The Gardens of the Dead: Father Anselm Series, Book 2 cover art

The Gardens of the Dead: Father Anselm Series, Book 2

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Gardens of the Dead: Father Anselm Series, Book 2

By: William Brodrick
Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Elizabeth Glendinning QC has lost faith in the legal system to which she has given her life. In an attempt to restore it, she has secretly devised a scheme to bring a guilty man back to court -- Graham Riley, whom she had successfully defended some ten years previously.

As part of an elaborate contingency plan, Elizabeth leaves the unsuspecting Anselm with a key to a safety deposit box, to be opened in the event of her death. Three weeks later she is found dead in the East End of London. Once the box has been opened, a chain of events is triggered as if from beyond the grave, and Anselm is led to fulfil what Elizabeth has begun.

The Gardens of the Dead is the second, thrilling outing for William Broderick's detective Anselm.

©2006 William Brodrick (P)2010 WF Howes Ltd
Mystery Suspense Exciting Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Summary Justice cover art
Blind cover art
The Blitz Detective cover art
The Mayfly cover art
Protest cover art
Underground cover art
Dreaming of the Bones cover art
A Great Deliverance cover art
Bleeding Heart Square cover art
The Lost Letters cover art

What listeners say about The Gardens of the Dead: Father Anselm Series, Book 2

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Slow and overly complex

I was drawn to this after an accidental introduction to William Broderick on a train (another passenger having left The Sixth Lamentation after a hasty departure!).
Unfortunately like many authors Broderick's second book just doesn't match his first and this offering is overly complicated and cumbersome leaving the listener rather frustrated. The plot is slowly drip fed, skipping backwards and forwards through time and presenting from various character's points of view. It adds little to the experience and feels rather like Broderick has been on a number of " How to write" courses and thrown every plot device he learned at this one book.
In addition Father Anslem's ponderous musings on life (occasionally irksome in the first book but increasing so in this one ) have become more cryptic - leading to a uncomfortable feeling that Broderick wishes his hero to be seen as profound but actually writes him as rather confused .
The narrator does a good job with a rather wearisome task and at the end you are left feeling rather underwhelmed.
It's a shame as the premise is good and Anslem has real possibilities but I'm not sure I have the patience to find out.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Would recommend

Enjoyed this very much. Perhaps not as good as book 1. However this will not deter me from starting book 3 asap. William Broderick writes a good tale with many twists along the tale that eventually unfold and are resolved at the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Possibly not suited to an audio format, this fiction work is slow and boring. I found myself losing patience and interest as the various poorly signalled shifts in time and place occurred. With so many distasteful or uninteresting characters, there was not one sufficiently appealing to justify the effort of continuing to the end. I reached the finish line only because I had paid to download the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

The gardens of the dead

I downloaded (and wished I hadn't) Wiliam Brodrick's four books with Father Anselm in them, because I thought they might be (and sounded) interesting. As a previous reviewer has said, I only finished it because I had paid for it. I have one of his books on disc sitting in the car and I will probably throw that, as I will the other three (one completely unread), because they bore me to tears and I don't really care who does what to whom! Or, did what to whom!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful