
The School of Night
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Robert Petkoff
-
By:
-
Louis Bayard
About this listen
From Louis Bayard, an ancient mystery, a lost letter, and a timeless love unleash a long-buried web of intrigue that spans four centuries
In the late sixteenth century, five brilliant scholars gather under the cloak of darkness to discuss God, politics, astronomy, and the black arts. Known as the School of Night, they meet in secret to avoid the wrath of Queen Elizabeth. But one of the men, Thomas Harriot, has secrets of his own, secrets he shares with one person only: the servant woman he loves.
In modern-day Washington, D.C., disgraced Elizabethan scholar Henry Cavendish has been hired by the ruthless antiquities collector Bernard Styles to find a missing letter. The letter dates from the 1600s and was stolen by Henry's close friend, Alonzo Wax. Now Wax is dead and Styles wants the letter back.
But the letter is an object of interest to others, too. It may be the clue to a hidden treasure; it may contain the long-sought formula for alchemy; it most certainly will prove the existence of the group of men whom Shakespeare dubbed the School of Night but about whom little is known. Joining Henry in his search for the letter is Clarissa Dale, a mysterious woman who suffers from visions that only Henry can understand. In short order, Henry finds himself stumbling through a secretive world of ancient perils, caught up in a deadly plot, and ensnared in the tragic legacy of a forgotten genius.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
-
-
Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
-
The Black Tower
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Hector Carpentier leads a very quiet life, until he meets legendary police officer Vidocq, who has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance and his extensive knowledge of the Parisian underworld to capture some of the most notorious and elusive criminals.
-
-
Good but not Great
- By Listener on 10-19-09
By: Louis Bayard
-
Courting Mr. Lincoln
- A Novel
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mary Todd meets Abraham Lincoln in Springfield in the winter of 1840, he is on no one's shortlist to be president. Rough and reticent, he's a country lawyer lacking money and manners, living above a dry goods shop, but with a gift for oratory. Mary, a quick, self-possessed debutante with a tireless interest in debates and elections, at first finds him an enigma. "I can only hope," she tells his roommate, the handsome, charming Joshua Speed, "that his waters being so very still, they also run deep."
-
-
Very Entertaining
- By Deborah on 05-22-19
By: Louis Bayard
-
The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
-
-
Great buildup to nowhere
- By Nifty Hokie15 on 04-03-18
-
Odd Thomas
- You Are Destined to Be Together Forever
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amid the dizzying rides, tantalizing games of chance, and fanciful attractions of a state fair, two teenage sweethearts on the cusp of life and love's pleasures find their way to a shadowy carnival tent brimming with curiosities. There, from the bizarre and enthralling Gypsy Mummy, a mechanized merchant of dreams and prognosticator of tomorrows, the young couple learns what fate promises for them. But fate, for Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn, is something altogether different: full of dark corners, sharp edges, and things no seer or soothsayer could ever anticipate.
-
-
A nice little prequel!Not a whole book.Just right!
- By Stephanie S Briggs on 11-19-18
By: Dean Koontz
-
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (Dramatized Adaptation)
- By: Drew Hayes
- Narrated by: full cast, Christopher Walker, Nora Achrati, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some people are born boring. Some live boring. Some even die boring. Fred managed to do all three, and when he woke up as a vampire, he did so as a boring one. Timid, socially awkward, and plagued by self-esteem issues, Fred has never been the adventurous sort. One fateful night, Fred reconnects with an old friend at his high school reunion. This rekindled relationship sets off a chain of events thrusting him right into the chaos that is the parahuman world.
-
-
No Kirby means No Fred
- By Rubin S. Bashir on 01-04-21
By: Drew Hayes
-
The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
-
-
Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
-
The Black Tower
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Hector Carpentier leads a very quiet life, until he meets legendary police officer Vidocq, who has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance and his extensive knowledge of the Parisian underworld to capture some of the most notorious and elusive criminals.
-
-
Good but not Great
- By Listener on 10-19-09
By: Louis Bayard
-
Courting Mr. Lincoln
- A Novel
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mary Todd meets Abraham Lincoln in Springfield in the winter of 1840, he is on no one's shortlist to be president. Rough and reticent, he's a country lawyer lacking money and manners, living above a dry goods shop, but with a gift for oratory. Mary, a quick, self-possessed debutante with a tireless interest in debates and elections, at first finds him an enigma. "I can only hope," she tells his roommate, the handsome, charming Joshua Speed, "that his waters being so very still, they also run deep."
