The Play's the Thing
The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez, Volume 7
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The Play's the Thing
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Narrated by:
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Jan Cramer
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By:
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Ann Swinfen
About this listen
When Kit Alvarez returns from Muscovy, it is to discover that her post as physician at St. Thomas' hospital has been given to another. Trying to eke out the small income she earns from some of Dr. Nuñez's private patients, she undertakes paid work as a copyist with James Burbage's company.
But the players' companies find themselves under threat. Two of Burbage's men are murdered. One of Henslowe's men is attacked. And two important new plays go missing, one by Will Shakespeare and one by Christopher Marlowe.
Are the thefts merely the work of a jealous, unlicensed company? Or is there a conspiracy afoot to use the plays in some more dangerous game?
©2016 Ann Swinfen (P)2018 Ann SwinfenListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 139
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Story4 out of 5 stars 140
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- By MJ on 01-13-13
By: Imogen Robertson
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A Mortal Bane
- By: Roberta Gellis
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 658
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 486
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 489
Magdalene la Batarde is the madam of the Old Priory Guesthouse in Southwark. She and her women are expected to engage in a number of sinful activities, but bloody murder isn't one of them until Baldassare, the messenger, dies. Though Baldassare isn't a regular client of the Old Priory Guesthouse, Magdalene and her women refuse to allow his death to go unavenged. Of course, their efforts aren't completely altruistic.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Delightful
- By Jim on 08-25-05
By: Roberta Gellis
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The Ashes of London
- By: Andrew Taylor
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 223
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4 out of 5 stars 197
London, September 1666. The Great Fire rages through the city, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St. Paul's is engulfed in flames and reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is James Marwood, son of a disgraced printer and reluctant government informer. In the aftermath of the fire, a semi-mummified body is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul's, in a tomb that should have been empty. The man's body has been mutilated, and his thumbs have been tied behind his back.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Entertaining Historical Fiction
- By Simone on 05-01-17
By: Andrew Taylor
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The Midwife's Tale
- A Mystery
- By: Sam Thomas
- Narrated by: Leila Birch
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 84
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Story4 out of 5 stars 82
It is 1644, and Parliament’s armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels’ hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget’s friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Only so so
- By Marie on 11-13-13
By: Sam Thomas
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To Shield the Queen
- By: Fiona Buckley
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 445
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 353
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 351
Rumor has linked Queen Elizabeth I to her master of the horse, Robin Dudley. As gossip would have it, only his ailing wife, Amy, prevents marriage between Dudley and the Queen. To quell the idle tongues at court, the Queen dispatches Ursula Blanchard to tend to the sick woman's needs. But not even Ursula can prevent the "accident" that takes Amy's life. Did she fall or was she pushed? Was Ursula a pawn of Dudley and the Queen?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fun and engrossing
- By SophieG on 05-31-10
By: Fiona Buckley
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Luck in the Shadows
- Nightrunner, Book 1
- By: Lynn Flewelling
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,073
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 688
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 692
Spy, rogue, thief, and noble, Seregil of Rhiminee is many things, none of them predictable. And when he offers to take on Alec as his apprentice, things may never be the same for either of them. Soon Alec is traveling roads he never knew existed, toward a war he never suspected was brewing. Before long he and Seregil are embroiled in a sinister plot that runs deeper than either can imagine and that may cost them far more than their lives if they fail. But fortune is as unpredictable as Alec's new mentor.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic Series! Homophobes, shut up!
- By Ted on 09-23-11
By: Lynn Flewelling
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A Plague on Both Your Houses
- The First Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew
- By: Susanna Gregory
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 276
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 248
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Story4 out of 5 stars 249
Matthew Bartholomew, unorthodox but effective physician to Michaelhouse college in medieval Cambridge, is as worried as anyone about the pestilence that is ravaging Europe and seems to be approaching England. But he is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I should have loved this book.
- By J. Miller on 09-11-19
By: Susanna Gregory
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Servant of Death
- Bradecote and Catchpoll
- By: Sarah Hawkswood
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4 out of 5 stars 56
The much-feared and hated Eudo - the Lord Bishop of Winchester's clerk - is bludgeoned to death in Pershore Abbey and laid before the altar in the attitude of a penitent. Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him? The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the walls of the abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again....
