• The Witches' Tree

  • An Agatha Raisin Mystery
  • By: M. C. Beaton
  • Narrated by: Alison Larkin
  • Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,765 ratings)

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The Witches' Tree  By  cover art

The Witches' Tree

By: M. C. Beaton
Narrated by: Alison Larkin
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Publisher's summary

Molly hunched over the steering wheel. A breeze started to move the fog, which danced in swaying pillars in front of her headlights, somehow even more difficult to drive through than the previous thick fog. As she approached the village, through the shifting fog, she saw the lightning-blasted limbs of the witches' tree....

Driving home from a dinner party in the village of Sumpton Harcourt, Rory and Molly Harris, the new vicar and his wife, strain to see the road ahead - and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights, a body hangs from a gnarled tree at the edge of town. An elderly spinster has been murdered - and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime.

Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion (a little glad for the excitement, to tell the truth, after a long run of lost cats and divorces on the books). But when two more murders follow the first, Agatha begins to fear for her reputation - and even her life. The village is a small and very private place, she finds. It even has its own coven of witches....

©2017 M. C. Beaton (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Witches' Tree

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What Happened?

I love Agatha Raisin audiobooks. Especially when Penelope Keith narrates them. There is no humor in this book and there is a lot of nastiness between the characters. It’s hard to distinguish the characters because they all sound about the same. There needs to be a more animated narrator. Like Penelope Keith.

I thought Mrs Bloxbys name was Margaret and now it’s Sara.

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31 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars

Why

I loved the story but...........Wrong narrator for this series!!!!!!! Just terrible.. would rather not listen. Doesn't someone listen to this narrator before putting this out for sale? I think she would be better for an English only reader.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I feel like such a traitor but...

I have to admit disappointment. have listened to EVERY Agatha Raisin (and Hamish) novel Ms Beaton has written and loved them all. Most have been enjoyable enough to demand eager, multiple-listening sessions. It pains me to say I keep turning this one off. It's going to be a while before I can finish it. The narrator's strident, annoying, screeching is just more than I can bear. While the story itself isn't Beaton's best; it seems vague and rushed to completion, the narration does nothing to enhance the reader's imagination, the characters or the story. Considering Ms Beaton's recent personal loss, I'm sympathetic and can easily to overlook this story's weaknesses because I think of her as a long-time friend who will soon be back on top of her game, but the narration is unforgiveable. I look forward to the next Agatha novel AND a new narrator.

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Disappointed Fan

I've loved all of M.C. Beaton's books. Love her Agatha Raisin series and the Hamish McBeth series but was really disappointed in this.
First off, there are discrepancies about the character names from other books. for example, here Mrs. Bloxby is Sara but in all her previous books, her name was Margaret. There are several discrepancies like this.
Secondly the narrator is NOT GOOD. She's unable to make any distinct voices for the characters so they all sound alike.
I'm about 45 minutes in and don't even want to finish it. I'm really disappointed by this book and narrator.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

The narrator was fine it was the subject matter that was flawed this writer needs to get woke


Where to start? I cannot believe this book was written in 2017 that’s modern enough to have left old bigoted speech that may have once not been frowned upon far behind.

I actually did not mind the plot of the story as much although it did seem to drag on, or even the narration but as I kept listening I kept hearing things that didn’t sit right. I am not a fan of cancel culture but I would definitely say this author could use a class in sensitivity training.

First thing that gave me pause was the authors easiness with freely
Disparaging Small African towns, I think at one point she even goes as far as to refer to them as butt whole places.

Second was when she starts to talk about a part of London that the Vicar moved from Saying that a place was full of African immigrants and crime and not blaming the Vicar and his wife for wanting out

Third came when a friend stopped by who is most likely suppose to be gay and the author choose to call a man who is portrayed as being basically being gay effeminate instead of just saying that he’s gay. It just came across as a needlessly judgmental statement.

Fourth was when our main character Agatha ask a rape victim was the rape horrible? ((Uhh what?!)) and then gets outwardly and in all honesty pretty aggressively offended when the victim doesn’t want to talk to her about it. Such a jerk move. (Spoiler) I also thought it was not only random to the plot but in pretty poor taste that she had the rape victim called a tease by various men and then had the vicar’s wife totally break character and have a random romp on the table with one of the other characters. It didn’t serve any purpose at all to the plot and it seemed like the author was making a low key statement about women who claim to been taken advantage of sexually.

This was my first Agatha Raisin Novel and will probably be my last, Which is a shame because I love a good British mystery, but the characters were just not easy to like Agatha’s need for male approval started to become tedious to hear about every other 15 mins and the climax was extremely anti climatic.

All in all this book felt like a good 2 days spent with a rude aunt who refuses to age gracefully, is constantly rolling through a roller coaster of emotions and constantly needs to be adored by men, not my cup of tea.




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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Gratuitously filthy nonsense. Goodbye, Agatha

**SPOILERS**
I have read every Agatha Raisin book, beginning with the Quiche of Death, and ending midway through this useless bit of time wasting trash. MC Beaton, or whoever writes for her these days, has either lost her marbles or lost any interest in anything but publishing royalties. In this ‘story’ a vicar’s wife is gang raped and later referred to as a ‘prick tease’. Nearly every male character calls one or more female character ‘bitch’. And Agatha pants after every single male- even fantasizing about marriage to and mating with a male the police call a ‘fairie’ because of his campy Australian accent. What calendar year was this Frankenstein’s monster hashed together any way?? I am returning this mess; certainly not worth a credit



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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator

I wish Penelope Keith was narrating. She has been the best so far.
To vocally differentiate between characters is one of the best traits she has. Her voice is also strong and clear.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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wrong narrator

I love Agatha Raisin but, like others have mentioned in the last few books, Alison Larkin is just not the right voice for the Agatha Raisin series. I can only assume that she must be under contract as a narrator. Why else would she continue to read for this series when she is so obviously wrong for it? I'm still purchasing books from this series, but this one has pushed me to my limit. I am struggling to get past the voice in order to hear the story. Honestly, is too taxing on my ears and I will not likely buy another Agatha Raisin unless there is a different narrator. My apologies to Alison.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Possibly Ghost Written

I love Agatha Raisin books, but this experience might be my swan song engagement with the series.

I am wondering if someone else wrote the book. There were some "in your face" sexual references that felt off compared with the other warm books and an attempt to bring in hip new technology that seemed to have no point.

I want to thank the real M.C. Beaton for the wonderful other books. I spent many blissful hours listening to them driving home from work .

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Simply Awful

Narrator's voice was grating. Plot was nonexistant. Characters too angry. I usually love Agatha Raisin

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