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  • Chains of Folly

  • A Magdalene la Batarde Mystery, Book 4
  • By: Roberta Gellis
  • Narrated by: Susan Duerden
  • Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (40 ratings)
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Chains of Folly cover art

Chains of Folly

By: Roberta Gellis
Narrated by: Susan Duerden
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Summary

That Nelda Roundheels had been murdered would have been of little interest to anyone - except that her body turned up in the bishop of Winchester's bedchamber with a letter to the bishop, from the king's most important enemy, rolled up in her breastband. The bishop and his knight, Sir Bellamy of Itchen, realize immediately that the purpose of putting the body in Winchester's bedchamber is to embarrass and discredit the bishop. And the reason for this attack on Winchester is his calling of a convocation to chastise the king for acting high-handedly against the bishop of Salisbury. Had the king himself ordered this outrage? Had the king's favorite, Waleran de Meulan, ordered it? Unfortunately the answer is not so simple to find; there are many other noblemen who want the king's favor and might attack Winchester to get it.

To save Winchester's reputation it is urgently necessary to discover who killed the woman and who placed her in Winchester's bedchamber. Bell, to his mingled joy and distress, is ordered to ask Magdalene la Batarde, whoremistress of the Old Priory Guesthouse, once his lover but now estranged, to help him solve the mystery.

©2006 Roberta Gellis (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Chains of Folly

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Shame

Such a shame the narrator has changed. It spoiled my enjoyment of the story.

I find her cadence annoying and condescending.

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5 people found this helpful

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

4th book unfortunately spoiled the series.

Good story. Terrible narrator. The narrator spoiled the book with the way the speech interpreted.

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4 people found this helpful

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

Why change the narrator ?

Sorry Susan but your long winded rolls of the tongue for most characters. Being use to the personality and voices and ways and now you decide to spoil the 4th book, not sure I can stand this voice too long.... Sorry barry

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3 people found this helpful

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

Awful narration

I ended up buying the book as I couldn’t listen to it. Read it originally a long time ago now but couldn’t remember whodunnit! I can’t explain how dreadful the narration is. All the women sound like children and the intonation doesn’t always sound right. Thankfully able to return!

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1 person found this helpful

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

Fantasy history - shoddy

The new narrator sounds like a child, or somebody trying to appear the cliché dumb blonde. There's more politics- good- that at least has to follow facts to some extent!
The plot line however is more implausible and previous howlers continue (there was no slavery in England in this period, at least of Christians, thanks to St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury who had no fear of Henry I, father of Empress Matilda and uncle of the Stephen who play an important background rôle in these tales. Villeins, apprentices, "serfs", but not slaves. I have no bias in pointing this out, as a Scot!)
I'm very sceptical about the sub-plot of opium addiction in 12th century London. The powerful analgesic properties of poppy derivatives were known in antiquity and that knowledge was conserved and developed by the great Arab physicians, whose works, rather later, rejuvenated medical practice.
I'm OK with Cadfael - who went to the Crusades - using poppy juice cautiously for therapeutic reasons - but doubtful that a random apothecary would know all about it (no medical journals, no printing, and European stuff in Latin, the lingua franca of all European scholarship, Arab stuff in Arabic, another writing system).
Mea culpa, I've listened to a third of these books, in spite of my revulsion at the premise of this brothel of utterly beautiful whores, who bath to 21st century standards, never get pregnant or seek out hazardous termination of pregnancy, don't catch STDs - not even pubic lice! - menstruate, lose their teeth, get wrinkled - even though the madam must be into her 30s, old by 12th standards.
Maybe she does feel that, in the short term, she's independent.
For women with a dowry there was at least one career path - the convent - where strong intelligent women could be educated and fulfilled, make a permanent contribution to human culture as individuals; probably the only way except for Queens.

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1 person found this helpful

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

recommended

enjoyed every book in the series and hope there will be many more to follow 😄

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

Good story ruined by the narration

I had to stop listening from time to time because the narrator’s voice grated on my nerves. Most of the female characters were reduced to squeaking whining creatures! Very disappointing.

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

stay with it!

I really struggled with the awful narration but was so keen to continue the story that I persisted. im glad I did - eventually (a few chapters in) I was able to focus on the story with the distraction of the narrator.

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

Endured the narration for the story

The story was ok, set back in London with the familiar characters, but the narrator was terrible. The text sounded very robotic, the female characters like whiny children, and the men just shouty. The final showdown was very hard to listen to because of the way it was narrated

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

'shame' maybe, but still a good story.

it is disappointing having a different narrator after growing comfortable with the way the previous narrator portrayed the various characters. but the story is still just as good and after a while I acclimatised to the new portrayal of the characters.
Although they were very breathy and had an annoying upward incantation and the end of almost every sentence, which seems to be a new way of talking these days.
But overall another very good and easy to listen to story.

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