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Martyr

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Martyr

By: Rory Clements
Narrated by: Peter Wickham
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About this listen

Drake: Shakespeare is ordered to protect him. With Drake on land fitting out his ships, he is frighteningly vulnerable. If he dies, England will be open to invasion. In a London rife with rumour, Shakespeare must decide which leads to follow, which to ignore. When a high-born young woman is found mutilated and murdered at an illicit printing house, it is political gunpowder - and he has no option but to investigate. But why is Shakespeare shadowed at every turn by the brutal Richard Topcliffe, the blood-drenched priest-hunter who claims intimacy with Queen Elizabeth herself? What is Topcliffe`s interest in a housemaid, whose baby has been stolen? And where do two fugitive Jesuit priests - one happy to die for God, the other to kill for Him - fit into the puzzle? From the splendour and intrigue of the royal court, to the sleek warships of Her Majesty`s Navy and the teeming brothels of Southwark, Shakespeare soon learns that nothing is as it seems.

2009, CWA Daggers: John Creasey (New Blood), Short-listed

©2009 Rory Clements (P)2010 Oakhill Publishing Fiction Historical Mystery England Royalty

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Critic reviews

John Shakespeare is one of the great historical sleuths. (Barry Forshaw)
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I have been listening to audible books for several years so let me tell you what my years of listening have told me.
Above all narration is key. Even if you have the most wonderful story, and I have had, if the narration of that story is poor, no matter how good the story is it will fail to engage you. My advice: listen to the sample and you will get a good idea of how the book will be read.

This book is both a very good story, historical content with intrigue. The narration is absolutely wonderful. You could be listening to a play with several actors his turn of accent is so good.

I like Roy Clements and I have several of his books on audio, and each case he has chosen a good narrator.




Wonderful narration

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A sligtly lighter version of CJ Sansom's Matthew Shardlake drama's. Very enjoyable and well narrated.

Martyr

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An enjoyable Tudor 'who-dun-it' with a good deal of very believable historical detail - almost too realistic at times!

Engrossing!

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Well-researched background details help make this an engaging historical drama, with detail just on the right side of "info dumping" for me. An entertaining tale with a good cast of characters, plenty of twists, turns and enough tension to keep my interest to the end.

I liked the narrator's attempts to convey appropriate (albeit modern) regional accents for characters where required. These would have been far more noticeable at the time, and were a nice touch.

Entertaining historical fiction

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A good story and well read, very enjoyable.
Already read a number of other novels by the same author.

Great listening

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An enjoyable listen for those who like the genre.some of the characterization is rather cliched but it doesn’t diminish the entertainment value of the book.

Well paced historical fiction

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A good book well written and very engaging. A little contrived in places but fun and well paced

Hunt for an assassin

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Positives: Good, twisty plot. Skilled narrator who managed a range of accents to differentiate characters and added just the right amount of drama. Negatives: None if the characters behave like Elizabethans. They’re modern people in costume which differentiates it from a writer like Hilary Mantel. Also; long, terrible sex scenes.

Mixed bag

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On John Shakespeare, that is. This book was overly long and tedious in parts but at it’s heart was a good story. It just needed less of it!

I won’t give up yet.

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Historically accurate with romance and espionage. Am looking forward to reading the next instalment. A good read.

Loved jt

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