Vale of Tears
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
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $22.54
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Matt Addis
-
By:
-
Sarah Hawkswood
About this listen
April, 1144. A body is found floating in Fladbury Mill leat, a man in green who has been stabbed but not robbed. The lord sheriff’s trio discover him to be an Evesham horse dealer, who has a beautiful young wife who ‘strays’. Did the wife or one of her lovers get rid of him? What is the connection with the lord of Harvington, who wed the man’s sister, and how did that lady meet her death? The trio have to work seamlessly together to unravel the thread that links seemingly disparate deaths before even more people die, and in the process keep Walkelin from the noose.
©2019 Sarah Hawkswood (P)2020 Isis Publishing LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
Servant of Death
- Bradecote and Catchpoll
- By: Sarah Hawkswood
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The much-feared and hated Eudo - the Lord Bishop of Winchester's clerk - is bludgeoned to death in Pershore Abbey and laid before the altar in the attitude of a penitent. Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him? The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the walls of the abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again....
-
-
Medieval armchair mystery
- By Marie on 08-12-17
By: Sarah Hawkswood
-
The Killings at Badger’s Drift
- Midsomer Murders Mystery, Book 1
- By: Caroline Graham
- Narrated by: John Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The village of Badger's Drift is the essence of tranquillity. But when resident and well-loved spinster Miss Simpson takes a stroll in the nearby woods, she stumbles across something she was never meant to see, and there's only one way to keep her quiet. Miss Simpson's death is not suspicious, say the villagers. But Miss Lucy Bellringer refuses to rest: her friend has been murdered. She is sure of it.
-
-
I wanted to love this series but I just don't
- By Lynch on 11-09-22
By: Caroline Graham
-
Cathedral of Bones
- Ela of Salisbury Medieval Mysteries, Book 1
- By: J. G. Lewis
- Narrated by: Madeleine Brolly
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salisbury, 1226. A young pregnant woman is found tangled in reeds in the river Avon, her identity a mystery. Grieving widow Ela Longespée is determined to succeed her husband as sheriff of Salisbury, and quickly takes charge of the investigation. She soon finds herself in the thick of a neighborhood scandal and a struggle to maintain her authority. With multiple suspects, can she identify the true killer?
-
-
eh, okay
- By Jeffrey J. on 12-20-20
By: J. G. Lewis
-
The Unquiet Bones
- By: Mel Starr
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes.
-
-
Wonderful!!!
- By AKowalczyk on 01-05-20
By: Mel Starr
-
Masked Ball at Broxley Manor
- A Royal Spyness Novella
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 1 hr and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.
-
-
Fun, light prequel
- By CMMV on 01-01-15
By: Rhys Bowen
-
The Novice’s Tale
- A Dame Frevisse Mystery, Book 1
- By: Margaret Frazer
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fair autumn of Our Lord's grace 1431, the nuns of England's St. Frideswide's prepare for the simply ceremonies in which the saintly novice Thomasine will take her holy vows. But their quiet lives of beauty and prayer are thrown into chaos by the merciless arrival of Lady Ermentrude Fenner and her retinue of lusty men, sinful women, and baying hounds. The hard-drinking dowager even keeps a pet monkey for her amusement. She demands wine, a feast.... And her niece, the angelic Thomasine.
-
-
Pleasant medieval mystery
- By Tropical Gal on 02-08-20
By: Margaret Frazer
-
Servant of Death
- Bradecote and Catchpoll
- By: Sarah Hawkswood
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The much-feared and hated Eudo - the Lord Bishop of Winchester's clerk - is bludgeoned to death in Pershore Abbey and laid before the altar in the attitude of a penitent. Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him? The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the walls of the abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again....
-
-
Medieval armchair mystery
- By Marie on 08-12-17
By: Sarah Hawkswood
-
The Killings at Badger’s Drift
- Midsomer Murders Mystery, Book 1
- By: Caroline Graham
- Narrated by: John Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The village of Badger's Drift is the essence of tranquillity. But when resident and well-loved spinster Miss Simpson takes a stroll in the nearby woods, she stumbles across something she was never meant to see, and there's only one way to keep her quiet. Miss Simpson's death is not suspicious, say the villagers. But Miss Lucy Bellringer refuses to rest: her friend has been murdered. She is sure of it.
