The Murders of Richard III

A Jacqueline Kirby Mystery

By: Elizabeth Peters

Narrated by: Grace Conlin

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

When attractive American Jacqueline Kirby is invited to an English country mansion for a weekend costume affair, she expects only one mystery. Since the hosts and guests are all fanatic devotees of King Richard III, they hope to clear his name of the 500-year-old accusation that he killed the little princes in the Tower of London.

Jacqueline is amused at the group's eccentricities until history begins to repeat itself. A dangerous practical joker recreates famous 15th-century murder methods: beheading, poisoning, smothering, and even drowning in a butt of malmsey. As the jokes become more and more macabre, one at last proves fatal.

Jacqueline puts all her observations together for a dazzling solution that will surprise even the most attentive listener.

Download another Jacqueline Kirby Mystery.

©1974 Elizabeth Peters (P)1995 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Highly entertaining." (The New York Times)

Not her best

Had forgotten (read this in paper once) that this is a mediocre book character-wise. This is not helped by the fact that something about the reader's tonality sets me a bit on edge. I actually stopped half-way into the book, because instead of being supporting it was aggravating. I regret saying this, but it is true. The data is fascinating, but buried in strange character behavior and dialogue.

Good for driving

The plot is pretty good--you can see partial solutions then another twist comes. I did not think the narration was very good. The speaker was clear, but the characterizations were distracting rather than enhancing. Also, my recording had a number of skips. They were short enough (I think) that they did not affect the story, but they were annoying.

Bizarre mispronunciations are distracting

Great story, but who says Jacqu-oo-line? Many words are randomly mispronounced and the accents are all over the place.

not best J Kirby but love her

What made the experience of listening to The Murders of Richard III the most enjoyable?

Love the character and really wish there were MORE audiobooks from this author and character line

What other book might you compare The Murders of Richard III to and why?

Perry

What three words best describe Grace Conlin’s performance?

easy to listen to

Early Comments

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Really can't comment on the story, I just downloaded for kindle with the audible version for whispersync. Hoping for a little light entertainment this evening--sort of a bedtime story. Very disappointed with narration.

What was most disappointing about Elizabeth Peters’s story?

No comment as yet.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Grace Conlin?

Strident, grating, and annoying. Ruining this as an evening's quiet entertainment. Guess I'll haul out the reading glasses and read myself to sleep. Waste of the extra 3.99.

A boring story and a wretched reader. ☹️

This story is frightfully boring. The only nice thing about is that it was a freebie.
Grace Conlin's reading is dreadful. She has a limited vocabulary; and, her voice is akin to fingernails on a blackboard. ☹️

A disappointment

This was my least favorite of Elisabeth Peter’s stand-alone mysteries. The characters are undeveloped and stick figures. There is a noticeable absence of the usual tongue in cheek subtle humor. Jacqueline is the worst sort of female heroine, easily offended, condescending and preachy. Even her love interest, Thomas, refers to her tone as the “remorseless lashing of her tongue.” By the end I didn’t care if any of these characters were killed off or not. The only bright spot was the fairly dry history discussions about King Richard.

Enjoyable

enjoyable listen, not overly surprising plot.

If you like Peters stay away

I you have read/heard other books by E.Peters you will be sorely disappointed.
While the book itsself is entertaining and maybe even a fun listen, it in now way lives up to the expectations placed upon it by the authors name. For most authors this would be a laudable book; for Peters it's at best an embarassment.

Great story, terrible, terrible narration.

How could the performance have been better?

I adore Elizabeth Peters and always enjoy her books. While Grace Conlin is not my favorite narrator for her books (who can compare to Barbara Rosenblat?), on other Jacqueline Kirby books she's done a fairly good job. This one, being set in England, exposes a major weakness of Ms Conlin. Accents. Her British accents are terrible. Not just bad, really, laughably bad. It made it almost painful to listen to this book, and I could barely finish.

Was The Murders of Richard III worth the listening time?

On this one and with this narrator, I really have to recommend just reading the book. The narration nearly ruined the whole thing for me.