Chains of Folly

A Magdalene la Batarde Mystery, Book 4

De: Roberta Gellis

Narrado por: Susan Duerden

That Nelda Roundheels had been murdered would have been of little interest to anyone - except that her body turned up in the bishop of Winchester's bedchamber with a letter to the bishop, from the king's most important enemy, rolled up in her breastband. The bishop and his knight, Sir Bellamy of Itchen, realize immediately that the purpose of putting the body in Winchester's bedchamber is to embarrass and discredit the bishop. And the reason for this attack on Winchester is his calling of a convocation to chastise the king for acting high-handedly against the bishop of Salisbury. Had the king himself ordered this outrage? Had the king's favorite, Waleran de Meulan, ordered it? Unfortunately the answer is not so simple to find; there are many other noblemen who want the king's favor and might attack Winchester to get it.

To save Winchester's reputation it is urgently necessary to discover who killed the woman and who placed her in Winchester's bedchamber. Bell, to his mingled joy and distress, is ordered to ask Magdalene la Batarde, whoremistress of the Old Priory Guesthouse, once his lover but now estranged, to help him solve the mystery.

©2006 Roberta Gellis (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Another whodunnit in medieval London

If you could sum up Chains of Folly in three words, what would they be?

murder mystrery or practical joke?

Who was your favorite character and why?

Sir Bellamy was my favorite character because I enjoy watching him struggle to reconcile his desire for Magdaline with the knowledge of how she supports herself.

What about Susan Duerden’s performance did you like?

Actually, not much. her main virtue is her authentic middle class British accent. Her delivery was monotonous. She has a narrow range of emotions to bring to her narration.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Join Magdalene la Batarde in medieval London and solve another whodunnit.

Any additional comments?

Ms. Gellis needs to widen the scope of her research on this historical period so that she can offer a fuller view of medieval life. She spends too much time on the aquisition of meals and expalining the legal and spiritual status of prostitutes in this period of history. Her books are short enough that I feel her editor could easily eliminate several references with no detriment to the storyline. Adding more details and vignettes about court, family and relgious life would be welcome additions to her narrative. If she could add a little more accurate historic detail (e.g. the lute is a rennaisance instrument a few centuries to the future), she could bring medieval London to life.

Still worth the listen.

I do love Roberta Gellis, so I bought this despite the negative review about the narration. It's not Susan Duerden's best, but I found that it improved as it went along and I did enjoy it.

I miss Nadia May's reading

Good story but this narrator is too sing-song-y for my taste. Every sentence seems to have the same rhythm, the same inflection. It's soporific and makes it very hard to follow the actual story line.

Deserves more credit than it's getting

I grabbed CHAINS OF FOLLY as soon as I saw it was available, in spite of the beating the new reader was taking from listeners. The Magdalene la Batarde series is a delight for medieval mystery lovers, and CHAINS OF FOLLY is no exception. I wish Gellis had continued the series after this.

It is the rare reader who can produce both male and female voices faithfully, and this reader's voice is especially high. She shouldn't even try to sound male. The more successful strategy is to create the character by temperament, not timbre. However, her comprehension of the author's intention seems superior.

The Narrator is Awful

The story is fine, especially if you are familiar with Roberta Gellis's other Magdalene stories. But the narrator! Oh, the narrator! She places the same emphasis on every sentence, thereby ruining the cadence of the story. Everything is said with a breathless disbelief that makes something simple such as "set the bread on the table" sound like she's calling a horse race. It's awful.