-
-
I wanted to love this series but I just don't
- By Lynch on 11-09-22
By: Caroline Graham
-
Cathedral of Bones
- Ela of Salisbury Medieval Mysteries, Book 1
- By: J. G. Lewis
- Narrated by: Madeleine Brolly
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salisbury, 1226. A young pregnant woman is found tangled in reeds in the river Avon, her identity a mystery. Grieving widow Ela Longespée is determined to succeed her husband as sheriff of Salisbury, and quickly takes charge of the investigation. She soon finds herself in the thick of a neighborhood scandal and a struggle to maintain her authority. With multiple suspects, can she identify the true killer?
-
-
eh, okay
- By Jeffrey J. on 12-20-20
By: J. G. Lewis
-
The Unquiet Bones
- By: Mel Starr
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes.
-
-
Wonderful!!!
- By AKowalczyk on 01-05-20
By: Mel Starr
-
Masked Ball at Broxley Manor
- A Royal Spyness Novella
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 1 hr and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.
-
-
Fun, light prequel
- By CMMV on 01-01-15
By: Rhys Bowen
-
The Novice’s Tale
- A Dame Frevisse Mystery, Book 1
- By: Margaret Frazer
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fair autumn of Our Lord's grace 1431, the nuns of England's St. Frideswide's prepare for the simply ceremonies in which the saintly novice Thomasine will take her holy vows. But their quiet lives of beauty and prayer are thrown into chaos by the merciless arrival of Lady Ermentrude Fenner and her retinue of lusty men, sinful women, and baying hounds. The hard-drinking dowager even keeps a pet monkey for her amusement. She demands wine, a feast.... And her niece, the angelic Thomasine.
-
-
Pleasant medieval mystery
- By Tropical Gal on 02-08-20
By: Margaret Frazer
-
The Wolves of Savernake
- Domesday, Book 1
- By: Edward Marston
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ralph Delchard, a soldier who fought at the Battle of Hastings, and Gervase Bret, a talented lawyer, have been commissioned by William the Conqueror to look into irregularities brought to light during the compilation of the Domesday Book. A man’s body is found mutilated in Savernake Forest and the residents of Bedwyn sleep uneasy at night, fearing a monster stalking the town. When Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret arrive, they discover that the locals are harbouring dark secrets and that the real killer may be a little closer to home....
-
-
Starts slow but worth it in the end
- By CLS on 01-26-22
By: Edward Marston
-
A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller
- DCI Logan Crime Thrillers, Book 1
- By: JD Kirk
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Was the biggest case of his career the worst mistake he ever made? Ten years ago, DCI Jack Logan stopped the serial child-killer dubbed "Mister Whisper", earning himself a commendation, a drinking problem, and a broken marriage in the process...When another child disappears a hundred miles north in the Highlands, Jack is sent to lead the investigation and bring the boy home. But as similarities between the two cases grow, could it be that Jack caught the wrong man all those years ago?
-
-
High hopes dashed: not just a little bit of child and animal torture
- By greyhound on 07-01-20
By: JD Kirk
-
A Plague on Both Your Houses
- The First Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
- By: Susanna Gregory
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matthew Bartholomew, unorthodox but effective physician to Michaelhouse college in medieval Cambridge, is as worried as anyone about the pestilence that is ravaging Europe and seems to be approaching England. But he is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated.
-
-
I should have loved this book.
- By J. Miller on 09-11-19
By: Susanna Gregory
-
Grimm Up North
- A DCI Harry Grimm Crime Novel
- By: David J. Gatward
- Narrated by: Aubrey Parsons
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Chief Inspector Harry Grimm is forced to take leave from Bristol’s Major Investigations Team when his boss, tired of Harry chasing the ghost of his murderous father, sends him north on secondment. Used to city life and high stress, Harry fears his life will now be spent handing out speeding tickets, finding lost sheep, and directing tourists. But when a local teenager runs away, Harry finds himself pulled into an investigation much worse than anyone could have ever expected.
-
-
An enthralling and entertaining new mystery series
- By DianaInSC on 03-15-21
By: David J. Gatward
-
An Accidental Death
- A DC Smith Investigation Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Grainger
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story opens with the apparently accidental drowning of a sixth form student in the Norfolk countryside. As a matter of routine, or so it seems, the case passes across the desk of Detective Sergeant Smith, recently returned to work after an internal investigation into another case that has led to tensions between officers at Kings Lake police headquarters. As an ex-DCI, Smith could have retired by now, and it is clear that some of his superiors wish that he would do so.
