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  • The Sentinel

  • Vengeance of Memory, Book 1
  • By: Mark Oldfield
  • Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
  • Length: 20 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (209 ratings)
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The Sentinel cover art

The Sentinel

By: Mark Oldfield
Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
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Summary

The action in The Sentinel alternates between the present and the dark winter of 1953, where Comandante Leo Guzmán is head of a secret police unit whose job is to hunt down enemies of the state. Guzmán’s brutal tactics are simple and effective: everyone is suspect.

In 2009, on a blazing summer's day in the hills near Madrid, Ana María Galindez, a Guardia Civil forensic scientist, examines what she thinks is just another Civil War grave. Fifteen bodies are hidden in an abandoned mine shaft, and forensics reveal that the killings took place sometime in the early 1950s. The identity of the suspected murderer? Comandante Leo Guzmán.

Intrigued by Guzmán’s disappearance, Galindez becomes obsessed with tracking down this shadowy killer. As she investigates, she disturbs things which have lain dormant for almost 60 years. Things so compromising that those concerned will stop at nothing to destroy them—and her.

©2012 Mark Oldfield (P)2012 Audible Ltd

What listeners say about The Sentinel

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Simply Unbelievable and fantastic. Easy 5 Star

I took a gamble on this one. Something caught my imagination. Oh that was a good move. What a book, brilliant and totally absorbing. The story is demanding, gruesome and relentlessly draws you in. The main character is truly Shakespearean, hard, bad and tragic. There a three linked stories and each is powerful and important. I kept wanting to get back to each one, frustrated when the book took you the next. The narrator is brilliant and adds so much to the book, his skill with voices is a delight. Read it and pay attention. It all matters.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

Not normally my type of book but the reviews were good. This book is great. Although it was longer then normal it held my interest from the first page. It covers three time zones but you always knew where you were. I recommend it. The narrater Nigel Carrington was very good and I enjoyed listening to him.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating tale of post civil war Spain

Set in both post revolutionary Spain and contemporary Spain, this first of a trilogy. Leo Guzman is a brilliant creation, one of Franco's enforcers a methodical killer. Ana Maria Galindez is the lead in the present day a forensic scientist who is perusing Guzman from the present. Although complicated the story is fascinating especially as I knew very little about Spain in 1953. I look forward to the next instalment

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good tale shame about the narration

The story is very well written with colourful characters and the customary twist at the end is quite unexpected. There a two things that I found annoying, one is the spanish mixed in with the story, but the real problem was the narration, the book is very obviously set in Spain, so you would expect some naff Spanish accent, but thats not what you get, no, one of the characters has a Scottish accent, this really spoilt the book for me.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Worst thing I've listened to for a long long time

Where to begin? Well firstly, I suppose, as I haven't read or heard this story through to the end I had better not say too much about the authorship. Although that said first impression are of formulaic overblown characters, using unconvincing and historically and geographical unauthentic dialogue, inhabiting a poorly realised world. If this is 1950's Spain then I was born in the Netherlands…………..…. but it is hard to really get a handle on anything here, either plot or characterisation, because of the truly terrible production.



I cannot blame the narrator for not having a suite of fairly convincing Iberian accents to draw upon but I can blame the pathetic production team for employing him. If you think hearing what is a Spanish plot, set in Spain with Spanish characters using voices that range from East London hard man to Scottish by way of god knows where then buy this. Otherwise steer well clear. If it's still on offer (oh I how I regret this spending this money) it might be worth a fiver to you to hear something truly humorous, of the most painful kind that is.



Actually there is something here that interests me, this is an American Audible release of an American production. I have noticed before with these that there seldom appears to be any attempt to utilise authentic or semi-authentic voice. I have heard many a Scandinavian policeman talking in broad American accents. Perhaps this is the American market, perhaps few American know or care about regional accent. Remember the pain of Kevin Costnor as Robin Hood - this is actually much much worse - and I am far from Spanish.



The previewed piece has little dialogue and the narrator voice for description is not too bad - even with some inflection for Spanish words. The reality is very different - there is something almost enchanting, in a charmless brutal way, about hearing Comandante Leo Guzmán speaking in an East End voice.





Awful.





For completeness Audible have refunded my money.



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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Ignore the poor reviews this is a brilliant book, one of the best audio books I have ever listened to. The narration was very good, and even had in not been the fantastic story would have made up for it. Get it now & you’ll be hooked!

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4 people found this helpful

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

A good idea let down at the end

I enjoyed this. The idea was excellent and on the whole I was carried along, liking Guzman and hating what he did. However, there are three things that let this down.
The first was the ending, which just didn't fit in and was written as though the author had run out of steam. This was closely followed by the use of Spanish words and phrases. The story is set in Spain, so we don't need to have occasional Spanish words to remind us of the fact. A bit like cheap films that have the actors playing foreign parts speak in an accent! Finally, I was disappointing by the narrator, who took no time to find out how to pronounce the Spanish words used.
Having said all of that I would recommend it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Long, indulgent and gloriously brilliant

This book was a little slow to get going due to jumping forward and backward in time, however stick with it as its truly brilliant. I really did a turnaround with this book wishing it would not finish as I was sucked into the story, and wanted to stay with the characters.



I can't recommend this book enough and truly can't wait for the next Mark Oldfield book as its the first of three!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Utterly riveting

One of the best novels I've listened to in a long time . Informative , exciting and a good story told over three eras of Spanish history; I was genuinelu sorry for it to end. I really have no idea why some reviewers are on about the narration , it was excellent and the accents were more than adequate to convey the story. There were enough twists and turns to keep me with it over it's considerable length and I await part 2 with keen anticipation.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Phoney accents

I was disappointed in this book. The narrator was required to throw in odd words and phrases in Spanish which he did poorly. There were very unlikely story lines and some of the main characters were hard to visualise as their descriptions were inadequate.

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3 people found this helpful