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The Black Madonna
- Roundheads & Cavaliers, Book 1
- Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
- Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins
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The Black Madonna
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Summary
As England slides into Civil War, master-goldsmith and money-lender, Luciano Falcieri del Santi embarks on his own hidden agenda.
A chance meeting one dark night results in an unlikely friendship with Member of Parliament, Richard Maxwell.
Richard’s daughter, Kate - a spirited girl who vows to hold their home against both Cavalier and Roundhead - soon finds herself fighting an involuntary attraction to the clever, magnetic, and diabolically beautiful Italian. Hampered by the warring English and the quest itself growing daily more dangerous, Luciano begins to realize that his own life and that of everyone close to him rests on the knife-edge of success...for only success will permit him to reclaim the Black Madonna and offer his heart to the girl he loves. From the machinations within Parliament to the last days of the King’s cause, The Black Madonna is an epic saga of passion and intrigue at a time when England was lost in a dark and bloody conflict.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 05-06-22
Love all this series and the standalone set in the same period. Lovely characters, good historical details and a real warmth.
I love the characters, particularly the men in this series. The historical detail is good and gives real atmosphere to the love stories. Would recommend the Marigold Chain as well. Please write more.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Jill
- 16-08-19
An all-round wonderful experience
This is my all-time favourite novel. It has every ingredient that makes a perfect historical romance: a detailed and vibrant historical setting; engrossing plotlines; pitch perfect characterisation; lively, witty dialogue and a deliciously seductive love story at its heart.
The novel is set during the time leading up to and during the first English Civil war in the 1640s. It is almost as if the war itself is a plot strand as the author weaves the timeline of the war into Luciano and Kate’s story. The rich history of the time is depicted with a sure and light touch which makes it easily accessible for the reader/listener. We learn how the war came about, how the country was split family by family into supporters for the King or for parliament and how the war progressed battle by battle. We see the opulence of King Charles I’s court; the power struggles within parliament and between parliament and the King; the rise of puritanism; the siege of Banbury and the fall of Basing House. As with all good historical novels, it made me want to research more into this fascinating period in England’s life. This exquisite balance between the historical backdrop and the fictional story raises this novel above others in the historical fiction genre.
The main plotline, however, is Luciano’s quest to avenge his father’s murder. He is like a detective in a crime novel as he single-mindedly unravels the mystery surrounding his father’s trial and execution. His position as a moneylender enables him to mix with all levels of society and his quest takes him all over Britain. When Richard Maxwell saves Luciano from a beating, Richard becomes one of Luciano’s very few friends.
This friendship brings Luciano into more regular contact with Richard’s daughter, Kate and so begins their intricate, convoluted and wholly entrancing courtship. It is a cross between a medieval court dance and a fencing match fought by two highly skilled opponents. There are advances and retreats, thrust and parry, point and counterpoint until they both yield to their deepest feelings. Their verbal sparring is glorious.
Ms Riley is a very talented author. In addition to bringing history to life, her major strengths are in characterisation and dialogue. In Luciano and Kate, we have two wonderful characters who fairly dance off the page. Their physical description is so detailed that we can visualise them clearly, but it is our access to their thoughts and feelings that breathes life into them. We can see how and why Kate is attracted to Luciano with his maddening omniscience and elusiveness. We watch the development of Kate’s thinking skills as she wrestles with her attraction and tries to fathom Luciano’s character and motivation. Like Kate, we fall headlong in love with Luciano but also feel both aversion and sympathy for him as he follows his self-imposed quest with ruthlessness, courage and a curiously weak stomach.
This is such a rich novel. The cast of supporting characters are all equally well defined. I particularly love Eden Maxwell (see Garland of Straw, the King’s Falcon and Lords of Misrule for more of his story – they are all excellent). I also enjoyed Dorothy and Richard Maxwell; Tobias and Tabitha Maxwell, Giannetta del Santi and Justin Ambrose (see A Splendid Defiance for his story).
Though I have read The Black Madonna many times, I really loved this audiobook. It is narrated by the excellent Alex Wyndham whose finely nuanced performances of other novels I have also enjoyed. He has a good range of voices which made it easy to differentiate between the characters. His portrayal of the female characters is especially good. I liked his pacing and tone during the descriptive passages and really enjoyed his delivery of the dialogue. His understanding of the historical background, the characters and their roles within the story shines through his narration and therefore clarifies and enriches them for the listener. Each re-reading of a good book will provide new insights. This was certainly the case for me with Mr Wyndham’s reading of The Black Madonna. What an excellent performance of a truly wonderful story!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- K. Greaves
- 27-06-19
Lived up to Expectations
I have to confess that I love the print version of this book so much that I was extremely reluctant to actually start listening to Alex Wyndham narrating it. I should not have worried, the voices bring the characters to life and Alex has succeeded in converting me to audio books - I can listen whilst cooking or gardening! My greatest surprise was finding the detail was more defined in this medium and brought to life things that I had forgotten but were pertinent to the ongoing story or development of the characters. Alex Wyndham has done a wonderful job with a work of historical fiction that has a convoluted plot (I don’t want to give anything away) and a fine cast of characters. Alex’s rendition of Nathan was wonderfully slimy. The narration of this book was addictive, unbelievably I felt I had to reach the end in the shortest time possible although I knew what was going to happen. I shall look forward to the remaining three volumes in this series, please, please.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- MISS PENELOPE E HUGHES
- 24-06-19
Beautifully performed
I have read this book many times along with the rest of the series. Listening to it has been lovely and the voices were just as I imagined them. I am happy that an Italian accent was not used for Luciano as he had spent much of his time in England. It was beautifully read with much feeling and understanding.
