Crow Hollow

By: Michael Wallace

Narrated by: Rosemary Benson

Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1676, an unlikely pair - a young Puritan widow and an English spy - journeys across a land where greed and treachery abound.

Prudence Cotton has recently lost her husband and is desperate to find her daughter, captured by the Nipmuk tribe during King Philip's war. She's convinced her daughter is alive but cannot track her into the wilderness alone. Help arrives in the form of James Bailey, an agent of the crown sent to Boston to investigate the murder of Prudence's husband and to covertly cause a disturbance that would give the king just cause to install royal governors. After his partner is murdered, James needs help too. He strikes a deal with Prudence, and together they traverse the forbidding New England landscape looking for clues. What they confront in the wilderness - and what they discover about each other - could forever change their allegiances and alter their destinies.

©2015 Michael Wallace (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

well worth the time, if the book is on sale.

This book is not high art by any means, but I appreciate it's existence, as someone who enjoys audio daily. It is a nice clenser between heavier works. While the story is nothing spectacular, nor are the characters, they are well serviceable. I will admit to being impressed with the care put into setting and wondrously avoiding many tropes other historical novels use.

Just okay.

Would you try another book from Michael Wallace and/or Rosemary Benson?

This will be a short review.

I listened to this one on Audible and I found the narrator to be a little overwhelmed by playing several male characters all which had the same inflections in their voices. Unfortunately, I was a little underwhelmed by the story in general. Prudence Cotton is a New Englander puritan whose village was ransacked by Nipmuck natives. She was taken hostage along with her young daughter and held captive for several years. Since then she has been freed, but her daughter is thought dead when the British soldiers raided the Indian village. Prudence believes she is alive.

James Bailey is an English spy, in the colonies to steal their charters. With the help of Peter Church he hopes to investigate the native attack on Prudence's village and that of Crow's Hollow. Events bring Prudy and James together to solve this mystery. While I find myself fascinated by historical fiction, this one felt strained. The unyielding Puritan faith was often quite annoying and while I was sure the author purposefully injected Gods wrath and the threat of eternal torment to depict the people of that age as well as the hypocrisy of their actions, I eventually found it so incredibly tedious.

That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the book. Prudence is clever but she feels opportunistic and you never know what to make of James, who comes off as arrogant for the majority of the story. There are no good guys and no bad guys in this story. The native Americans are portrayed as villains and victims, as much as the British. Other than a few brief mentions, Crow Hollow has little to nothing to do with the story making me believe the name was selected because it sounded cool.

Enjoyed

enjoyed the story. The narration was very good and expressive. Love history, and this was a good piece of history that I haven't spent much time thinking about.

Don't pass this one up!

Great story. Overall plot slightly predictable but there were plenty of twists, turns, and the sort to keep me guessing. In one sentence: I loved this book!

This was actually my first audiobook and I couldn't have had a better experience.

Glad I stayed with it....

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it was a good story set in historical New England about 100 years before the US Revolutions. Provided some insights as to harsh living conditions of that time and how early Americans lived.

Have you listened to any of Rosemary Benson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

The author gives you a great internal struggle

The story gives you pause in your sense of patriotism, your turn between wanting the protagonist to win and wanting him to lose much like Putacotton in the story. a great listen, the reader does an alright male voice and remembered whose voice belonged where, better then others I've heard. Full of adventure, some mystery, and intrigue, I could have gone for a bit less descriptive during the proactive scene but I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. Buy the book and enjoy!

An intriguing story.

Hard to stop listening until the end. I would have preferred less graphic sex. Overall a very good story.

Good listen

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It was well read, and the story kept my interest to the end.

my first Michael Wallace, I enjoyed it

First time author for me. This book is a mystery set as historical fiction but I see the author has written books in different genres; sci fi, World War II, a series set in a polygamist Mormon community, all mysteries.

This book is set in 1670's Massachusetts. You have Puritans, Quakers, British agents, a couple Native American tribes plus greed and evil. There have been two massacres, one where the Native Americans massacre a small town then the subsequent revenge killings of almost the entire tribe. British King Charles sends one of his best agents to get to the bottom of what really happened. How suspenseful can that time frame really be? Well, it was a pretty good story and I enjoyed it. I'll give the author another try, maybe a WWII mystery....

Wonderful!

I loved this book. It kept me engaged from beginning to end. Very well written, and narrator was great!