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The Hanging Tree

A Historical Mystery

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The Hanging Tree

By: Irina Shapiro
Narrated by: Jess Nahikian
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In 1640, Alys Bailey was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to hang. Today, Alys is said to haunt Lockwood Hall, the Tudor manor house where she died.

When Nicole Rayburn travels to Lockwood Hall and begins to research Alys’s story for a new book, she discovers startling irregularities in Alys’s case. Nicole’s suspicions mount as every answer leads to more questions. What really happened to Alys? And what became of her son, who disappeared the day she was hanged? Could it be that Alys’s death was the result of a well-planned conspiracy, or is there another, less obvious answer? And who is trying to sabotage Nicole's efforts by stealing her work?

As Nicole delves deeper into Alys’s life, with the help of a handsome crime writer and a history-obsessed vicar, she comes to realize that “fake news” has been around for centuries, and that everyone has secrets. Once she finally learns Alys’s, Nicole’s life will never be the same.

Perfect for fans of Susanna Kearsley, Barbara Erskine, and Wendy Webb.

©2020 Merlin Press LLC (P)2022 Irina Shapiro Historical Mystery Fiction
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Initially I struggled to get into the narrators way of speaking but once the story started to unfold it was fantastic and she did an outstanding job at the narration, my initial reservations long forgotten. The story itself is absolutely fantastic. I have read/listened to many of Irina Shapiro's work and this one does not dissapoint. If you start this audiobook and find the narrator a little off putting keep on I promise its worth it she does the story justice and its wonderful. It's filled with mystery, romance and hope you won't be dissapointed.

Absolutely beautiful!

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The story is quite slow to get going and is made worse by the very poor narration, All the voices sound the same and are very very flat, with no emotion.

slow bit good

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I love Irina Shapiro‘s books, despite a few inaccuracies about British culture. I haven’t quite finished this one, but I’m enjoying it so far. The problem for me as with the last one of her that I listened to is that the narrator has a horrible fake English accent. It would make me laugh if I were only listening to it for a short time but, for a whole book, it is really grating on me. Can she not get an English person to read her books based in England? It would make things so much better.

Good story as always from Irina Shapiro another terrible narrator

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I don’t like to pick at someone’s work, it feels very personal and unfair, however I’m unable to actually comment on the story? I just couldn’t get past the narrator. She has a lovely tone to her voice at times and would possibly nail a story where accents were not required? This book was all set in England and the constant mispronunciations and mistakes, coupled with the ridiculous twangs throughout and (possibly the most heinous problem) stupid not-sure-how-to-do-anything-other-than-atrocious-upper-class accents just made it impossible to listen to the story.
I actually questioned whether the narrator was real and not some appalling AI attempt.
I honestly can’t comment on the writing? Wow!

Bad narration can ruin a story

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it was a lovely story even more so because l live in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. I disliked the narrator as a lot of words were pronounced wrong the lady being American.

location

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