-
-
Excellent British Mystery
- By Customer on 09-07-16
By: Peter Grainger
-
Murder at Little Minton
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin, Zoe Markham
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Busby helped Major Heathcliff Lennox solve a series of murders at Bloxford in the Cotswolds. Now, she finds herself drawn into a new murder, but this time, it's just her, and she must rely on her sharp mind and sharper wits to catch a Cotswolds killer, along with a handsome police inspector and a reporter who's keen to make her mark.
-
-
I Really Tried
- By Stephanie Lannan on 09-21-23
By: Karen Baugh Menuhin, and others
-
The Body in the Marsh
- DCI Craig Gillard, Book 1
- By: Nick Louth
- Narrated by: Marston York
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Criminologist Martin Knight lives a gilded life and is a thorn in the side of the police. But then his wife, Liz, goes missing. There is no good explanation and no sign of Martin.... To make things worse, Liz is the ex-girlfriend of DCI Craig Gillard who is drawn into the investigation. Is it just a missing person or something worse? And what relevance do the events around the shocking Girl F case, so taken up by Knight, have to do with the present? The truth is darker than you could ever have imagined.
-
-
Exceptional
- By Miriam Sabir on 10-28-18
By: Nick Louth
-
The Bard's Daughter
- A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery
- By: Sarah Woodbury
- Narrated by: Tom Mumford
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a bard's daughter, Gwen has spent her life traveling from castle to castle and village to village with her family, following the music. In the winter of 1141, Gwen's family is contracted to provide the entertainment for the coming-of-age celebration of a lord's son. But before the celebration can begin, Gwen's father is found over the body of his friend, with a harp string as the murder weapon and blood on his hands. With the lord of the castle uninterested in finding the true killer, it is up to Gwen to clear her father's name before her father's music is silenced...forever.
By: Sarah Woodbury
-
Murder on Black Swan Lane
- By: Andrea Penrose
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Earl of Wrexford possesses a brilliant scientific mind, but boredom and pride lead him to reckless behavior. He does not suffer fools gladly. So when pompous, pious Reverend Josiah Holworthy publicly condemns him for debauchery, Wrexford unsheathes his rapier-sharp wit and strikes back. As their war of words escalates, London's most popular satirical cartoonist, A. J. Quill, skewers them both.
-
-
Tedious
- By Kathi on 10-02-17
By: Andrea Penrose
-
Murder on Thames
- Cherringham. A Cosy Crime Series - Mystery Shorts 1
- By: Neil Richards, Matthew Costello
- Narrated by: Neil Dudgeon
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cherringham - a quiet town in the Cotswolds. Nothing ever happens there, or so it seems - until one morning a woman's body is found in the river. A terrible accident, according to the police. But is this true? Sarah believes there must be more to it. In Jack, a former NYPD homicide detective, she finds a partner who is willing to start investigating with her. They soon find out that things are not as clear as the police want them to be ... This first - of many cases brings Sarah and Jack together in an unlikely partnership.
-
-
Easy listen
- By Teddie on 06-08-19
By: Neil Richards, and others
-
The King's Justice
- A Stanton and Barling Mystery, Book 1
- By: E. M. Powell
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1176. Aelred Barling, esteemed clerk to the justices of King Henry II, is dispatched from the royal court with his young assistant, Hugo Stanton, to investigate a brutal murder in a village outside York. The case appears straightforward. A suspect is under lock and key in the local prison, and the angry villagers are demanding swift justice. But when more bodies are discovered, certainty turns to doubt - and amid the chaos it becomes clear that nobody is above suspicion.
-
-
Ok. But hard to invest in.
- By Amazon Customer on 06-05-19
By: E. M. Powell
-
Season of the Raven
- A Servant of the Crown Mystery, Book 1
- By: Denise Domning
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1194, and Sir Faucon de Ramis, the shire's newly appointed keeper of the pleas, must do his duty and make an official declaration of the cause of a miller's death. Saddled with a clerk who names Faucon his "penance", the shire's first crowner must thread the tangled relationships between the sheriff, the village of Priors Holston, and the priory that once ruled it. As a simple task takes a turn to the political, what seems obvious isn't, and what appears safe turns out to be more dangerous than he could imagine.
-
-
If you like Brother Cadfael you will like this
- By AmiiraC on 03-20-19
By: Denise Domning
Related to this topic
-
Servant of Death
- Bradecote and Catchpoll
- By: Sarah Hawkswood
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The much-feared and hated Eudo - the Lord Bishop of Winchester's clerk - is bludgeoned to death in Pershore Abbey and laid before the altar in the attitude of a penitent. Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him? The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the walls of the abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again....
-
-
Medieval armchair mystery
- By Marie on 08-12-17
By: Sarah Hawkswood
-
A Morbid Taste for Bones
- By: Ellis Peters
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cadfael's return to his Welsh homeland for a visit proves a rather discomfiting homecoming when an honorable nobleman turns up in a patch of forest with an arrow embedded in his chest. There are questions about the arrow, the man's daughter needs Cadfael's help, and a very odd burial takes place.
-
-
Very pleasant if not much of a mystery.
- By Zenjen on 04-15-10
By: Ellis Peters
-
The Rough Collier
- Gil Cunningham Mysteries
- By: Pat McIntosh
- Narrated by: Andrew Watson
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the peat-cutters came to report the dead man, Gil Cunningham was up in the roof-space of his mother's house, teaching his new young wife swordplay. They believe the corpse to be that of a local missing man. His wife and the widow who runs the local coalmine are sure the body belongs to someone else, but then they find themselves accused of having killed him by witchcraft. And if the corpse is not the missing man, who is it? Gil and Alys try to get to the heart of the matter.
-
-
Enjoyable Historical Mystery
- By Marie on 06-15-13
By: Pat McIntosh
-
The Stolen Voice
- Gil Cunningham Mysteries
- By: Pat McIntosh
- Narrated by: Andrew Watson
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“And you are telling me,” said Gil Cunningham, “that David Drummond vanished away forty years ago and is now returned, seemingly not a day older?” “That’s about the sum of it,” agreed Sir William Stewart. In Sir William’s remote part of Scotland it seems almost possible that a young boy could have been stolen away by the fairies and returned forty years later, no older – and if he isn’t Davie Drummond, who is he? And then he suffers a succession of near-fatal ‘accidents’.
-
-
Disregard those treacly, earnest covers.
- By Paul Sullivan on 07-02-17
By: Pat McIntosh
-
The Unquiet Bones
- By: Mel Starr
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes.
-
-
Wonderful!!!
- By AKowalczyk on 01-05-20
By: Mel Starr
-
A Vision of Light
- A Margaret of Ashbury Novel, Book 1
- By: Judith Merkle Riley
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margaret of Ashbury wants to write her life story. However, like most women in 14th-century England, she is illiterate. Three clerics contemptuously decline to be Margaret’s scribe, and only the threat of starvation persuades Brother Gregory, a Carthusian friar with a mysterious past, to take on the task. As she narrates her life, we discover a woman of startling resourcefulness.
-
-
Old fashioned heroine
- By Margaret on 06-22-13
-
Servant of Death
- Bradecote and Catchpoll
- By: Sarah Hawkswood
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The much-feared and hated Eudo - the Lord Bishop of Winchester's clerk - is bludgeoned to death in Pershore Abbey and laid before the altar in the attitude of a penitent. Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him? The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the walls of the abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again....
-
-
Medieval armchair mystery
- By Marie on 08-12-17
By: Sarah Hawkswood
-
A Morbid Taste for Bones
- By: Ellis Peters
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cadfael's return to his Welsh homeland for a visit proves a rather discomfiting homecoming when an honorable nobleman turns up in a patch of forest with an arrow embedded in his chest. There are questions about the arrow, the man's daughter needs Cadfael's help, and a very odd burial takes place.
-
-
Very pleasant if not much of a mystery.
- By Zenjen on 04-15-10
By: Ellis Peters
-
The Rough Collier
- Gil Cunningham Mysteries
- By: Pat McIntosh
- Narrated by: Andrew Watson
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the peat-cutters came to report the dead man, Gil Cunningham was up in the roof-space of his mother's house, teaching his new young wife swordplay. They believe the corpse to be that of a local missing man. His wife and the widow who runs the local coalmine are sure the body belongs to someone else, but then they find themselves accused of having killed him by witchcraft. And if the corpse is not the missing man, who is it? Gil and Alys try to get to the heart of the matter.