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3 out of 5 stars
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Medieval armchair mystery
- By Marie on 08-12-17
By: Sarah Hawkswood
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The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
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Crowner Royal
- By: Bernard Knight
- Narrated by: Paul Matthews
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
London, 1196. At the command of Richard the Lionheart, Sir John de Wolfe has left his beloved West Country for the Palace of Westminster, where he has been appointed Coroner of the Verge. But with the king overseas, embroiled in a costly war against King Philip of France, Sir John is dismayed to discover that the English court is a hotbed of greed, corruption and petty in-fighting.
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5 out of 5 stars
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good
- By Wadie on 02-05-10
By: Bernard Knight
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The Speckled Monster
- A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox
- By: Jennifer Lee Carrell
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
The Speckled Monster is both a hair-raising tale of courage in the face of the deadliest disease that has ever struck mankind, and a gripping account of the birth of modern immunology. Jennifer Lee Carrell's dramatic story follows two parents who, after barely surviving the agony of smallpox themselves, flouted 18th century European medical tradition by borrowing folk knowledge from African slaves and Eastern women in frantic bids to protect their children. Their heroic struggles gave rise to immunology.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wish it was another 19 hours long!
- By Book reader on 06-10-14
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The Fourth Crow
- Gil Cunningham Mysteries
- By: Pat McIntosh
- Narrated by: Andrew Watson
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
Tied to St Mungo's Cross by the cathedral to be cured of her madness overnight by the saint, the young woman is found in the morning beaten and strangled, still tied to the cross. But is she who she seems to be? And who would flout the saint's protection like this? Gil Cunningham must trace the dead woman and find her enemies, track down the thieves and murderers and identify the watchers in the shadows, particularly the elusive fourth person who holds the secret of what happened that night. Questioning cathedral staff and apprentice boys, pilgrims and tradesmen, he uncovers only more puzzles.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Scots for real.
- By JBatte on 10-20-22
By: Pat McIntosh
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Shaman's Crossing, Book One of the Soldier Son Trilogy
- By: Robin Hobb
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,179
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 945
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Story4 out of 5 stars 948
Hugo and Nebula Award finalist Robin Hobb crafts intricate fantasy tales featuring larger-than-life characters and exotic landscapes. Nevare Burvelle survives the King’s Cavalla Academy—where nepotism and corruption reign—to become a soldier in the Gernian king’s army. As he and his fellow soldiers are thrust onto the front lines of the king’s brutal territorial expansion campaign, they struggle against the Plainspeople—forest-dwellers who possess a powerful magic long dismissed by the Gernians.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Sometimes Magic Isn't A Good Thing
- By Therese M. Woolley on 10-18-13
By: Robin Hobb
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The Counterfeit Madam
- Gil Cunningham Mysteries
- By: Pat McIntosh
- Narrated by: Andrew Watson
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
Gil Cunningham had hoped that the first time he set foot in the brothel on the Drygate it would also be his last, but by the time all was settled he felt quite at home within its artfully painted chambers. The bawdy house, along with the neighbouring property and two more in Strathblane, are all part of a deal offered to Gil and his wife Alys by the forceful Dame Isabella.
By: Pat McIntosh
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The Alchemist's Apprentice
- By: Dave Duncan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 219
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4 out of 5 stars 108
When the Council of 10 takes the seer Nostradamus into custody, suspecting him of poisoning a friend of the prince, his young apprentice must unravel a web of magic and murder if he is to have any future of his own.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Book.
- By DoktorK on 07-12-08
By: Dave Duncan
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
- By: Sandra Gulland
- Narrated by: Kim Handysides
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 49
In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinico, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote village of her birth to the height of European elegance is long, but Josephine's fortune proves to be true.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Performance...ugh
- By Lisa on 02-17-18
By: Sandra Gulland
What listeners say about The Play's the Thing
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Judith Wainer
- 02-06-19
Fantastic Elizabethan series
Engaging story with the multi layered and irresistible central figure: and plenty of historical gems as well. Can’t wait for the next book!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- E. Ann Clark
- 04-26-19
Great series
I have truly enjoyed this series thus far. The only problem is that the last two books in this series are not available on audible. Please complete this series for all to enjoy.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Gail N.
- 07-18-18
The story would have benefitted from some editing.
Poor Christoval Alvarez cannot catch a break. Despite having performed some amazing deeds in earlier novels (no spoilers here) she returns to London and finds her position at a hospital for the poor has been taken by someone who was only supposed to fill her place while she traveled on to Russia. The story is very convoluted and a bit hard to follow since it hinges on some obscure historical occurrences in Elizabethan England. I thought it ran overlong and as a result dragged a bit. I do think the other books in the series are better written and more engaging. This one was just so-so.
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1 person found this helpful