The Graveyard of the Hesperides

The Flavia Albia Mysteries, Book 4

By: Lindsey Davis

Narrated by: Sarah Feathers

Rome, August AD 89. Flavia Albia, the daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken up her father's former profession as an informer. On a typical day, it's small cases - cheating spouses, employees dipping into the till - but this isn't a typical day. Her beloved, the plebeian Manlius Faustus, has recently moved in and decided that they should get married in a big, showy ceremony as part of beginning a proper domestic life together. Also, his contracting firm has been renovating a run-down building, a bar called the Garden of the Hesperides, where they uncover human remains buried in the backyard.

For years there had been rumors that the previous owner of the bar, now deceased, killed a barmaid, and these are presumably her remains. In the choice between planning a big wedding to-do and looking into a crime from long ago, Albia would much rather investigate a possible murder - or murders, as more and more remains are uncovered, revealing that something truly horrible has been going on at the Hesperides.

As Albia gets closer to the truth behind the bodies in the backyard, her investigation has put her in the crosshairs - which might be the only way she'll get out of the wedding preparations and away from all her relatives who are so very anxious to help out.

©2016 Lindsey Davis (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Tedius..not enough of the family interactions.

Tedious, not enough of the family interactions..waited the whole book for the wedding and felt let down..

New narrator doesn’t measure up.

Lindsey Davis’ 4th Flavia Albia story is a small step backward. I cannot figure out if it’s the different narrator or she and the story. Flavia is much more spunky under the talent of Lucy Brown (Albia bks 1&2.)

Pretty good.

The story was interesting. My only complaint is I wish they had used the same narrator as book 3. I had a hard time in places understanding this narrator and I didn't feel like she quite captured Flavia Albia's dry wit.

Dreadful narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

They have changed narrator for this book and I am afraid the narration was irritating (stilted, whining and colourless) to the point that it ruined the whole book. I don't think I can tell you who done it... because I stopped caring.

Would you be willing to try another book from Lindsey Davis? Why or why not?

Of course. I love Lindsey Davis books! I've read (and listened) to them all.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Sarah Feathers?

Whoever did the previous books!

Prime example of how a narrator can ruin a book...

The first narrator in this series was perfect. The second was nearly perfect. The third... I had to adjust the speed to listen at all. In some places, she sounds like Mrs. Potts. In some, she just sounds like she is holding her nose. Maybe that is an engineering issue... but the disdain in her voice has to be her own. Added to that, it seems at times as though she is trying to work through a case of laryngitis. Her voice breaks upward and it sounds almost like a yelp.

I am assuming that it's the narrator that has totally changed the tone of the book... but the humor and fun is gone. It feels like a totally different author - and a snobby one at that - wrote this title and snuck it into the series.

If I had paid for this title, I would return it. Since it's included, I'll leave it in my library, but I won't finish it instead, I bought the kindle edition (although I consider it overpriced). The text-to-speech voices on my Fire are a little mechanical, but they are a blessed relief from this fingernails-on-the-chalkboard audio.

Personally - this title should be re-engineered or just re-recorded by one of the first two narrators. I think a better reader who understands the humor and doesn't screech would make a world of difference.