Semana Santa cover art

Semana Santa

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Semana Santa

By: David Hewson
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 Nominated for the Audiobook Download of the Year, 2008.

Southern Spain. It is in Semana Santa - Holy Week - and the heat is building up in the city. This is always a difficult time for the police, with thousands of visitors adding to thousands of hooded penitents parading through the medieval streets.

In the modern slums and the fine old houses of the rich and influential, some have secrets going back to the terrible days of the Civil War. When a hideous double murder is discovered on the first day, the men of the force - and a visiting female academic, Maria Gutierrez - know they are in for a long week.

©1996 David Hewson (P)2008 WF Howes Ltd Crime Fiction Mystery

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Devil's Fjord cover art
A Season for the Dead cover art
The Medici Murders cover art
The Garden of Angels cover art
The Promised Land cover art
Shooter in the Shadows cover art
Romeo and Juliet: A Novel cover art
Last Seen Wearing cover art
Fatal Isles cover art
Hidden in Snow cover art
The Bonnie Dead cover art
Cambridge Blue cover art
The Photographer cover art
The Venetian Game cover art
Outback cover art
Last Bus to Woodstock cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Good history and story. got a bit confusing with some of the characters towards the end.

Good history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely brilliant. I couldn't stop listening!

Semana Santa

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent story . Brilliantly narrated as usual Really captures the atmosphere of the Holy Week processions in the south of Spain A very enjoyable and engrossing book .

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A great story and a really good narrator. A slow build up, but the pace quickens and you soon get really into the storyline. It jumps well from present time to past and there are some excellent characters that you quickly get a great feel for. The setting in Spain works really well too. David Hewson's books are in my opinion not easy plots to follow, but this story has some great twists and turns and keeps you guessing right upto the end. The added Spanish Civil War factor works well. I would strongly recommend this - i have a long journey each day and found myself looking forward to listening as the story unfolded. A great download !!!

Semana Santa

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Hewson is such a good writer...this kept my attention from start to finish, with some unexpected twists and some excellent characterisation. Barrett is one of my favourite narrators...highly recommended.

Thoroughly enjoyed this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If my friend had many summer hours to waste, yes I would recommend this novel. Finding a worthwhile listen, once abandoned, means you are pretty desperate. The author himself has expressed some regret at the flaws in this, an early novel. It is so repetitive and full of dragged out, overwritten sections. Almost every chapter has an ' overblown,' overdone section which shows a lack of ability by the writer to drag himself away from the paragraph. Groan. Some interesting use of language.

Has Semana Santa put you off other books in this genre?

Not at all. We, the Great Listeners remain hopeful.

What does Sean Barrett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Thank goodness for Mr Barrett's voice. One can at least relax whilst one could be very irritated.

Could you see Semana Santa being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

It has been made into a third rate, unsuccessful film. It is not surprising. A shame nonetheless because the exotic locales, the very interesting historical flashbacks, the " usual suspects" character types could feasibly have made a reasonable, short, TV series. In fact, there are at least two that spring to mind. Perhaps the bull fight focus was too difficult to stage.

Any additional comments?

Again, as a potential listener I would have appreciated being forewarned of more of the brutal topics covered in the text. Arguably reviewers want to avoid ' spoilers' but I for one would like to know if offences against minors, torture or other sensitive areas are included. Interesting paradox.

Well written but who forgot to edit this?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really engrossing story, brilliantly narrated by Sean Barrett. It draws you in with lots of different strands and just when you think you've solved it, you're taken down another path. Very enjoyable and thoroughly recommended.

Fantastically atmospheric

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you like your book with the words piss , shit , vomit , blood , snot , and the F word on almost every page then this is the book for you , this author is in dire need of therapy , medication and locking away for his own good , anyone who can come up with this sort of sickening narrative is kidding himself that it would pass in anyway as something any right minded person would regard as entertaining, I’m surprised that Sean Barrett would lower himself to be associated with this sort of manic outpouring .

Sick .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was brilliant and I really enjoyed every minute of it, the book was fast and pacey always something happening, characters were portrayed brilliantly and as always Sean Barrett naration superb as usual. Had that sinking feeling when the book ended

FABULOUS BOOK

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Took a flyer on this one as not my normal buy but I am glad I bought it. Sean Barrett does his normal excellent job with the narration - one of the main reasons I bought this book.

Good book with a few tense parts! Well worth a listen and a thumbs up from me.

Great narration as ever!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews