The Medici Letters: A Novel

The Secret Origins of the Renaissance

By: Taylor Buck

Narrated by: Murdoch (Doc) Pennington

Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

A shocking ancient secret.

The origins of western civilization discovered.

The Renaissance - our most fundamental age of technological and artistic advance, was built upon a secret passed down to a banking family in Florence - the Medici.

500 years ago that secret was buried.

Florence, Italy, present day. A trove of letters belonging to the Medici family is discovered underground. Archaeologist Kat Cullen comes across a map that leads her to the Swiss Alps where her partner is murdered and she is left for dead. Kat’s husband, professor and classicist - Jack Cullen, rushes to investigate. He joins with Chester Allen, a scientist from surveillance enterprise TerraTEK Industries, and together they begin to unravel the mystery of the Medici letters in hopes of determining what happened in the Alps. As they dig deeper, Jack stumbles across a secret - the infamous Medici treasure is real. However, word gets out and Jack soon realizes he’s not the only one interested in finding it...a deadly and elusive assassin attempts to seize control, throwing Jack into a series of harrowing escapades - riding horseback through the streets of Siena, discovering clues inside ancient cathedrals, deciphering 500 year-old cryptosystems, and navigating an underground labyrinth in order to solve a secret so powerful it could change the world forever.

This fast-paced adventure blends together a modern-day treasure hunt with historic accounts of Lorenzo de’Medici in Renaissance Florence in an international thriller with plenty of dark twists and exciting turns.

©2015 Taylor Buck (P)2020 Taylor Buck

Great narration, not at great story

The narration was excellent. The characters where performed perfectly. The story was way too long and the ending was disappointing.

Great narrator, story needs cleaned up

Murdoch Pennington does a stellar job with different voices and accents! He really makes it worth listening. The story has great potential, but is excessively wordy and wanders into a lot of insignificant details.

Good story, interesting history

The story itself drives this forward, but it’s so poorly told it was difficult to stick with it to the end. The author drags out the drama to a ridiculous extent, flipping back and forth when it’s obvious what will happen next. The switchbacks are also unnecessary and tedious and the characters are flimsy.
The narrator was very irritating too - the character voices were distinctive but most of them felt insipid and slightly nauseating. This might be better reading than listening. The story was worth it but I would not recommend the listening.

Terrific narration!

Murdoch Pennington is somehow able to differentiate multiple characters, keep them all consistent, and imbue each with the personality ascribed by the author. Although the novel itself is over-detailed and could use some editing, Pennington manages to make the story come alive and keep the drama flowing.

Fascinating History

Thoroughly enjoyed this reading of a troubled yet enlightened period of History that changed the world.

loved it

Loved the narrator. Great accent changes. story very creative, loved the ending, if it was the ending?

Riviting !

My wife & I both agree that the story more than holds your attention & that Murdoch Pennington is tops! Look out Radio Reader!

I struggled to finish this book.

Although the narration was great, the story was much too slow for my taste. it reminded me of the Historian.