Silent in the Grave

By: Deanna Raybourn

Narrated by: Ellen Archer

Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.

Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring her husband's murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

©2007 Deanna Raybourn (P)2007 Audible, Inc.
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Critic reviews

"Riveting." (Bookreporter.com)
"Fans of British historical thrillers will welcome Raybourn's perfectly executed debut." (Publishers Weekly)

An unbelievable story- not in a good way.

I had high hopes for this book for the first half of the story, but as more twists were revealed it became tiring. It's almost as if the author was trying to put forward modern age progressive thinking by setting the story in the past, making it unbelievable. The acceptance of so many things that were "unspeakable" by so many in the story in that timeframe makes this book more fantasy fiction than historical fiction. And the narrator was awful. Too many weird pauses, plus a monotone voice for the main character.

There should be a quiz

Very enjoyable book with lots of twists and turns. A first person voice is hard to sustain but the author managed it well. However, the reader was another matter! There should be a basic vocabulary test for narrators to be sure they can actually pronounce words commonly used in books of this genre. VIZcount indeed!

Just okay

I bought this title with high hopes for a witty mystery following the many good reviews. It was just okay nothing compelling. The story was fair, the narration okay once I put it at 1.25 speed, overall an okay listen.

Narrator is not good

The story uses all. the. words. I'd love to have listened to an edited version, but overall I like the story. But the reader! The accents are not right and she can't pronounce words that are even a little unusual. She also has a character that sounds just like Madeline Basset in the TV version of Jeeves and Wooster. That's a lisp that was popular DECADES after this book and it's intensely irritating all around here.

Very good!

Great read! I was guessing all the way to the end. I can't wait to see what else is in store for these characters.

EXCELLENT

I am glad I decided to pick this one. The plot was very interesting and I could not guess who the murderer was. The narrator, Ellen Archer was very good. I will be following the series.

wonderful book

beautiful narration to go with a great story full of intrigue and amusement. I will be following both author and narrators in their future works.

Excellent!

I loved this book! The historical details are very well-researched and the characters were surprisingly funny. The narrator was great-I also own a physical copy of the book but opted to listen to it mostly on audio because I liked the narrator so much.

Awful narrator!

The Scottish accents in this book go beyond awful to being actually insulting. The narrator has no ear for English accents either. Her vowels are all over the place with an almost Minnesotan "o". She has nograsp on regional a cents in England either. The book was torture to listen to. Place names were butchered and even titles like "viscount" were mispronounced. It was so embarrassing, frustrating, and insulting, I couldn't finish the book. It was so grating, I actually found myself shouting at the narrator, whilst listening to it on a long drive.

Silent in the Grave

Deanna Raybourn is a new author for me and if her other titles are like this I'm on a roll. Silent in the Grave kept me slowing down my tasks so that I could continue with the story. The plot kept me guessing until near the end which happens rarely. Plot, characters, and social history - it's all there. This should have been a 5 star rating but...

It's a real pity that the narrator is so awful. These are the most appalling English accents I've heard for a while. The mispronunciations of common words were a real turn-off also. It's to the credit of the author that I kept listening but not again. I'm restricting my Deanna Raybourns to books in print unless there's a better reader out there.