-
-
Enjoyable Historical Mystery
- By Marie on 06-15-13
By: Pat McIntosh
-
The Stolen Voice
- Gil Cunningham Mysteries
- By: Pat McIntosh
- Narrated by: Andrew Watson
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“And you are telling me,” said Gil Cunningham, “that David Drummond vanished away forty years ago and is now returned, seemingly not a day older?” “That’s about the sum of it,” agreed Sir William Stewart. In Sir William’s remote part of Scotland it seems almost possible that a young boy could have been stolen away by the fairies and returned forty years later, no older – and if he isn’t Davie Drummond, who is he? And then he suffers a succession of near-fatal ‘accidents’.
-
-
Disregard those treacly, earnest covers.
- By Paul Sullivan on 07-02-17
By: Pat McIntosh
-
The Unquiet Bones
- By: Mel Starr
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes.
-
-
Wonderful!!!
- By AKowalczyk on 01-05-20
By: Mel Starr
-
A Vision of Light
- A Margaret of Ashbury Novel, Book 1
- By: Judith Merkle Riley
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margaret of Ashbury wants to write her life story. However, like most women in 14th-century England, she is illiterate. Three clerics contemptuously decline to be Margaret’s scribe, and only the threat of starvation persuades Brother Gregory, a Carthusian friar with a mysterious past, to take on the task. As she narrates her life, we discover a woman of startling resourcefulness.
-
-
Old fashioned heroine
- By Margaret on 06-22-13
-
Death and the Maiden
- Mistress of the Art of Death
- By: Samantha Norman, Ariana Franklin
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England. 1191. After the death of her friend and patron, King Henry II, Adelia Aguilar, England's vaunted Mistress of the Art of Death, is living comfortably in retirement and training her daughter, Allie, to carry on her craft—sharing the practical knowledge of anatomy, forensics, and sleuthing that catches murderers. Allie is already a skilled healer, with a particular gift for treating animals. But the young woman is nearly twenty, and her father, Rowley, Bishop of Saint Albans, and his patron, the Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, have plans to marry Allie to an influential husband.
-
-
Wanted to love it
- By Jeffrey J. on 02-15-21
By: Samantha Norman, and others
-
The Black Rose
- By: Thomas B. Costain
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of an English peer, is forced to flee from Oxford for his part in the university riots of 1273. Inspired by Friar Bacon, he determines to travel to China. With his friend Tristam, he fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol Empire and returns famous, to find that he must choose between the first love he thought lost and the exotic flower that he found in the East.
-
-
Great Book
- By Jean on 03-09-13
-
A Mortal Bane
- By: Roberta Gellis
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Magdalene la Batarde is the madam of the Old Priory Guesthouse in Southwark. She and her women are expected to engage in a number of sinful activities, but bloody murder isn't one of them until Baldassare, the messenger, dies. Though Baldassare isn't a regular client of the Old Priory Guesthouse, Magdalene and her women refuse to allow his death to go unavenged. Of course, their efforts aren't completely altruistic.
-
-
Delightful
- By Jim on 08-25-05
By: Roberta Gellis
-
The Innocent
- By: Bertrice Small
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deceptively fragile-looking, Eleanore of Ashlin had promised her life to God...until fate intervened. With her brother's untimely death, Eleanore - known as Elf to those who love her - becomes the heiress of an estate vital to England's defenses. She is ordered by royal command to wed one of the king's knights rather than take her final vows. With resistant heart, but ever obedient to King Stephen's will, she complies.
-
-
Well written!
- By CHW on 03-06-21
By: Bertrice Small
-
A Plague of Heretics
- By: Bernard Knight
- Narrated by: Paul Matthews
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following a series of murders which appear to be linked to a revival of heresy, some of the cathedral canons begin a crusade against this danger to the Church. When Sir John is accused of being too sympathetic to the heretics, the coroner finds himself having to seek sanctuary in order to save his own life. Can he survive long enough to unmask the real killer?
