The Tolls of Death cover art

The Tolls of Death

Medieval West Country Mystery, Book 17

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The Tolls of Death

By: Michael Jecks
Narrated by: Mark Elstob
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About this listen

After their gruelling journeys to Galicia and Scilly, Baldwin and Simon are at last back on the English mainland. Eager to get home, they set off on horseback but only get as far as Cardinham on Bodmin Moor. Here, they are detained by the castellan who requires their help to solve two murders on the estate. The first victim is a widow, found dead with her two children. The second is Serlo, the miller, who has recently been discovered embezzling castle money taken in tolls. As Baldwin and Simon begin a double investigation, they must look beneath the village friendships and family loyalties to find an evil killer and secure Cardinham's safety.

©2004 Michael Jecks (P)2020 Soundings Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Medieval Mystery Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Detective Middle ages Crime

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As a big follower of Michael Jecks this is true to form the way he weaves his characters is marvellous

the best

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I found this novel extremely complicated there were so many different people who could’ve committed crimes but in the end I couldn’t decide who done what an eye gave up.The overall performance was superb and the book was well readThe story was compelling and wonderful.The narrator was superb

Tolls too much

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This is the first of Jenk’s books I’ve listened to and I’m not really sure if I will listen to others. The bits of history and medieval life are very good. The story is intriguing, yet quite gruesome in parts and the author’s treatment of some characters is stereotypical.
The performance is good during the narrative portions and when a character is having an internal dialogue. However, the women characters all sound like cartoonish crones whether or not she is peasant or lady. Some of the male characters sound out of place, especially Warrin - who sounds like a really bad impersonation of Marlon Brando. The child character voices are particularly grating.
So, I’m not really sure if the issue is with the prose or the performance. You shall have to listen and make up your own mind

Hmmm, not sure.

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There are the usual large number of supporting characters in this but they, especially the women, are so sketchily drawn that they merge into one. The narrator generally does a good job but his characterisation of older women as Monty Python style crones is annoying

Sketchily drawn characters

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