The Bishop and the Butterfly Audiobook By Michael Wolraich cover art

The Bishop and the Butterfly

Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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The Bishop and the Butterfly

By: Michael Wolraich
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
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About this listen

Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names—businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else—a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Vivian Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham’s powerful political machine—the infamous Tammany Hall.

©2024 Michael Wolraich (P)2024 Dreamscape Media
Murder True Crime United States Franklin D. Roosevelt
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What listeners say about The Bishop and the Butterfly

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The narration was soooo boring

Sounds like she’s reading out of a history book. I love reading about this Era, but I found the narration tedious.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Annoying narration of a good story

Unfortunately, the female narrator spent a lot of time shouting and overdramatizing lines spoken by male characters, which predominate the book. That seemed to be her way of trying to convey their heavy handedness or power and control over the lives and misfortunes of the female characters. Instead it was simply grating and distracting. I would have enjoyed the book far more without the cheesy narration.

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32 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

History of NYC corruption in the 1920s and 1930s

The history was illuminating but the link to the murder of Vivian Gordon was attenuated. The image of Samuel S Leibowitz in this book is an interesting contrast to his image provided by Quentin Reynolds in Courtroom.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent read!

I really enjoyed hearing about New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Michael Wolraich brings that period to life as he interweaves the murder of Vivian Gordon and the corruption of Tammany Hall. I was shocked, surprised, and thoroughly entertained by this book. Definitely worth the listen!

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15 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Gripping Tale of Crime and Corruption in 1930s NYC

Wolraich's writing is vibrant and engaging. Hard to put down. Potter's narration brings all the voices to life!

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14 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Man, this book needed editing

Too many stories, too many characters, too much superfluous detail and not much of a conclusion. Little to interest anyone who’s not familiar with the history of New York. On the bright side, it could make an interesting Netflix series.

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boring

I listened for an hour and gave up...a bunch of characters with very little plot

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