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The Gallows Curse [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Karen Maitland (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 12 Dec 2011

1210 and a black force is sweeping England.

For a vengeful King John has seized control of the Church, leaving corpses to lie in unconsecrated ground, babies unbaptized in their cradles and the people terrified of dying in sin.

And in the village of Gastmere, the consequences grow darker still when Elena, a servant girl, is dragged into a conspiracy to absolve the sins of the lord of the manor. As the terrors that soon begin to plague Elena's sleep grow darker, in desperation she visits the cunning woman, who has been waiting for just such an opportunity to fulfil an ancient curse conjured at the gallows.

Elena, haunted by this curse and threatened with death for a crime she didn't commit, flees the village ... only to find her nightmare has barely begun.

For treachery lurks in every shadow as King John's brutal reign makes enemies of brothers, murderers of virgins and sinners of us all.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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1210 and a black force is sweeping England.

For a vengeful King John has seized control of the Church, leaving corpses to lie in unconsecrated ground, babies unbaptized in their cradles and the people terrified of dying in sin.

Elena, haunted by this curse and threatened with death for a crime she didn't commit, flees the village ... only to find her nightmare has barely begun.

For treachery lurks in every shadow as King John's brutal reign makes enemies of brothers, murderers of virgins and sinners of us all.

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Product details

Audio CD
Publisher: Oakhill Publishing Limited (12 Dec 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0857354574
ISBN-13: 978-0857354570
Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 19.3 x 19.4 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Review

A ripping tale set in the year of 1210. Full of colour and detail (Daily Telegraph )

Maitland's richest yet: a breathless romp through an England rendered spiritually desolate. Bubbles over with the exploits of desperate priests, scheming herbalists, torturous conspirators, a dwarf-sized madam and a plot of treason against the King (Metro )

Bawdy and brutal (Simon Mayo )

A gem of a story. Meticulously researched and told with blood-curdling relish, this is a tale that will keep you awake at night (News of the World )

A richly evocative page-turner which brings to life a lost and terrible period of British history, with a disturbing final twist worthy of a master of the spine-tingler, such as Henry James (Daily Express )

Karen Maitland neatly catches the spirit of primitive superstition (Daily Express ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Karen Maitland travelled and worked in many parts of the United Kingdom before finally settling in the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln. She is the author of The White Room, Company of Liars and The Owl Killers. The latter two titles are available as Penguin paperbacks. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Karen Maitland's best yet 8 Mar 2011

By Veronica Marwood

Format:Kindle Edition

Like Karen Maitland's other two books, Company of Liars and The Owl Killers (both great, by the way), this is a complex, labyrinthine mystery set in medieval England. The Interdict of 1208 forms the background for the plot, which concerns two main characters. The first is Elena, a 15-year-old serving girl who becomes a runaway, and later finds herself tricked into prostitution, after she's accused of killing her own baby. The second is Raffaelle, a tortured, revenge-hungry lord who is forced out of his manor by the brothers he holds responsible for his own agonies during the Crusades, as well as those of his late best friend and master Gerard. There are twists, turns and deaths galore as Raffaelle and Elena, both separately and together, attempt to outwit the treacherous Osborn and Hugh, making plenty of friends and enemies along the way.

Having enjoyed the author's previous novels so much, I expected a lot from The Gallows Curse, and it didn't disappoint. The characters are wonderful. Elena seems to be a bit of a cliché at first (innocent, beautiful young girl who has just about every tragedy possible thrown at her and survives despite the odds) but I found myself warming to her more and more as the story went on. As you see the horror and loneliness of life as a runaway villein and an unwilling whore through Elena's eyes, you end up rooting for her to make it through and get revenge on her tormentors. In Raffaelle, meanwhile, Maitland has created a fascinating, flawed, contradictory antihero and probably my favourite character of all the books I've read recently. He's simultaneously repulsive and entrancing, hateful and heroic.... He does some awful and some great things; he pays dearly for his sins and for attempting to selflessly help others, but it's impossible to ignore the fact that many of his actions are motivated purely by his lust for Elena. Yet I ended up feeling more sympathy for the character than I would had he been unbelievably 'perfect'.

The glimpses into the characters' pasts and memories are fantastic, and really make the whole story feel fleshed out. The plot has everything - violent deaths, sexual deviance, witchcraft, spying/treason, prophetic dreams, a collection of caged exotic animals, shedloads of dark secrets and plenty of daring escapes, all against the backdrop of a 13th-century England depicted so vividly you can almost taste it. I love the way Maitland works elements of the supernatural into the plot without fanfare, so seamlessly you can easily believe magical beings and powerful witches really existed as part of everyday life back in medieval times (the story is part-narrated by a mandrake, and one of many subplots involves a pair of cunning women with an ancient grudge). What's more, the action-packed ending is a knockout. If there are flaws, they're to do with repetition in the language. The characters utter the same curses over and over again (God's blood, Satan's arse etc...), and the words 'stench' and 'stink' are repeated way too much - we get it, the Middle Ages weren't particularly fragrant. But overall, such minor flaws didn't do much to dent my enjoyment of the book overall.

