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  • The Unquiet Bones

  • By: Mel Starr
  • Narrated by: Steven Crossley
  • Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,145 ratings)
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The Unquiet Bones

By: Mel Starr
Narrated by: Steven Crossley
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Summary

First in the medieval whodunnit series set in Bampton, Oxfordshire, during the plague years and featuring a newly qualified surgeon

Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. 

A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes. 

From there the tale unfolds, with graphic medical procedures, droll medieval wit, misdirection, ambition, romantic distractions, and a consistent underlying Christian compassion.

©2008 Mel Starr (P)2019 by Blackstone Publishing

What listeners say about The Unquiet Bones

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Shardlake's Younger Brother, the surgeon

Anyone who admired the Shardlake series and especially Stephen Crossley's narration, as i did, will enjoy this book and hopefully the series, I have immediately downloaded book 2!
The plot seemed slightly less edgy and aggressive than the Shardlake plots but was still enjoyable and Stephen Crossley was once again excellent.

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

history come to life

I so enjoyed the Shardlake stories I felt quite saddened to have read them all. And then I discovered Hugh de Singleton, surgeon and found myself happily back in the medieval world of intrigue. This was an interesting story with great characterisation, brought to life by the excellent evocative narration of Stephen Crossley. I can highly recommend this book

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

well told interesting story

enjoyed the narrative, story well told thank you
plot was good , love story well told too

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Ponderous.

The author clearly knows a lot about the period and, having written a book myself I know the effort that must have gone into the writing of this novel. However, although the author is clearly very knowledgeable for the most part about the daily lives and feudal structure of the period, this actually tends to get in the way of the story, which is seriously lacking in pace. There is too much repeated detail, for example, of various meals, and much of the dialogue could have been cut and the information given in reported speech, which would ramp up the pace somewhat. There is no sense of jeopardy for the protagonist - he bumbles along, deliberating and commenting, without there ever being the sense that he is under pressure to discover the identity of the murderers - even at the climax of the book, where we are told that he must find out the truth before Christmas day, three days hence, he still keeps bumbling along. I wonder if the choice of a first person narrator was the best one, or whether a third person narrator would have helped with the pace? Whatever - the book badly needed a structural edit.
As for the motive of one of the murderers, it just does not stand up, given the hierarchy at the time.
I don't think the performance helped either. The reader reinforces the pompous and ponderous tone of the novel with a very slow delivery and some rather odd intonation, to my way of thinking.
I listened to the whole novel but am not enamoured enough of the protagonist to venture further with him.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

Surgeon turned Bailiff hunts killers. Rattled along decently and was a good solid plot. The main character didn’t grab me but but might grow on me in later books.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining and engaging

I enjoyed this audiobook.

It was nicely performed, and the reading was done smoothly and at a nice pace.

The story itself was entertaining, although not the most challenging of mysteries, pretty well-researched, with interesting characters, and a good first person narrative. I found Hugh to be an engaging character, an unenthusiastic and not exactly brilliant detective, a bit uncomfortable in many social situations, and a lonely romantic on the quiet. His fixation on food was amusing, and, in a time when famine was common and the range of food available was restricted, a nice touch. His religious faith was nicely included, and it came across as natural for someone brought up in 14th century England. The author had clearly done their research and wove the facts neatly into the story. The way it was written made it "feel" like an old form of English without making me work at following it.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

pleasant book

Its a reasobable book, story quite good and goes at a reasonble pace. Not particularly taxing so great for when listening to while doing other things just not while operating machinery because the narrator is soporific.. not so terrible that you cant dtand listening to him but not a real story teller.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Promising New Series

I love a mediaeval/Tudor mystery and having worked my way through every Shardlake, Cadfael and Matthew Bartholomew I am pleased to find these. Stephen Crossley is a fine narrator and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A real find!

I had not come across this series before and have very much enjoyed the first one. There is a lot of mediocre stuff in the historical crime genre but this is entertaining and with the ring of authenticity. Recommended.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

didn't always keep my attention

it was fine but there wasn't enough twists and turns for me to keep me on a knife edge.

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4 people found this helpful