The Drowned City cover art

The Drowned City

Daniel Pursglove, Book 1

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The Drowned City

By: K. J. Maitland
Narrated by: Nathan Turner
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About this listen

Gunpowder and treason changed England forever. But the tides are turning and revenge runs deep in this compelling historical thriller for fans of C.J. Sansom, Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London, Kate Mosse and Blood & Sugar.

1606. A year to the day that men were executed for conspiring to blow up Parliament, a towering wave devastates the Bristol Channel. Some proclaim God's vengeance. Others seek to take advantage.

In London, Daniel Pursglove lies in prison waiting to die. But Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to King James I, has a job in mind that will free a man of Daniel's skill from the horrors of Newgate. If he succeeds.

For Bristol is a hotbed of Catholic spies, and where better for the lone conspirator who evaded arrest, one Spero Pettingar, to gather allies than in the chaos of a drowned city? Daniel journeys there to investigate FitzAlan's lead, but soon finds himself at the heart of a dark Jesuit conspiracy - and in pursuit of a killer.

©2021 Karen Maitland (P)2021 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Historical Historical Fiction Renaissance Thriller & Suspense England Fiction Revenge Mystery

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Critic reviews

"A dark and enthralling historical novel with a powerful narrative. The mysterious Daniel Pursglove has all the qualifications for a memorable series hero." (Andrew Taylor)

"Spies, thieves, murderers and King James I? Brilliant." (Conn Iggulden)

"This gripping thriller shows what a wonderful storyteller Maitland is." (The Times)
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I hadn’t realised that this was by the Karen Maitland who wrote Company of Liars but had I known, that would have guaranteed I read it. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters and the particular setting. The Bristol flooding made a great backdrop to the story.

Excellent start to new series

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As a big fan of Suzana Gregory's Thomas Chaloner series I thought I'd give this one a go. I find the narration of those books on Audible entirely too dreadful to listen to, so I'm in need of a good substitute.

I've rated this book squarely in the middle. Didn't meet my expectations but I will reserve final judgement until I've heard the second.

Good points about the book are that the plot is sturdy and looks like it will carry on building in book two. The voice actor has a good range of accents and it sounded believable.

What brought down the overall score is that there seems to be a whole back story to the main character that is barely touched on, but it feels like you're supposed to know more. I kept checking that this was the first in the series because there were a lot of points at which it felt like I'd missed a whole book. I also don't like the flicking between first- and third-person narration in alternate chapters. Somehow to me it feels like you're being reminded that you're in a fiction because it jars each time. That's probably just me though.

With the voice acting, although the chap is clearly accomplished, I found some of the pausing to be a bit odd and stilted. There's be random beats missed in sentences where you wouldn't expect them, as though he'd lost which line he was on. And at times he did sound a bit bored to be honest.

The first Gregory book I read was the debut of the Matthew Bartholomew series, and I wasn't blown away by it. But I thought the premise was good so I gave it a second chance and have been completely hooked on both that and the Chaloner series ever since. I'm hoping this will be the same.

So-so, but worth a second chance

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I’ve listened to most of Karen Maitlands books and have really enjoyed most of them. This one, not so much, and the narration is a chief culprit. He actually has a good voice and does great accents but there are so many pauses where they shouldn’t be and things accented where they don’t need to be it really spoiled it for me. He could be a great narrator and I don’t get why no one at the recording studio pointed this out or gave him some direction. The story itself I didn’t feel was one of the authors best but if read properly might have been better. I found I was quite glad when it was over if I’m being honest. But don’t get me wrong, I really like a lot of Karen Maitlands books.

Spoiled by Narration

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Loved the story. Narrator suited the story perfectly, great voice. Looking forward to next book in the series 🤞

Great all-round

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I'm a big fan of Karen Maitland's books - I'm currently re-listening to Company of Liars for the 3rd time(!), but of course, this has the benefit of the great David Thorpe to read it. Unfortunately, the Drowned City doesn't and I found the north western accent (notably hanging on the 'g's at the end of words) distracting. Similarly diverting was his habit of breaking sentences at odd places, where I would have thought it should have been linked rather better. All in all a good story, especially as we now have a new character, and hopefully, David will return for the second (we assume) in the series.

Good story, distracting reader

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