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  • The Graveyard of the Hesperides

  • Falco: The New Generation (Flavia Albia, Book 4)
  • By: Lindsey Davis
  • Narrated by: Sarah Feathers
  • Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (223 ratings)
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The Graveyard of the Hesperides cover art

The Graveyard of the Hesperides

By: Lindsey Davis
Narrated by: Sarah Feathers
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Summary

From the creator of Falco comes Falco: the new generation, featuring her unforgettable heroine Flavia Albia in her fourth novel.

Life is sweet for Flavia Albia and her soon-to-be husband Faustus. But his new job as a building contractor runs into a problem: At the Garden of the Hesperides a barmaid went missing years before; now the workmen start unearthing her bones.

Albia takes on the task of finding out what happened. Five more skeletons are discovered. Despite the fact that nobody seems to know or care who died, violent attempts are made to stop her enquiries.

Soon Albia is exploring the world of Roman streetlife, where bars are brothels, workers lead brutal lives, foreigners are muscling in on the gambling syndicates, and extortion is commonplace. What's more there's little time to solve the mystery before the wedding day when Albia is expected to show Rome that her affair with Manlius is a much more than a casual fling. The gods, however, have other ideas....

©2016 Lindsey Davis (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

What listeners say about The Graveyard of the Hesperides

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    116
  • 4 Stars
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Great story, shame about the narration

I'm firmly in the 'can't beat a Lindsey Davis' camp; here is another layered, twisting plot played out against an evocative, insightful landscape. Hooray for a Roman post-feminist heroine and interesting female characters!
Such a shame the narration was so flat, Sarah Feathers sounding for all the world like a bored and distracted Kirsty Allsop. It meant that I frequently tuned out and had to re-listen to big sections at a time. Audio books are immensely valuable to me as something to listen to whilst doing something else - driving, housework, etc, so the narration as well as plot has to capture me; Lucy Brown and Jane Collingwood both managed it admirably in the previous tales of Flavia Albia. I'd happily cough up for a retake, Audible...?

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Why change narrator!!! The latest is awful

Why change narrator!!! The latest is awful . She sounds dull and uninterested. Why oh why

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Poor narrator distracted from the story

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Sarah Feathers?

Lucy Brown, who did the first 2 Flavia Albia stories

Any additional comments?

I struggled to get past the poor narration. The different voices sounded like someone fresh from drama school, the mens' voices particularly poor. Need to listen to the book again to pick up the fine details of the story. Or maybe just read it in book format.
What a shame, because Lindsey Davies really gives us a taste of Roman life for women and the lower orders, which is where I would have been!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Beware the narrator

Would you listen to The Graveyard of the Hesperides again? Why?

No - I would get the book to avoid the narrator

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Not convinced she was actually aware that she was telling a story.
Inability to read a sentence without pausing half way through, with undramatic effect.
Poor ability to do different character voices.
Sounding incredibly bored and as if she is falling asleep.
Slowing down through passages.

Any additional comments?

Please please please don't let her narrate any other books!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Alba again

Usual entertaining and gripping tale of Albia and her man BUT why have you changed the reader?
This one seems unaware of punctuation and couldn't even pronounce 'oregano' properly.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story but really difficult to listen to!

I love Lyndsey Davis, and have enjoyed all of her publications on audiobook. The graveyard of Hesperides did not disappoint. However, the narration was so difficult to follow. It felt like sentences were being read as as a series of statements rather than having any flow, and it was difficult to distinguish between characters resulting in having to repeat sections. Frustrating as it distracted me from the storyline which was good!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

No to the New Narrator

I couldn't really concentrate on or enjoy this because I found Sarah Feathers' voice so grating. Sorry, Sarah! When I wasn't gnashing my teeth, the story seemed OK ...

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lousy narration

Since the story is in Albia's voice, adding a different accent for her seems a little superfluous. The fact that everything is read in a stilted, "stop dead at the end of every phrase" style is just adding to the misery. I'm forty minutes in and already gritting my teeth. Such a disappointment, bring back either of the other two series narrators. Please.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

We have narator issues (again)

In an audio book the narrator can make or break even the best book, out of the narrators chosen so far Lucy Brown has been the best, though she still sounds a bit too posh for Flavia in my mind. The story brings Flavia's love life and mixes it with murder, these book are getting better and the Flavia / Falco world are developing nicely, please settle on a narrator.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, monotonous narration

Why, oh why fix something that isn't broken! Both Lucy Brown and Jane Collingwood are such amazing narrators for Flavia Albia, so why get someone else yet again? The relative monotonous narration here makes it sleep-invoking and I have to keep going back to where I nodded off, because the story is, of course, great! I'm sure this narrator is good for some books, but not for Flavia. She gets 3 stars because she does get a bit better as she gets into the story, but she never gets really good, like both other ladies are right from the start!

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1 person found this helpful