-
-
A Fond Farewell to Crowner John
- By Marie on 09-07-13
By: Bernard Knight
-
Master of Desire
- Brotherhood/MacAllister Series, Book 1
- By: Kinley MacGregor
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beautiful Lady Emily dreams of the rapture of love and the joys of marriage. The youngest daughter of an English lord at war, she is shaken by the arrival of a mysterious stranger to her father's castle. Could this breathtaking man be Emily's yearned-for lover? Indeed, Draven de Montague, earl of Ravenswood, has come for Emily...but romance has nothing to do with it.
-
-
I enjoyed the story
- By Cielle on 02-14-21
By: Kinley MacGregor
-
The Outlaws of Sherwood
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian - and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian.
-
-
A great story paired with the wrong narrator
- By Gail N. on 11-01-19
By: Robin McKinley
-
The Road to Jerusalem
- Crusades Trilogy Series, Book 1
- By: Jan Guillou
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in 1150 to a noble Swedish family and coming of age at a monastery under the tutelage of a Cistercian monk and a former Knight Templar, young Arn Magnusson is sent to fulfill his destiny beyond the cloister walls. But the world awaiting him is a place at odds with his monastic ways. And when the murder of a king engulfs Western Götaland into a whirlwind of intrigue and ruthless power plays, headstrong and naive Arn is forced to leave the woman he loves behind and take up arms to battle infidels in the Holy Land.
-
-
Went looking for trashy historical fiction...
- By Anonymous User on 02-01-22
By: Jan Guillou
-
Dragon's Child
- The King Arthur Trilogy, Book 1
- By: M. K. Hume
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The future of Britain is at stake. In the turbulent times of the Dark Ages, the despotic Uther Pendragon, High King of Celtic Britain, is nearing death, and his kingdom is being torn apart by the squabbling of minor kings. But only one man can bring the Celts together as a nation and restore peace - King Arthur. Artorex (Arthur) doesn't yet seem like the great man he will grow into. We meet him as a shy, subservient twelve-year-old living in the foster home of Lord Ector, who took in Artorex as a babe to protect him from murderous kin.
-
-
A Dry, Dull Tale, Marred in "Realism"
- By Steven on 09-21-15
By: M. K. Hume
-
A Brightness Long Ago
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count - and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.
-
-
Another Masterpiece from Mr. Kay
- By Craig Cassar on 06-01-19
By: Guy Gavriel Kay
-
The Midwife's Tale
- A Mystery
- By: Sam Thomas
- Narrated by: Leila Birch
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1644, and Parliament’s armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels’ hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget’s friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer.
-
-
Only so so
- By Marie on 11-13-13
By: Sam Thomas
-
The Rose of York
- Love and War
- By: Sandra Worth
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Malory's England during the Wars of the Roses, this acclaimed winner of a remarkable nine awards tells the true story of two star-crossed lovers - Richard of Gloucester and Lady Anne Neville - before they become King and Queen of England. A stirring tale of romance and intrigue.
-
-
Marvelous.
- By Cinders on 11-07-13
By: Sandra Worth
What listeners say about Vale of Tears
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mississippi Malka
- 04-12-24
Another great Bradicutt and Catchpoll mystery!
First, I want to give credit to the narrator, who knows how to pronounce Saxon names like Leofwine and his nephews’ name (slips my mind just now) correctly! Aelfric, I think. Wonderful!
Additionally, this book continues to show great depth of the realism imparted to the characters. The addition of Waitland (hard to know spelling with an audiobook), as he grows more and more skilled and confident, makes the cast of main characters even more delightful (as does Christina, Bradicutt’s wife, but she doesn’t play a large role in this novel). Bradicutt’s continued meditations and guilt about his first marriage also adds verisimilitude to his character.
All of these books display detailed understanding of the lives of the English during the reign of King Stephen. We see that the war between him and the Emoress Matilda (the rightful heir to the throne) not only brings the possibility of destruction and violence, but the way the various factions interact politically. I also enjoy Hawkswood’s inclusion of the religious figures that were certainly present and the honest, simple belief of the villagers.
Religion, especially Catholicism, has a not so good reputation these days. So when I (an Orthodox Jew) read about the characters of the priests who believe in the practices of all good religions with good faith, and we do see some of the religious who aren’t so holy), I find it very gratifying. The people who dedicated themselves to the worship of G-d and performed great acts of kindness to others, should be recognized.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!