The Raven in the Foregate cover art

The Raven in the Foregate

The Twelfth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael

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The Raven in the Foregate

By: Ellis Peters
Narrated by: Vanessa Benjamin
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About this listen

 Christmas, 1141 A.D. Abbot Radulfus returns from London, bringing with him a priest for the vacant living of Holy Cross (known as the Foregate), a man of presence, scholarship and discipline, but neither humility nor the common touch. When he is found drowned in the mill-pond, suspicion is cast in many directions, not least toward a young man who came in the priest's train, sent to work in Brother Cadfael's garden. For he has little obvious priestly calling. Indeed, he soon attracts the friendship of a girl both beautiful and formidable.
To Brother Cadfael, once wordly, now dedicated, if gently cynical, is left the familiar task of sorting the complicated strands which define guilt and innocence.©1986 by Ellis Peters (P)1998 by Blackstone Audiobooks Mystery Traditional Detectives

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This is one of Peters’ more interesting stories. The narrator is still not right for the novel, but she makes fewer pronunciation errors in this reading than in previous outings.

An interesting story

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I love Ellis Peters' Cadfael books. But to have them narrated by a female narrator is a bit much. The main speakers are all male, so she has to strain her voice - I wouldn't be surprised if she had a painful throat after these performances! And particularly in this recording, it often sounds like she is recording in the backroom of a busy pub, while at other times her voice echos in the background, but sounding really low, like a man's voice. Just strange.

Of course these recordings are 25 years old and they deserve to be redone, just like the first three unabridged versions narrated by Stephen Thorne. Those are a joy to listen to because Mr Thorne does an excellent Welsh accent and he really places the stories beautifully. Sadly there also are a lot of abridged versions of these books, no doubt excellently narrated by Derek Jacobi, who played Cadfael in the TV series, but I want the whole books, not the abridged versions! So please, Audible, give us more of the unabridged Cadfael books! There are 20 of them in all, so plenty of work for the narrator you choose - Stephen Thorne for choice, or a(nother) Welsh speaker please!

Poor female narrator!

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I have read many of the Cadfael books, listened to the radio plays, and watched the TV adaptations. The plots are always good. Philip Madoc and Derek Jacobi as Cadfael are superb. What a pity neither of them narrated this book. The female voice was irritating and just wrong. Most of the characters are male so why opt for a female narrator? I tried, but I finally had to give up listening.

Did not like a female narrator

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Vanessa Benjamin has such a good, clear voice and is a pleasure to listen to.

Very enjoyable listen

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Wonderful, do read more of Cadfael. It’s a neglected period of history with the battles between Stephen and Matilda

Lovely reading of a very gentle story

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the sound quality of this recording is awful, the performance off the reader was completely spoiled by it.

poor quality sound

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Really enjoyable book, Brother Cadfael is a wise monk who ministers healing balms and potions to the townspeople and in doing so, plays detective.

A 'winter's tale' of intrigue and mishap

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As ever Ells. Peter’s strokes are hard to beat but the narrated detracted for the. Presentation, fine voice but the voice detractedfrom the take and the false voicing of Cadfaels’s voice at times was irritating

A fine take. PoorlY tooD

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Really enjoyed the story just let down by the characterisation of the voices of Brother Cadfael and Hugh. Other than those the narration was good.

Another great who done it by Cadfael

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Very poor sound quality. Like listening to an old cassette tape shame as it's not a bad story

Poor sound

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