Nail-biting thriller

This book has kept me gripped from the moment I started reading it. Amazing tours de force of historical writing, original & perceptive. Cannot wait for the next KM to come out in print (March for hard copy). Slight pause for thought when I first heard the accents of the 'Women' & Locals (as delivered by David Thorpe), but ended up giving him a Gold Star for clear and believable narration. Cannot recommend this highly enough. First Class!

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5 people found this helpful

Excellent Norfolk accent !

I didn't realise this book was set in Norfolk until I started it, David Thorpe accents are brilliant. I loved the story, the details about the saints and the mix of Christianity verses folk lore.

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Slightly curious title

Having had a bad run of books that I hadn't really enjoyed, finding this was a welcome breath of fresh air. This is the second of Karen Maitland's books I've listened to, the first being Company of Liars, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly I thought Company of Liars overlong and over complicated but The Owl Killers was fabulous and I achieved that curious state where I yearned for the end but didn't want to finish.

I'm still not sure about the title. The book had some superb strong, female characters and some real villains but the whole owl killer thing seems almost superfluous to the story and it would have worked just as well without it. All Ms Maitland's characters are well drawn and our narrator, David Thorp, did an excellent job in portraying them, even the women.

It took me the best part of a year to think of reading this second novel of Ms Maitland's. I suspect it won't take me that long to get round to listening to yet another!

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Olde Aged Christian and Pagan Folk story

If you could sum up The Owl Killers in three words, what would they be?

Magical - Dark - Chilling

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Owl Killers?

Pretty gruesome scenes throughout but the most memorable ones are the conversations between the village priest and the "Village ruler's" nephew.

Have you listened to any of David Thorpe’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I Haven't.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really don't think it was that sort of book.

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Don't be put off by mixed reviews

I considered all the readers reviews but as they seemed to indicate listeners either thought it great or awful it was always a gamble. however as I had enjoyed company of liars I thought give it a go. Yes it does take a while to get into and yes some of the characters are initially confusing as they all have the same names Martha this and Martha that. But as it unfolded so did the characters, the story and the intrigue. The mix of Christianity, paganism and what is possible early feminism takes us on a story of how ordinary people made sense of the world in which they lived and who had the strongest influence.Every character apart from Healing Martha seemed to have weird aspects to their attitudes and behaviour and not always very likeable.
I found Maitlands enormous knowledge about unheard of saints amazing and the story would not have worked as without it.
After i finished I needed to google benguines as I had never heard of this before.
Stick with it and don't give up until at least an hour of listening.

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21 people found this helpful

Good gripping yarn

The writing is good and never dull. It's less weird than her earlier one about the plague, but still a good solid read and it'll get you through a lot of housework, exercise or decorating!

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1 person found this helpful

Great Book

I loved this book. It switches very quickly from one character to another which I know some people dont like, but the narration helped to identify the people straight away I thought David Thorpe did wonderful voices his women were excellent!
It gives a wonderful description of life back in medieval times you wonder how people did actually survive
the hardships. Not quite sure about the ending Couldnt make my mind up on whether it was supernatural or not but I found it marvelous listening. Thoroughly recommended

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Fantastic

Brilliant book, story thrilling and superbly well read, each character having an individual voice. It sounded almost as good as a play. I really enjoyed the whole experience. This is what audiobooks is all about.

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Absolutely brilliant

My second Karen Maitland book after company of liars - I struggled with the first few chapters as I got used to the multiple perspectives but soon I was completely hooked and listening in every available moment - this book has cemented my intention to listen to or read everything written by the author. The narrator is definitely one of my favourites. Heartily recommended!

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Entralling mystical medieval

It took me about an hour of listening to really get into this imaginative and enthralling story and become familiar with the five characters through whom the story would be told. It's an extraordinary novel that brings medieval existence to life in all its day-to-day privations, subservience to the local lord, superstitions and fears of eternal damnation drummed into the populace by an unforgiving Church. It's a very powerful story of the struggle between good and evil centred around a village somewhere near Norwich where a group of women from Low Countries have setup a religious community that is distrusted by the Church and by the local community who are still in thrall to pagan beliefs exploited by a band of Owl Masters who terrorize them.
Much of the pleasure and power of this book is due to the exceptionally good narrator, David Thorpe, who brings a wealth of characters to life by giving them individual voices by which they are easily identified in this roller-coaster of a story.

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20 people found this helpful