis for a multitude of names places and things. An L is a pound an S is a shilling ,a d is a penny. Lazy and irritating ;however the narrator's voice is clear and his speech is fluent with no unnecessary histrionics.

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2 people found this helpful

History at its finest and most accessible.

Have you listened to any of Mark Whitten’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator was one of the best I've heard. He was respectful of the material while at the same time gave a wide range of persons unique voices and personalities. His narration was excellent work.

Any additional comments?

Fascinating, informative, and entertaining. Assassins tried seven times to harm Queen Victoria. Each time, she turned their efforts into an opportunity to transform the British monarchy from the discredited shell she inherited into the institution it is today. Assassinations sound grim, but “Shooting Victoria” is a delightful and deeply researched history of the Victorian era that offers insights into a surprising range of topics, from corn laws to insanity law to treason law to politics to the royal household to Albert to Jumbo the elephant and far too much more to name. Highly recommended.

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