Death by Silver

By: Melissa Scott, Amy Griswold

Narrated by: Matthew Cresswell

His practice newly established, metaphysician Ned Mathey can't afford to turn away any clients. But the latest Londoner to seek Ned's magical aid gives him pause: Mr. Edgar Nevett, an arrogant banker, is the father of the bully who made Ned's life hell at boarding school. Nevertheless, Ned accepts the commission to ensure the Nevett family silver bears no ancient or modern curses, and then prepares to banish the Nevett family to unpleasant memory again. Until Edgar Nevett is killed by an enchanted silver candlestick one of the pieces Ned declared magically harmless.

Calling on his old school friend Julian Lynes - private detective and another victim of the younger Nevett - Ned races to solve the murder, clear the stain on his professional reputation, and lay to rest the ghosts of his past. Assisted by Ned's able secretary Miss Frost, who has unexpected metaphysical skills of her own, Ned and Julian explore London's criminal underworld and sodomitical demimonde, uncover secrets and scandals, confront the unexpected murderer and the mysteries of their own relationship.

In Death by Silver veteran authors Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold introduce a Victorian London where magic works, influencing every aspect of civilized life, and two very appealing detectives.

©2013 Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold (P)2013 Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold

Great Story

Where does Death by Silver rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It kept my attention and increased my understanding of what Gay life and bachelor life was like in late 1800's London.

What other book might you compare Death by Silver to and why?

The book was in the format of a Sherlock Homes novel in that a mysterious murder is unraveled by pure detective work and it takes place in a similar city and time with two characters playing on each other's strengths to catch the killer.

What three words best describe Matthew Cresswell’s voice?

Voice is excellent. The quality of the recording itself was just below excellent. The editing was obvious and distracting, at times one heard the narrator swallow, turn pages, move his chair and one heard background sounds.

ehhhh

the story was good but the performance almost ruined the experience with too many pauses

Well written intriguing mystery but many narration editing problems

Alt world Victorian London murder mystery with a dash of m/m, what's not to love?
The narrative style and dialogue were witty and perfectly pitched as to the situation at hand. The flashbacks truly helped the reader (I read this first) understand the current state of affairs among the players in the drama. Well Done!

Unfortunately, the audible version was not so delightful. The narrator did tolerably well with character voices (There were some inconsistencies in accent and timbre), but the editing! As one of the characters might say, "I could hardly keep my countenance!" Long pauses, repeat sentences, truncated paragraphs, disturbing extraneous noises (like sirens), snuffling, were almost distracting enough to render it unlistenable, which is truly a shame as the story is so good. I would recommend to the authors or Audible that they spend a few schillings on a re-edit of this delightful tale so as increase its appeal and market value

Very Pleasant

Despite the narrative having a cold and chewing on lozenges. Nice approach to a magic system.

Fabulous story, Ruined by Narrator

I'm very irritated by paying actual money to listen to one of my favorite books being ruined by this awful actor.

Unique Twist on Sherlock & Holmes Genre

This is a good detective story in a Victorian era setting that is elevated by a magical twist to the murder mystery. A cursed candelabra is the murder weapon and Ned Mathey and Julian Lynes are hired by the family to solve the murder. Scotland Yard is also investigating but everyone from the family matriarch to the head detective swamped with cases wants to pin the murder on a botched burglary or a maid from a poor background. Ned is a talented metaphysician with a fledgling business and Julian is both a private detective and Ned's friend and lover from old school days. It's a good mystery offering the reader a number of possible murderers, all with motive and means. There's a romantic element between the two main characters as they rekindle a friendship, but no explicit sex scenes. (darn)
I liked the story well enough to buy the second book in the series, and in fact started it just before bed.
Matthew Cresswell narration was satisfactory, although there were frequent little gaps, or delays between words that interrupted the flow of the story.

Horrible sound edits

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

Yes, but the ebook, the sound was awful.

How could the performance have been better?

Another narrator, I could hear him swallow, smacking his lips and various other background noices, it was just plain bad.

Do you think Death by Silver needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

There is a sequel, and I think a novella on the way. Yay, love the guys.
Book 2 is also in audio, but with a different narrator, I might try that, once I have a fresh batch of credits.

Death by Silver, imagining the use of magic as commonplace and mundane in everyday life.

Extraordinary world building and creativity; unique to the extent that I could listen to this narrator as though he were in the setting being described,,,it is very much worth the effort...

Good story, terrible reader.

The setting and characters were well done. The reader was monotonous, and a variety of nonverbal mouth noises made it through the editing process. Inhalations, sighs, lip-smacks, tongue clicks make for a very amateur performance. No effort was made to differentiate one character's voice from another.

Audio editing is embarrassingly flawed

I enjoyed the story quite a bit. The problem is that the audio edits and recording are just, amateurish-? I literally heard a delivery truck backing up in the recording. (I started laughing, it was just so ludicrous.) As mentioned in other reviews, there are odd pauses where there shouldn’t be, and failures to delete when the narrator flubbed a line and re-read it. I liked his voice, although he didn’t distinguish strongly between the two main characters, which got confusing at times, since the authors switch perspectives without strong differentiation. Although- ! Maybe if we didn’t have those odd unnecessary pauses, the typical pauses between scenes that can indicate a shift in perspective would have been obvious-?

I’ll still listen to the next one. The world building and characters were fun.