The Novice’s Tale cover art

The Novice’s Tale

A Dame Frevisse Mystery, Book 1

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The Novice’s Tale

By: Margaret Frazer
Narrated by: Susan Duerden
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About this listen

Unholy passions and demonic deaths...

In the fair autumn of Our Lord's grace 1431, the nuns of England's St. Frideswide's prepare for the simply ceremonies in which the saintly novice Thomasine will take her holy vows. But their quiet lives of beauty and prayer are thrown into chaos by the merciless arrival of Lady Ermentrude Fenner and her retinue of lusty men, sinful women, and baying hounds. The hard-drinking dowager even keeps a pet monkey for her amusement. She demands wine, a feast....

And her niece, the angelic Thomasine.

The lady desires to enrich herself and her reputation by arranging a marriage for the devout novice. She cares nothing for the panic and despair she leaves behind her.

But all her cruel and cunning schemes are brought to a sudden end with strange and most unnatural murder.

As suspicious eyes turn on the pious Thomasine, it falls to Sister Frevisse, hosteler of the priory and amateur detective, to unravel the webs of unholy passion and dark intrigue that entangle the novice and prove her innocence...or condemn her.

©1992 Margaret Frazer (P)2020 Tantor Historical Mystery Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths

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All stars
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Dry good naration. Characters very well balanced. Interesting regards customs,fashion and hierarchy. I enjoyed it a d will try more from this author

June with attitude

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"The Novice's Tale" is a short but relaxing and entertaining mystery brimming with fascinating and historically accurate details.

Enjoyable.

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I really liked the story and characters, engaging and well written but the narrator is dreadful, she sounds tiny bit better when reading dialogues but all the story narrative sounds like AI, monotonous with robotic intonation
you know those little clips online with digital voiceover? the intonation is EXACTLY like this
won't be listening to other books in the series because of that :(

robotic sounding narration

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Think more complex than Ellis Peters Cadfael but less convoluted than Susanna Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew. As I said I really enjoyed.. the narrator grated for a little bit but soon got into her stride and did a good job. would highly recommend to fans of the above or fans of PD James, Ruth Rendell or AC but want to try something different and anybody else interested in trying crime a little gentler than the likes of Val McDermott

really enjoyed this book

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Thanks for review. I took a chance on this one and was very pleasantly surprised. The narration was crisp and well paced.

Thank you to reviewers.

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I realised part way into the first chapter that I’d heard this narrator before, and couldn’t listen to the whole story, as her intonation is so weird. But I struggled on this time and it got marginally less annoying as the story progressed. But the story was not strong, neither were the characters. Not enough here to tempt me into the rest of the series.

Weird narration

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The story was so-so - the characters’ almost wilful blindness to the painfully obvious was very annoying- but the worst aspect was the narrator. She sounded almost like AI - inflections - or lack of - in the wrong place - it was just terrible to listen to. Not bad for an included story, but I wouldn’t pay for anything by this author or read by this narrator.

Awful narrator

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The plot and characters are interesting if a little practiced. But the book is spoiled by the weird cadence of the narrator.

Good story, unfortunate Narration.

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Narration was off putting, but the story is written. Characters are well developed, and story line compelling

Engaging story

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A nice enough story. Sadly the narrator reads in a very weird way which ruins it.
I will refrain from listening to the other books in the series as I’ve seen it’s the same narrator.

Narration..

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