The only slight downside was that Giacomo sounded like a character in The Player but as Alex has created the voices in many of the books I suppose that was likely to happen!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Annelise Goodsir
- 08-09-20
Superb
An absolutely wonderful story with totally engaging characters and fantastic historical detail . I can not recommend it highly enough . I must add that Alex Wyndham must be the best narrator alive - he breathes life into every character and I have enjoyed his narration on several audiobooks now. What a talent! The man deserves a medal!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- AnneH
- 24-06-19
Superb
Loved this book for years and Alex Wyndham's narration is as amazing as always. Luciano and Kate are wonderfully complex characters and the accuracy of historical detail and 'real' people combined with the story of this fictional family made the Roundheads and Cavaliers series one of the most memorable I have ever read. Hoping the other books will follow soon and of course performed by Alex!
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 14-07-20
Wonderful
This is the first Stella Riley I've listened to. I'm hooked, please can we have the rest of the roundheads and Cavelier series. Alex Wyndham at his best
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- Wendy
- 31-07-19
THE BLACK MADONNA - simply stunning!
The Black Madonna is a sweeping, epic tale of love, betrayal, loyalty, intrigue, and a family’s determination to support each other throughout the bloody ravages of a civil war, into which their country has been plunged.
I loved every minute of this truly sumptuous and scintillating saga of triumph over adversity – firstly in the written word, and now in more than twenty-two glorious hours of audio, performed by the highly talented actor, Alex Wyndham.
As usual with this author, her characters are quite unique. Luciano Falcieri del Santi is an Italian master-goldsmith and usurer (money lender); he has imperfectly matched shoulders and a burning ambition to find out, not only the truth, but also to punish the men who, when he was only a boy of twelve, had perjured themselves in order to have his innocent father executed for treason in England.
He has worked hard to succeed at his craft and also has a natural flair for finance, which has enabled him to persuade his uncle to loan him a large amount of money. Luciano offers The Black Madonna as surety – a simple but serenely beautiful figurine, much treasured by Luciano’s family. It is all he has to bargain with, but such is the reverence with which the figurine is held that his uncle agrees.
Luciano’s occupation as a much despised money lender, his slight, but nevertheless fairly obvious, physical deformity, and his single minded and determined quest for revenge and justice would not immediately conjure up a romantic figure. But, somehow, in her usual inimitable way, Stella Riley has created just that – an enigmatic, brilliant and quite dazzlingly beautiful young man whom Kate Maxwell, much to her own initial disgust, is secretly in thrall to from their first meeting. She is fascinated to realise that he is the epitome of a painting of Lucifer, the fallen Angel, on the ceiling of her family’s chapel. Luciano dominates the story from the first page and eventually earns the friendship and trust of Richard Maxwell, an honourable and well-respected member of Charles the first’s doomed parliament, and the father of Kate and Eden, the two eldest Maxwell siblings, who figure predominately in this story.
It’s unnecessary to go into the politics and tragedies of the English Civil Wars in great depth in the review, because this talented historian and writer has done the hard work for us to enjoy. In fact, I am in awe of the daunting task she set herself when she began researching and writing this series more than twenty five years ago… without the benefit of the internet. Suffice to say that not only The Black Madonna but every book in this series, plus its companion A Splendid Defiance and The Marigold Chain, set in the Restoration period, are all masterpieces in their own right. Many of Stella Riley’s fictitious characters throughout the series make repeat appearances – some with stories of their own – such as Gabriel Brandon, Venetia Clifford, Eden Maxwell, Francis Langley and Justin Ambrose. So well-drawn and developed are these characters that they are almost indistinguishable from the nonfictional, historical military and political characters with whom they interact. Under the author’s clever hand, these nonfictional personalities are no longer just figures on canvases in art galleries or names in dusty archived records. Seen through the eyes of the author, they are living, breathing men who had difficult decisions to make and worries to contend with.
One thing Ms. Riley does particularly well is to show both sides of the argument in a fair and unbiased way. There was one particular conversation between two friends that jumped out at me. It clearly and succinctly explained how and why families and friends found themselves on opposing sides, and highlighted the sheer futility and difficulties faced by such families and friends in this situation. Eden Maxwell and Francis Langley have been friends since boyhood and discuss their differing beliefs on Parliament versus King. Neither allows their opinions to affect their long standing friendship but simply agree to differ. Obviously, once the first war begins in earnest, they do not actively pursue their friendship, although throughout the series, they occasionally meet up and continue to be friends. The two are also inextricably linked by Eden’s marriage to Francis’s sister, Celia, which in itself has its own problems, because she, like her brother, is a royalist. The tension in the Maxwell household, as the war gathers momentum, is tangible and has long reaching consequences for all of them.
The waters are further muddied by the differing religions of political leaders, officers and soldiers fighting on both sides. Complicated and difficult it may be to understand, but the author again explains the different reasons and factions in a way that can be understood by the layman. All in all, a mix of differing religious beliefs and fears only added to the almost impossible task of uniting a country and increased the problems of an already hopeless war which tore families and communities asunder.
Luciano relentlessly pursues his quarry, finding and dealing with each culprit in turn, until only one is left. At the same time, he is fighting a losing battle against his obvious love for Kate (aka Caterina) Maxwell, until eventually he can no longer deny his feelings, even though he fears his love may place her in danger. The story hurtles towards its emotional and heart-rending culmination, an ending the author has plucked, in part, from the historic archives – the final falling of the long besieged Cavalier stronghold, Basing House – merciless, bloody and horrific- she cleverly intertwines it with the last piece of Luciano’s puzzle. In fact, the final 25% of the book, as all the threads come together, is truly nail-biting stuff. Stella Riley ratchets up the tension and emotion, drawing graphic pictures of the horrors of war to the point where one can almost smell the gunpowder and witness the horror and terror of the participants. At its centre is Luciano, his formidable Turkish man servant, Selim, his beloved Caterina, and the last man who must face Luciano’s reckoning. Here I must add that, as much as I loved reading it, the narration by master-of-his-craft, Alex Wyndham, adds another dimension to an already fabulous book which, were it a play, would certainly earn a standing ovation.
Surely The Black Madonna must be an actor’s dream to perform – for perform it Mr. Wyndham does, with quite outstanding success. I can only imagine the challenges he faced with such a huge cast of characters of both sexes. Knowing this story well, having read it at least three times, I had pre-conceived ideas on how I thought the characters would sound, and I wasn’t disappointed. Luciano’s voice is ‘like warm silk’, to quote the author, and it’s at its silkiest best when he talks to his Caterina. Luciano has a multifaceted nature, one side of which – his inherent aloneness – I felt very keenly and Mr. Wyndham portrays this facet of his character with sensitivity. Okay, Luciano deliberately cultivates it in order to stay safe, and of course as a money lender was reviled by the very people who were in debt to him, and he had learnt to trust very few people. Nevertheless, at times, I felt sad for him. He shrouds himself in an aloofness and, on occasions, adopts a quiet, deadly insolence, which is reserved for those people he holds in contempt. Alex Wyndham captures the many facets of Luciano’s character to perfection; the subtle nuances of his moods – silky smooth, deadly dangerous and insolence.
There are far too many individuals to mention separately, but a few characters really stand out for me in Alex Wyndham’s portrayal of them.
Richard Maxwell – a quiet likeable man with oodles of integrity
Eden Maxwell – a no-nonsense career soldier who begins by being quietly happy with his lot but, as a result of betrayal, becomes embittered and morose, which shows in his voice
Celia Maxwell, Eden’s wife – a querulous and waspish woman who is easy to dislike
Francis Langley – the languid, long-haired, elegantly attired, devil-may-care, Cavalier officer, who would rather read poetry than go to war
Gianetta, Luciano’s little sister – highly strung, excitable and volatile
Finally the Irish Catholic patriot, Liam Aherne – quiet and stern but with a delightful, lilting Irish accent
These are only a handful of the diverse cast Alex Wyndham juggles with.
Each time I hear this performer, I wonder anew how on earth he’ll do it, but I’m never disappointed with his performance. A consummate and professional actor with a voice like ‘warm silk’, to quote the author again in her description of Luciano, but which also fits Alex Wyndham to a tee.
The Black Madonna is another triumph for Stella Riley and her narrator, Alex Wyndham. A magnificent blend of historical fiction and historical romance, with the emphasis on the thoroughly and accurately researched history. The plotting is first rate – intriguing and plausible, and the romance is slow developing – deep and abiding.
MY VERDICT: A heart-warming and romantic saga of family, love and war. Simply not to be missed! We can only hold our breath and hope that Ms. Riley is able to have the rest of the series recorded.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sarah Singleton
- 28-01-20
Totally absorbing read
Wonderful story, beautifully told - Alex Wyndham is the star who interprets this masterpiece in such a realistic way. Stella Riley's superb characters draw you into their stories set against fascinating historical background - she has a magical way of connecting threads over the years. PLEASE bring Stella's three other Roundhead and Cavalier stories into the Audible format, those of us who can only listen to stories need them!!!
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- Magius
- 04-07-19
Gripping story bringing historical events to life
Stella Riley has a wonderful skill in weaving the story into real historical events and people, breathing vibrant life to a period that seems chaotic and dreary if reduced to mere factual dates.
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