Speaks the Nightbird

By: Robert R. McCammon

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 30 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Fiction, 2013

Judgment of the Witch

The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies - and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Issac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal....

Evil Unveiled

After hearing damning testimony, magistrate Woodward sentences the accused witch to death by burning. Desperate to exonerate the woman he has come to love, Matthew begins his own investigation among the townspeople. Piecing together the truth, he has no choice but to vanquish a force more malevolent than witchcraft in order to save his beloved Rachel - and free Fount Royal from the menace claiming innocent lives.

©2002 Robert McCammon (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Edoardo Ballerini performs this story of accusation and fear flawlessly. He effortlessly switches his pitch, accents, and timbre to suit the unfortunate Rachel Howarth, the endless curious Corbett, and the various determined characters, good and evil.” (AudioFile)

"a compelling story that should find a wide readership. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections." (Library Journal)

"An excellent story, full of tension and suspense.” (Stephen King)

Can't Stop Listening!

You will not be sorry if you buy this book! I am so happy to see that it is the first of a series. The story and performance are top notch. For me the only bad thing is that sometimes I listen to books at night when I can't sleep. This book does not help! It is so gripping and interesting that you can't nod off at all. The characters are all well drawn, the story intriguing, and the performance among the best I have heard on Audible.

Long listen but kept me listening.

What made the experience of listening to Speaks the Nightbird the most enjoyable?

It seemed quite easy to believe.

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

He was easy to listen to and made each character seem real.

Absolutely Captivating

I downloaded this book for two reasons: 1) I love mysteries placed 200 (or more) yrs ago; and 2) reviewers gave this narrator very high marks. This lived up to my expectations and then some!

The book has one overall story arc which is faithfully advanced and completed with no loose ends hanging ... it also has a number of supporting sub-plots that very nicely give legs to the larger story. The characters are excellently drawn with all the necessary human foibles and traits. The story has many of the details needed to credibly create an end 17th century setting and satisfy what we know of life in America during that time period.

The primary reason I bought this book was other reviewers giving this narrator rave reviews. He absolutely did not disappoint. I don't believe the story fabric could have held together this well without his reading and fantastic painting of many, diverse characters.

A very, very satisfying book!

Terrific novel!

An amazing novel that felt like living an extraordinary existence in colonial America; wonderful plot, characters, theme and full of suspense and mystery. It is long but so worth staying with it; as the story unfolds you fall in love with the characters and the setting. I teach AP Lit and IB English Literature so I have an extremely high standards for my novels and this one is just plain wonderful- exciting-full of vivid imagery-thematic complexity and beautiful writing; I was entranced to the very end. It starts slow but builds and builds until you can not shut it off! Thank you Robert McCammon! I'm going to check out what else you've written!

Speaks the Nightbird

Would you listen to Speaks the Nightbird again? Why?

yes, It is fascinating and draws me in.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

yes. There is no certainty of knowing what is coming. The tension stays tight.

Which scene was your favorite?

Have not finished the book yet, so it is hard to say.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Still reading the book.

Addicting, enthralling

I LOVED this book. I bought it having no clue what it was about, and loved every minute. the narrator was fantastic, and the story was beautifully crafted. I'll be hunting down much more from this author!

Historic Witch Trial

This story follows Matthew as he helps the magistrate convene a witch trial. Matthew is a curious young man and doesn't believe Rachel to be a witch so he starts an investigation of his own. What follows is one messed up town. You learn the secrets of many of the citizens, a few we would rather not know about, Even though it's a very long audio book for the most part it holds your attention through all the twists and turns the story takes. There's violence and some gory parts you don't want to visualize. There's also some sad parts and other parts where you just want to take Matthew and knock some sense into him for some of the stupid things he does.

The narrator was excellent and I don't believe anyone could have done a better job with all the many voices and accents he had to do. He made this long story come to life.

Took awhile but now I'm in love

There's thing thing I do whenever I'm watching a movie that takes place in the past. There will be this moment where there's an angry mob with a bunch of torches getting ready to do something - throw somebody out of town, or make a citizen's arrest, or just cause a general rumpus - and I always think "if only I was there! I would have stood up for justice! For truth! I would have showed these ignorant peasant folk their shame!"

Which is completely hooey.

I mean, in all reality I probably would have been right there in that crowd with them, brandishing my own torch in one hand and pitchfork in the other. But we all like to BELIEVE that we would have been different. We all like to imagine that we would have been the smarter, better looking, better dressed voice of reason in times gone by. SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD is the wish fulfillment equivalent of my movie watching experience. Matthew Corbett is a younger, less self assured kind of version of Sherlock Holmes if he had lived in colonial America rather than Victorian England. And of course it's only his incredibly astute eye that can save the incredibly sexy, smart, independent woman falsely accused of witchcraft who is also in possession of curves that kill and a heart made of gold.

What can I say? This one was just pure fun. It did take me awhile to get into this one though. I'm usually the type of reader that likes to go through and nitpick historical fiction, but I didn't feel the slightest bit guilty for turning my brain off and just letting this audiobook have at me. If you're looking for a fun easy read that will keep you occupied for some time to come, then I HIGHLY recommend this one to you. After all what more could you ask for - a great mystery, a little romance, adventure, danger of all sizes and shapes, pirates, Indians, lost treasure, circus performers and a great new character that will leave you wanting more in no time. There were moment were I was actually laughing out loud, and other still where I was biting my nails because I had no idea how the characters were going to get out of trouble this time. I've already purchased the next few books in the series and I'm loving them all. The fact that I'm even willing to put in all the time necessary to listen to these says volumes about how enjoyable these are. After all, they aren't exactly quick reads, and it takes a commitment to finish them.

Recommended for anyone looking for their next swashbuckling adventure.

Best I've Heard in a While

I really loved this book. The combination of suspenseful mystery and historical detail kept me listening well after I should have turned it off and done something productive.

So diappointing

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Only to bad friends. I was so disappointed by this book for several reasons, the main one being that I could not warm up to the supposed hero of this story. Matthew is introduced to us and we see him as a boy or young, inexperienced man - and for the life of me it was wholly unconvincing how this feeble, thin voiced scholar would turn into a man in the course of one week(!) and even attempt a solo hike through the wilderness. Yes, he mans up and he acquires some back bone - but please! Give me substance! I was also disappointed by the story. To me it was thin and just felt like a row of forced and contrived events rather than of an unravelling of events. I have about 2 hours left, I know whodunnit, (such an anti-climax, too. I wanted to pull out my hair!!) and I do not care how it ends.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Most interesting: Glimpse into medical practices. Though I must also say that I am not sure how much I trust the author so that I will be doing some reasearch of my own into medicine of the 17th and 18th century.
Least intersting: Matthew + Rachel, unfortunately.

Any additional comments?

I had read in several reviews that it was as good as the "Outlander" books, which is one of the reasons I was interested in "Speaks the Nightbird". I don't think it was nearly as good as even my last favorite Outlander book of the series. It is also not a great comparison, I think.