The Raven in the Foregate

By: Ellis Peters

Narrated by: Vanessa Benjamin

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

Christmas, 1141 A.D. Abbot Radulfus returns from London, bringing with him a priest for the vacant living of Holy Cross (known as the Foregate), a man of presence, scholarship and discipline, but neither humility nor the common touch. When he is found drowned in the mill-pond, suspicion is cast in many directions, not least toward a young man who came in the priest's train, sent to work in Brother Cadfael's garden. For he has little obvious priestly calling. Indeed, he soon attracts the friendship of a girl both beautiful and formidable.
To Brother Cadfael, once wordly, now dedicated, if gently cynical, is left the familiar task of sorting the complicated strands which define guilt and innocence.

©1986 by Ellis Peters (P)1998 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Brother Cadfael saves again...

Ellis Peters(she, by the way) puts us square into the 11th century with Brother Cadfael in his Shrewsbury Monastery. Good plot, but I find Vanessa a little hard to understand at times. Fair paced reading, though.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good but where's the Welsh?

Vanessa Benjamin does not give Cadfael a Welsh inflection, as do Stephen Thorne and Roe Kendall.

Ellis Peters keeps you guessing until the end.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Raven in the Foregate to be better than the print version?

Not better but I enjoy having them both

Who was your favorite character and why?

Brother Cadfael is right up there with all the great literary detectives. The books give you a feel for life in medieval times but makes human nature seem truly timeless

What about Vanessa Benjamin’s performance did you like?

A very nice performance I don't think any of the other books were performed by a women actor but she was able to believable perform all of the parts well both male and female. Characters were given distinctive voices.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It is in it's way a Christmas story so the parts that take place on Christmas Eve were among my favorites.

A bit of a disappointment

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Derek Jacobi would have lifted this to the top for me.

What was most disappointing about Ellis Peters’s story?

The Narrater did not do this story justice for me unfortunately.

Would you be willing to try another one of Vanessa Benjamin’s performances?

Yes, but it would have to be a different genre to historical mysterys.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Cadfael has become horribly English

What disappointed you about The Raven in the Foregate?

The story is good, I have read it and enjoyed it. The reader seems to be reading without understanding. These stories are set in 12th Century Shrewsbury close to the Welsh border. The hero, Cadfael is Welsh, yet he along with all the other characters bar one, is given an extremely well spoken, posh, English voice. Ugh!

Would you be willing to try another one of Vanessa Benjamin’s performances?

NO

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Avoid this narrator

This narrator is terrible, pronounces common words wrongly and gives male characters absurd booming voices...

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

poor sound quality

This sounds like an old recording and therefore is not up to standard. There are background noises and variations in volume. The narrator does no justice to Cadfael or the other characters her being wooden and lacking in pace or warmth. BUT being a huge fan and having read the book many years ago, it was worth revisiting.

Another great who done it by Cadfael

Really enjoyed the story just let down by the characterisation of the voices of Brother Cadfael and Hugh. Other than those the narration was good.

poor quality sound

the sound quality of this recording is awful, the performance off the reader was completely spoiled by it.