The Raven in the Foregate, Ellis Peters
The Raven in the Foregate, Ellis Peters
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

The Raven in the Foregate
The Twelfth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael

Author: Ellis Peters

Narrator: Vanessa Benjamin

Unabridged: 7 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/20/2010

Synopsis

Christmas, AD 1141 Abbot Radulfus returns from London, bringing with him a priest for the vacant living of Holy Cross (known as the Foregate), a man of presence, scholarship and discipline, but neither humility nor the common touch. When he is found drowned in the mill-pond, suspicion is cast in many directions, not least towards a young man who came in the priest’s train, sent to work in Brother Cadfael’s garden. For he has little obvious priestly calling. Indeed, he soon attracts the friendship of a girl both beautiful and formidable.To Brother Cadfael is left the familiar task of sorting the complicated strands that define guilt and innocence.

About Ellis Peters

Ellis Peters (1913–1995) was the pen name of English novelist Edith Pargeter, author of scores of books under her own name. She was a recipient of the Silver Dagger Award and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, conferred by the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain, as well as the coveted Edgar Award, given by the Mystery Writers of America.

About Vanessa Benjamin

Vanessa Benjamin (a.k.a. Roe Kendall) is a native of the British Isles. Some twenty-five years ago she moved to the United States with her family and set down roots in Maryland. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, receiving their silver medal as well as the Sir Emile Littler and Caryl Brahms awards. Benjamin has performed on stage in the Washington, DC, area for several years and at many venues and has performed at the Kennedy Center as Mrs. Schubert in the long-running show Shear Madness. An accomplished actress and narrator, she has recorded over two hundred books. Her work as a freelance voice-over artist and narrator has led her in many interesting directions, from technical government materials to eighteenth-century romance novels to hotel advertising, but narrating books is what she really enjoys. “I really love playing all the parts when I narrate a book. It’s an adventure, a challenge, and above all I feel that I learn something new with each book I read. I do a lot of reading for the Library of Congress’ Blind and Physically Handicapped program, and it is so rewarding for me especially when I get a letter from a patron; it’s a great service for the listener.”

Reviews

Goodreads review by Wee on May 22, 2023

My first experience of this story was through the Cadfael tv show, and I have to say I enjoyed the book far more. There’s a bitterness, and surprising sexism in the show’s interpretation - and it’s adding of useless secondary characters - that just isn’t there in the book.......more

Goodreads review by Emily Kestrel on January 02, 2015

This one just didn't hold my interest. There was a lot of repetition, with the characters discussing the same events several times, which got a bit annoying. As for the actual mystery, it turned out to be the most boring murder ever. (view spoiler)[ No one killed him. He fell down and hit his head. I know, excitin (hide spoiler)]......more

Quotes

“Enchanting…Medieval England comes marvelously alive.” Washington Post

“Absorbing…A source of far more pleasure than The Name of the Rose…Brother Cadfael’s Aristotelian eye is, as usual, tempered by an instinctive knowledge of the human soul.” Detroit News

“A spirited and engrossing mystery…Lush, evocative descriptions bring medieval England brilliantly to life.” Publishers Weekly

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