While at first I missed certain elements from Maitland's other books - the variety of first-person narrators from The Owl Killers, the wide cast of eccentric characters from Company of Liars - I think this new tale may be her best yet. I was riveted throughout the book, and upon finishing it my instinct was to jump right back to the beginning and start all over again. I would recommend Maitland's novels to anyone interested in historical fiction; as well as being compelling and obviously very well-researched, they're also darkly funny, full of surprises and undeniably entertaining. Read more ›

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I tried, I really did 20 Nov 2012

By A. Anderson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I absolutely loved Maitland's previous two novels, and couldn't wait to get started on this one. I was expecting, I suppose, the same precarious dark ride through the early middle ages, with strong characters and a plot you could belong to. That doesn't happen here. I really really tried to like this book, particularly after some of the very positive reviews I read here (I had to keep coming back and reading them, to keep myself going). In the end, after page 270, I gave up. I just did not care enough about the characters or what was going to happen to them. Neither Elena or Raffe seemed particulary well-drawn, neither had much depth, and an awful lot of the plot development seemed quite random. It's not clear why Raffe wants to protect her, or at least why he seems to fall in love with her, why the brothers Osborn and Hugh seem so intent on hunting her (a villein) down, so much was simply unexplained. And at the end of the day, rather dull. I had no interest in what happened next - the only reason I read so far was in the hope that the cunning woman might do something. A vain hope. Not at all the ripping tale the newspaper quotes promised.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars good but not my favourite KM so far 25 April 2011

By Green Book Addict Librarian VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm giving this book 4/5 although I have to say that it's not my favourite of her books so far. I think Company of Liars and The Owl Killers were much better and perhaps my
expectations were too high because of that and I'd been anticipating this book for over a year, that when it actually arrived, it sat on my book shelf for about 2 weeks, and then took me about another 2 weeks to read. Whereas with the other two books I went through them in no time and even read The Owl Killers twice. In any case, I can't quite put my finger on what bothered me about the book, just that I was a little dissatisfied after reading it. I didn't really like any of the characters either and that is unusual and there were a few "what happened to...?" still left unanswered at the end. Not a bad book by any means, hence the four stars, but just lacking that certain something of the previous two books.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Gallows Curse 23 Mar 2011

By S Riaz HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

It is 1210 and King John is on the throne - but this is no medieval bodice ripper, this is dark and dangerous historical fiction. Following on from the excellent "Company of Liars" and "The Owl Killers" is this latest outing by Karen Maitland. They are all stand alone books, but there are certain themes that run through them all. Superstition and magic abounds in a time when people believed truly in spells, relics and potions. People lived where they were born and most rarely travelled; so even when our heroine, Elena, visits the nearest town, it overwhelms her. Karen Maitland is a very descriptive writer, bringing the places, people and time to life. She also interweaves several storylines and characters. The book is not confusing, although you do have to concentrate and there is a list of characters to refer to at the beginning of the book until you have them all straight in your head!

We follow Elena, at first happy and in love, content with her lot, until she is plucked from the obscurity of manual labour to work in the manor house. Pope Innocent III has placed the kingdom of England under an interdict after King John refused to accept the pope's appointee Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. The Church's sacraments have been withdrawn from the people - including the last rights. Tricked into unwittingly and unknowingly taking a dead mans sins, Elena begins to have bad dreams. The whole situation begins to spiral out of control, as Elena becomes no longer sure about whether her dreams are real and what she is capable of doing. As life at the manor begins to fall apart, so does Elena's life collapse with it.... Read more ›

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› See all 47 customer reviews (newest first) on Amazon.co.uk

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› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews 4.7 out of 5 stars

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Another hit for Maitland.

I've been reading Maitland since I came across "A company of liars" and she continuously sets the bar high. Read more

Published 9 days ago by ThatBoyLuke

3.0 out of 5 stars Book

Very atmospheric novel that really sort of put you in situ as you are reading it. There were a lot of medieval words used that were explained and this added interest. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Gillian O'Neill

4.0 out of 5 stars Preferred it to Company of Liars

I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. Didn't bother too much with the Mandrake's Herbal sections but the story kept me more interested than Company of Liars in that it seemed... Read more

Published 1 month ago by AlexM

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Compelling

Having loved and reviewed Karen Maitland's previous two books, Company of Liars and The Owl Killers, I was expecting great things from The Gallows Curse. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Elizabeth Perrat

1.0 out of 5 stars unnecessarily complicated plot

The basic premise/plot line of the book falls apart less than half way through. If the mother and daughter witches have enough power to do some quite strong magic by themselves,... Read more

Published 2 months ago by J. C. Day

4.0 out of 5 stars Gallows Curse

Karen Maitland is brilliant and recreates the past vividly, like her earlier work more than her recent work though. This is still very good.

Published 3 months ago by susannah Burston

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book

Bought for my fiance, he's started reading it and so far it seems good. He'd heard it reviewed on a radio show.

Published 3 months ago by Miss J Stenning

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, though a bit too long

The Gallows Curse

This is the third of this author's (unrelated) novels set in Medieval England. Read more

Published 3 months ago by John Hopper

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read

A wonderfully well written medieval story. Lots of murders and some rather gorey passages but then life was like that then. Read more

Published 4 months ago by painter lady

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read about treachery, sin and fear!

This book by Karen Maitland starts in the year AD 1210, during the reign of King John, and from that year onwards the book is developing into a most thrilling read. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Clemens Schoonderwoert

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