Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Devil's Apprentice

Author: Edward Marston

Narrator: David Thorpe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-01-16

Publisher: Soundings

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Faced with the austerities of a bitterly cold English winter, the theatre is deserted, and Westfields Men find themselves out of work.

Fortuitously, the company is invited to perform at a country home in Essex - welcome news to the disgruntled players. The company decides it's the perfect opportunity to trial their new play, The Witch of Colchester.

However, when the group's leading actor begins to fall mysteriously ill, the company fear witchcraft might be involved. Then, on the performance night, an audience member inexplicably collapses and dies, paving the way for Nicholas Bracewell to uncover the cause of the strange events taking place in Silvermere.

Members Reviews:

Another excellent Elizabethan murder mystery...

While I confess to finding the characters overbearing at times, the plot was sufficiently engaging and the mysteries sufficiently well thought out enough to hold my attention.

It's Ok

I had to read this book for my Shakespeare class because they talk about Shakespearean Theatre and what not. It's a mystery novel with some accurate history in it though.

The Eleventh in a Wonderful Series

Edward Marston is the pseudonym of Keith Miles, a fairly prolific and extremely good writer of mainly Elizabethan and medieval mysteries. He has also written mysteries under his own name with both sporting and golf backgrounds. However it is primarily the books that take place earlier in history that I am interested in. He read modern history at Oxford and has had many jobs, including university lecturer, but fortunately for all his readers, he turned to the writing profession.

A cold and miserable winter has put its icy hand on the streets of London and Nicholas Bracewell, company manager and his troupe of actors are out of work. When an offer to perform at a manor house in Essex, comes their way they are only too delighted to accept. But the offer comes with two rather strange conditions. They must perform an entirely new play and also take into their little group a young apprentice, Davy Stratton.

Initially Davy fits in well and seems to be quite talented. However he soon begins to disrupt the group and begins to argue with the other apprentices. Finally running away during a trip to Essex. Nicholas begins rehearsals for the new play, The Witch of Colchester, but when the lead actor begins to fall ill with symptoms identical to those that afflict his character in the play some of the other actors begin to fear that there may be a witch among the group. When a member of the audience during the opening night performance the troupe are only too aware that their latest venture may be short lived . . .

The author's love for the Elizabethan theatre comes shining through this series of books. Plus his knowledge of the period fills the pages with authenticity and the sights and sounds of the streets and inns of Elizabethan London.

a fun read

The Nicholas Bracewell Elizabethan Theatre series is hands down my favourite Elizabethan mystery series. Edward Marston (the authour) does a masterful job of combining broad humour with an intriguing plot and an in-depth look at the workings of a theatre troupe in 16th century England. Another plus: this series is almost always consistently good.

England is currently blanketed with horrendously bad winter weather, and the Westfield's Men face a season of being out of work, when good fortune practically leaps into their laps.