-
-
Very Entertaining
- By Deborah on 05-22-19
By: Louis Bayard
-
The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
-
-
Great buildup to nowhere
- By Nifty Hokie15 on 04-03-18
-
Odd Thomas
- You Are Destined to Be Together Forever
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amid the dizzying rides, tantalizing games of chance, and fanciful attractions of a state fair, two teenage sweethearts on the cusp of life and love's pleasures find their way to a shadowy carnival tent brimming with curiosities. There, from the bizarre and enthralling Gypsy Mummy, a mechanized merchant of dreams and prognosticator of tomorrows, the young couple learns what fate promises for them. But fate, for Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn, is something altogether different: full of dark corners, sharp edges, and things no seer or soothsayer could ever anticipate.
-
-
A nice little prequel!Not a whole book.Just right!
- By Stephanie S Briggs on 11-19-18
By: Dean Koontz
-
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (Dramatized Adaptation)
- By: Drew Hayes
- Narrated by: full cast, Christopher Walker, Nora Achrati, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some people are born boring. Some live boring. Some even die boring. Fred managed to do all three, and when he woke up as a vampire, he did so as a boring one. Timid, socially awkward, and plagued by self-esteem issues, Fred has never been the adventurous sort. One fateful night, Fred reconnects with an old friend at his high school reunion. This rekindled relationship sets off a chain of events thrusting him right into the chaos that is the parahuman world.
-
-
No Kirby means No Fred
- By Rubin S. Bashir on 01-04-21
By: Drew Hayes
-
The Devil Aspect
- A Novel
- By: Craig Russell
- Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Czechoslovakia, 1935: Viktor Kosárek, a newly trained psychiatrist who studied under Carl Jung, arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The facility is located in a medieval mountaintop castle surrounded by forests, on a site that is well known for concealing dark secrets going back many centuries. The asylum houses six inmates - the country's most treacherous killers - known to the terrified public as the Devil's Six. Viktor intends to use a new medical technique to prove that these patients share a common archetype of evil, a phenomenon he calls The Devil Aspect.
-
-
ACTUALLY KEPT MY INTEREST THROUGHOUT!
- By Summer G on 12-15-20
By: Craig Russell
-
My Name Is Lucy Barton (Dramatic Production)
- By: Elizabeth Strout, Rona Munro
- Narrated by: Laura Linney
- Length: 1 hr and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Praised as "deeply affecting" and "heartbreaking" by The Guardian (UK), this is a faithful adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout's best-selling novel of the same name. Unsteady after an operation, Lucy Barton wakes to find her mother sitting at the foot of her bed. She hasn't seen her in years, and her visit brings back to Lucy her desperate rural childhood, and her escape to New York. As she begins to find herself as a writer, she is still gripped by the urgent complexities of family life.
-
-
Great actress- No story
- By Richard M. on 04-02-21
By: Elizabeth Strout, and others
-
The Name of the Rose
- By: Umberto Eco, William Weaver - translator
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett, Neville Jason, Nicholas Rowe
- Length: 21 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. But his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths that take place in seven days and nights of apocalyptic terror. Brother William turns detective, and a uniquely deft one at that. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon-- all sharpened to a glistening edge by his wry humor and ferocious curiosity.
-
-
The meaning of the mystery & mystery of meaning
- By Ryan on 02-14-14
By: Umberto Eco, and others
-
The Word Is Murder
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Rory Kinnear
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty brilliantly reinvents the classic crime novel once again with this clever and inventive mystery starring a fictional version of the author himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes, investigating a case involving buried secrets, murder, and a trail of bloody clues.
-
-
Something New
- By Alice on 06-26-18
By: Anthony Horowitz
-
A Discovery of Witches
- A Novel
- By: Deborah Harkness
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 23 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
-
-
A feast for the mind and imagination
- By Barbara on 02-21-11
By: Deborah Harkness
-
People of the Book
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Edwina Wren
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.
-
-
Amazing, fabulous, wonderful!!!
- By Yvette on 03-13-09
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Speaks the Nightbird
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 30 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies -- and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Issac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal....
-
-
Dark, Twisted Period Piece with GREAT Characters!
- By aaron on 06-05-12
-
Rogues
- By: Neil Gaiman - contributor, George R. R. Martin - editor, Gillian Flynn - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Janis Ian, Gwendoline Christie, Roy Dotrice, and others
- Length: 31 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you’re a fan of fiction that is more than just black and white, this latest story collection from number-one New York Times best-selling author George R. R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois is filled with subtle shades of gray. Twenty-one all-original stories, by an all-star list of contributors, will delight and astonish you in equal measure with their cunning twists and dazzling reversals. And George R. R. Martin himself offers a brand-new A Game of Thrones tale chronicling one of the biggest rogues in the entire history of Ice and Fire.
-
-
A fun way to sample Authors- More Rothfuss Please!
- By gc on 08-31-14
By: Neil Gaiman - contributor, and others
-
The Glass Ocean
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century - two deep in the past, one in the present - to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.... Her finances are in dire straits, and best-selling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history.
-
-
I enjoyed this book, at least most of it.
- By Kevin Greaser on 10-02-18
By: Beatriz Williams, and others
-
Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
-
-
Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
-
The Book of Cthulhu
- Tales Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft
- By: Ross E. Lockhart - editor
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper, Teresa DeBerry
- Length: 27 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the 20th century's most singularly recognizable literary creations. Initially created by H. P. Lovecraft and a group of his amorphous contemporaries (the so-called "Lovecraft Circle"), The Cthulhu Mythos story cycle has taken on a convoluted, cyclopean life of its own. Some of the most prodigious writers of the 20th century, and some of the most astounding writers of the 21st century have planted their seeds in this fertile soil. The Book of Cthulhu harvests the weirdest and most corpulent crop of these modern mythos tales.
-
-
Improves on Lovecraft, believe it or not
- By bookgurl on 04-29-14
-
The Unseen
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Webb
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A vicar with a passion for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.
-
-
Great book!
- By Dana on 09-03-12
By: Katherine Webb
Editorial reviews
In The School of Night, author Louis Bayard weaves together two stories with similar themes love, death, and the search for something of value but very different characters and settings: Elizabethan scholar Henry Cavendish in present-day Washington, D.C., and scientist Thomas Harriot in London during the reign of King James I. While the two men trade off narration duties, reader Robert Petkoff brings both Henry and Thomas and all of their associates into brilliant focus.
After Henry’s friend Alonzo Wax commits suicide, a collector asks Henry to help him retrieve an antique letter that was in Wax’s possession. The letter could break open the secrets of the ancient School of Night, a hush-hush meeting of the minds that allowed scholars to discuss religion, politics, and other taboo subjects without the Court discovering them, and could also lead to a long-lost buried treasure. Henry agrees to help, and finds himself in cahoots with Clarissa Dale another one of Alonzo’s friends who has been having visions that may be connected to the mysterious School. In the parallel story, Thomas (one of the members of the School of Night) is falling in love with his servant girl, a young woman with a passion for alchemy, while the plague makes its way steadily toward London.
Petkoff creates two distinct narrators for the book, giving both Henry and Thomas their own careful accents, emotional depth, and individual personalities, while illustrating the emotions that remain a constant from generation to generation love, ambition, fear, and grief. And while the story’s twists and turns don’t always come as a shock, it’s Petkoff’s expert performance that allows the intrigue and drama to span several centuries and bring the story to its emotional ending. Blythe Copeland
Critic reviews
“Fascinating…A few codes and cryptograms are all you need to get caught up in an enigmatic mystery like The School of Night.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Exhilarating…Bayard adds twist after satisfying twist... At its heart, The School of Night illuminates a glimpse into legend, assuring readers that this ancient classroom offered a curriculum heavy on secrets.” —The Washington Post
“Rich and rewarding...Mr. Bayard writes seamless prose and conjures the past with credibility.” —The Wall Street Journal
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
-
-
Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
-
The Black Tower
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Hector Carpentier leads a very quiet life, until he meets legendary police officer Vidocq, who has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance and his extensive knowledge of the Parisian underworld to capture some of the most notorious and elusive criminals.
-
-
Good but not Great
- By Listener on 10-19-09
By: Louis Bayard
-
Mr. Timothy
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the Christmas season, and Mr. Timothy Cratchit, not the pious child the world thought he was, has just buried his father. He's also struggling to bury his past as a cripple and shed his financial ties to his benevolent "Uncle" Ebenezer by losing himself in the thick of London's underbelly. He boards at a brothel in exchange for teaching the mistress how to read and spends his nights dredging the Thames for dead bodies and the treasures in their pockets.
-
-
New Favorite!!
- By rhonda kizer on 01-17-23
By: Louis Bayard
-
Courting Mr. Lincoln
- A Novel
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mary Todd meets Abraham Lincoln in Springfield in the winter of 1840, he is on no one's shortlist to be president. Rough and reticent, he's a country lawyer lacking money and manners, living above a dry goods shop, but with a gift for oratory. Mary, a quick, self-possessed debutante with a tireless interest in debates and elections, at first finds him an enigma. "I can only hope," she tells his roommate, the handsome, charming Joshua Speed, "that his waters being so very still, they also run deep."
-
-
Very Entertaining
- By Deborah on 05-22-19
By: Louis Bayard
-
Roosevelt's Beast
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1914: Brazil's Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Plagued by hunger and suffering the lingering effects of malaria, Theodore Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and the other members of the now-ravaged Roosevelt-Rondon scientific expedition are traveling deeper and deeper into the jungle. When Kermit and Teddy are kidnapped by a never-before-seen Amazonian tribe, the great hunters are asked one thing in exchange for their freedom: Find and kill a beast that leaves no tracks and that no member of the tribe has ever seen. But what are the origins of this beast, and how do they escape its brutal wrath?
-
-
Made me dislike the former Pres
- By Dave on 04-03-15
By: Louis Bayard
-
Jackie & Me
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Sean Rohani
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1951, former debutante Jacqueline Bouvier is hard at work as the Inquiring Camera Girl for a Washington newspaper. Her mission in life is “not to be a housewife,” but when she meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy at a Georgetown party, her resolution begins to falter. Soon the two are flirting over secret phone calls, cocktails, and dinner dates, and as Jackie is drawn deeper into the Kennedy orbit, and as Jack himself grows increasingly elusive and absent, she begins to question what life at his side would mean.
-
-
Narration Terrible
- By Peggy T on 06-15-22
By: Louis Bayard
-
The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
-
-
Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
-
The Black Tower
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Hector Carpentier leads a very quiet life, until he meets legendary police officer Vidocq, who has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance and his extensive knowledge of the Parisian underworld to capture some of the most notorious and elusive criminals.
-
-
Good but not Great
- By Listener on 10-19-09
By: Louis Bayard
-
Mr. Timothy
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the Christmas season, and Mr. Timothy Cratchit, not the pious child the world thought he was, has just buried his father. He's also struggling to bury his past as a cripple and shed his financial ties to his benevolent "Uncle" Ebenezer by losing himself in the thick of London's underbelly. He boards at a brothel in exchange for teaching the mistress how to read and spends his nights dredging the Thames for dead bodies and the treasures in their pockets.
-
-
New Favorite!!
- By rhonda kizer on 01-17-23
By: Louis Bayard
-
Courting Mr. Lincoln
- A Novel
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Robert Fass, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mary Todd meets Abraham Lincoln in Springfield in the winter of 1840, he is on no one's shortlist to be president. Rough and reticent, he's a country lawyer lacking money and manners, living above a dry goods shop, but with a gift for oratory. Mary, a quick, self-possessed debutante with a tireless interest in debates and elections, at first finds him an enigma. "I can only hope," she tells his roommate, the handsome, charming Joshua Speed, "that his waters being so very still, they also run deep."
-
-
Very Entertaining
- By Deborah on 05-22-19
By: Louis Bayard
-
Roosevelt's Beast
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1914: Brazil's Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Plagued by hunger and suffering the lingering effects of malaria, Theodore Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and the other members of the now-ravaged Roosevelt-Rondon scientific expedition are traveling deeper and deeper into the jungle. When Kermit and Teddy are kidnapped by a never-before-seen Amazonian tribe, the great hunters are asked one thing in exchange for their freedom: Find and kill a beast that leaves no tracks and that no member of the tribe has ever seen. But what are the origins of this beast, and how do they escape its brutal wrath?
-
-
Made me dislike the former Pres
- By Dave on 04-03-15
By: Louis Bayard
-
Jackie & Me
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Sean Rohani
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1951, former debutante Jacqueline Bouvier is hard at work as the Inquiring Camera Girl for a Washington newspaper. Her mission in life is “not to be a housewife,” but when she meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy at a Georgetown party, her resolution begins to falter. Soon the two are flirting over secret phone calls, cocktails, and dinner dates, and as Jackie is drawn deeper into the Kennedy orbit, and as Jack himself grows increasingly elusive and absent, she begins to question what life at his side would mean.
-
-
Narration Terrible
- By Peggy T on 06-15-22
By: Louis Bayard
What listeners say about The School of Night
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christopher Yates
- 04-18-23
Good, but not great
A bit formulaic and at times uninteresting, but enough mystery and historical flourish that it made me want to finish. Glad I did. A good story, but not great. The performance was very good. Made the characters seem more than one-dimensional.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vanessa W
- 01-28-23
Great story by an excellent author
Overall, great story that follows this author’s overall method. After reading previous books, I am always excited for the plot twist at the end
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- The Rev. Craig
- 04-10-11
Excellent 2 period piece.
Okay. I loved The Black Tower so I scooped this one up. I won't give a synopsis. I never do.
I gave the School of Night 4 stars because it has all the best of suspense thriller, yet comes up a bit short. You can't rate a book in half stars, but I'd give it 4 1/2 . The action takes place in the present day and 400 years or so in the past. The Elizabethan/Jacobean part was excellent and complete. The modern part wasn't as finished as that. The denouement needed a bit more of an episodic lead up and the ending felt contrived - it also needed more lead up. It was there, but shallow.
HOWEVER - if you liked The Black Tower or Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott you will certainly enjoy this book.
I thought it thin in the places I mentioned, but overall it is a great listen and I couldn't put it down.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Calliope
- 05-31-17
A disappointed fan
I really enjoyed the other Louis Bayard books I've listened to, but this one was a real disappointment. The story was muddied and the characters not terribly interesting.....all in all, it wasn't up to the quality that I had come to expect from Bayard given my earlier experiences.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful