The Owl Killers cover art

The Owl Killers

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Owl Killers

By: Karen Maitland
Narrated by: David Thorpe
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £31.99

Buy Now for £31.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

England 1321: Deep in the countryside lies an isolated village governed by a sinister regime of Owl Masters. But their dark status quo is disturbed by the arrival of a house of religious women. Why do their crops succeed when village crops fail, their cattle survive despite the plague? Accusations of witchcraft and heresy run rife, while the Owl Masters rain down hellfire and torment on the women, who must look to their faith to save them from the lengthening shadow of evil... a shadow with predatory, terrifying talons.

©2011 Karen Maitland (P)2011 Oakhill Publishing Ltd Genre Fiction Gothic Historical Horror Literary Fiction Mystery Scary Exciting Fiction Witchcraft Suspense Village

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Company of Liars cover art
A Plague on Both Your Houses cover art
Sinful Folk cover art
Apprentice - Scarlet City - Part I cover art
The Rich Earth cover art
Sarum cover art
The Inquisitor's Tale cover art
The Waringham Chronicles, Volume 1: The Runaway cover art
The American Boy cover art
All the Murmuring Bones cover art
The Ashes of London cover art
The King's Justice cover art
A Time for Swords cover art
The Snow Tiger cover art
Speaks the Nightbird cover art
Master Assassins cover art

Critic reviews

"Maitland has conjured up a medieval world startling in its brutality and unrivaled in it's fury." ( Booklist)
All stars
Most relevant  
This book has kept me gripped from the moment I started reading it. Amazing tours de force of historical writing, original & perceptive. Cannot wait for the next KM to come out in print (March for hard copy). Slight pause for thought when I first heard the accents of the 'Women' & Locals (as delivered by David Thorpe), but ended up giving him a Gold Star for clear and believable narration. Cannot recommend this highly enough. First Class!

Nail-biting thriller

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I didn't realise this book was set in Norfolk until I started it, David Thorpe accents are brilliant. I loved the story, the details about the saints and the mix of Christianity verses folk lore.

Excellent Norfolk accent !

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having had a bad run of books that I hadn't really enjoyed, finding this was a welcome breath of fresh air. This is the second of Karen Maitland's books I've listened to, the first being Company of Liars, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly I thought Company of Liars overlong and over complicated but The Owl Killers was fabulous and I achieved that curious state where I yearned for the end but didn't want to finish.

I'm still not sure about the title. The book had some superb strong, female characters and some real villains but the whole owl killer thing seems almost superfluous to the story and it would have worked just as well without it. All Ms Maitland's characters are well drawn and our narrator, David Thorp, did an excellent job in portraying them, even the women.

It took me the best part of a year to think of reading this second novel of Ms Maitland's. I suspect it won't take me that long to get round to listening to yet another!

Slightly curious title

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If you could sum up The Owl Killers in three words, what would they be?

Magical - Dark - Chilling

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Owl Killers?

Pretty gruesome scenes throughout but the most memorable ones are the conversations between the village priest and the "Village ruler's" nephew.

Have you listened to any of David Thorpe’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I Haven't.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really don't think it was that sort of book.

Olde Aged Christian and Pagan Folk story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It took me about an hour of listening to really get into this imaginative and enthralling story and become familiar with the five characters through whom the story would be told. It's an extraordinary novel that brings medieval existence to life in all its day-to-day privations, subservience to the local lord, superstitions and fears of eternal damnation drummed into the populace by an unforgiving Church. It's a very powerful story of the struggle between good and evil centred around a village somewhere near Norwich where a group of women from Low Countries have setup a religious community that is distrusted by the Church and by the local community who are still in thrall to pagan beliefs exploited by a band of Owl Masters who terrorize them.
Much of the pleasure and power of this book is due to the exceptionally good narrator, David Thorpe, who brings a wealth of characters to life by giving them individual voices by which they are easily identified in this roller-coaster of a story.

Entralling mystical medieval

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Already read owl killers, listening to it on audio even better. Come on gathering of ghosts.

Owl Killers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I did nearly give up after an hour or so. I couldn’t really work out what was going on or where it was going but the narration was so good I kept listening; and I’m glad I did.
This is the second Karen Maitland I’ve listened to and will certainly be looking out for the third.

Keep going

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the story and the narrator.
Do recommend this book if you are interested in knowing a little more about the dark ages...

It's a great picture into the past.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My wife disliked it, I liked the way the period was portrayed, but the story was a bit too supernatural for my tastes. (plus I am intrigued where she found a rocky mountain with a gushing waterfall in Norfolk . . . . . )
Having said that, David Thorpe brought this complicated book to life. His reading made this book and we subsequently quite enjoyed it. I'm unlikely to read any more KM, but we will be listening to more David Thorpe. Check him out!!

Mixed feelings

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Slightly confusing start as all the characters are introduced but it builds into an excellent story which I think is every bit as good as Company Liars which I loved.

Gets better & better

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews