Death and the Joyful Woman

By: Ellis Peters

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Alfred Armiger was like a bull in the ring, belligerent and sure of himself. But Armiger was mortal after all. There was no stronger proof of it than the blood that oozed from his skull, mingling with the red wine he'd spilled on the floor at the moment of impact.©1961 Ellis Peters (P)1992 Recorded Books, LLC

Excellent mystery and narrator

Beautifully written and excellently narrated, the nuanced emotions of the main characters are as compelling as the mystery itself. Set in late 1950s England.

Peters never ceases to amaze.

This was an excellent second book to the series. I will start the next one right away.

Great!

Engaging and smartly written! Peters has a way of capturing her characters’ introspective moments. It really helps immerse you into the world she has created. The narration is top notch!

Deserves its Edgar.

This book won an Edgar award, and it deserves it.

I have recently begun to tire of much modern crime fiction. Too many authors seem to think that in order to be realistic, they must also be vulgar and profane. And they seem to think that they can pique the listener's interest by describing horrible crimes in great detail. I'm tired of all that bad language and gore, so I've been going back to crime authors of an earlier time, and I'm finding much pleasure from them.

This crime takes place in a relatively small community, so everybody knows pretty much everybody else. The victim of the murder was a detestable person, so there are plenty of viable suspects. And I really enjoyed the fact that the detective(s) didn't require guns, car chases, or fist fights. There were absolutely no martial arts involved!

On the other hand, there were people I liked and hoped were not the bad guys. There was an intricate plot. There were two detectives that used their brains and never found it necessary to call anyone a dirtbag (or even worse). Though there were no guns, there was very real peril for a favorite character, which produced a very satisfactory climax to the hunt.

I enjoyed this story a lot, and I believe that you will too, even if you still like the occasional gunfight or car chase.

Enjoyed it but...

Was disappointed by the repeat plot device from first book in series: Dominic setting a trap to solve the case by putting himself in danger. Surprising that such a good writer would resort to such a repetition...laziness? I’ve loved all the Cadfael books, and the first in this series was very enjoyable for both plot and character development. This one seemed a bit thin in comparison. Still, I’ll try one more. Just hope Dominic has a more background role. Precocious kids can become tiresome.

Love the author but not the narrator

What disappointed you about Death and the Joyful Woman?

Although I enjoy Campion books, I found I just couldn't listen to this one. The narrator's depiction of Campion sounded like a Julia Child parody. Other characters were voiced better, but the main voice was just off-putting.