The Hawks of Delamere

By: Edward Marston

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Hugh d’Avranches, Earl of Chester, is enraged when his hawk is killed by an arrow in the Forest of Delamere. When two poachers are caught, he orders their execution, yet neither of them fired the arrow.

As Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret come to Cheshire to settle a series of disputes between Church and State, they are guests of the earl. But when they explore the castle and discover that the Prince of Gwynedd is being held there as a hostage, a number of questions arise. Who is trying to rescue him? Why is Idwal, the overzealous Welsh priest, lurking in the city? And whose arrow is responsible for a gruesome human death in the forest?

©1998 Edward Marston (P)2022 Soundings

much too long

Sorry to say the story dragged. Could have profited by more editing. i enjoyed others in this series more.

Another great one!

This series just gets better. Evil people had places of power and this time in history was brutal.
Murder and hidden secrets have the duo on the alert.

Big Mistake

I have been enjoying this series, but, in my opinion, Edward Marsten makes a couple of big mistakes in this entry, First, he brings back the series' most irritating character. David Thorpe voices this character so as to make him as irritating as humanly possible. I had to fast forward through his parts of the plot because he is so intolerable. But the second mistake is more serious. Marsten creates a sympathetic character with a highly sympathetic cause and then pits them against Ralph and Gervase. This left me with the uncomfortable feeling that Ralph and Gervase were in the wrong. The discomfort was particularly strong with Gervase. I rooted for the sympathetic character, but they of course didn't win the fight. On a side note, I'd like to see a little conflict in the lovey-dovey romance between Ralph and Golda--conflict that runs a bit deeper (and less cliched) than: Golda: "No, I won't let you go fight in this war!" Ralph: "But I must! My manhood is at stake." Golda: "Oh, very well."

The narration is not good

The story is fine, and typical of the fomulanfor this series, but the narrator is way over the top. I know it's good to differentiate between characters and imbue them with personality as written, but the interpretation of Eatl Hugh is really too much. I typically like David Thorpe's reading but I'm going to have to finish thos one in print.