The Poisoned Quill cover art

The Poisoned Quill

The Detective Lavender Mysteries, Book 8

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The Poisoned Quill

By: Karen Charlton
Narrated by: Russ Williams
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Summary

Ealing: August 1814

Detective Stephen Lavender's wife and children are spending a glorious summer in the picturesque village of Ealing. When the vicar's wife is poisoned, Lavender is asked to review the case. He soon realizes something rotten is festering at the heart of this rural idyll.

Convinced the wrong man has been arrested and the killer is still at large, Lavender is also disturbed to discover someone is sending the local gentry vile letters containing outrageous accusations. Could the same hand that drips such poison from their quill also have administered that fatal dose of arsenic?

Fortunately, Constable Ned Woods and his family are visiting nearby Brentford to solve a perplexing family mystery of their own. When the body of a second woman is found, Lavender seeks Woods' help to unravel the tangled web of lies and deceit spun by the killer.

Distracted by these crimes, the two men are unaware of the sinister danger stalking their own children—until it's almost too late. But help comes from an unlikely source, bringing with it resolution to a question that has haunted Woods since childhood and reminding Lavender that family must always come first.

©2025 Karen Charlton (P)2026 Tantor Media Historical Mystery Detective Village
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The poor author must be grinding her teeth when she hears the narrator speed read her book. Must be the worst story teller I've ever heard, I can't even finish listening to the book, it's that awful. Makes you wonder if it's an AI created narrator, shameful!
Which is a shame, nothing wrong with the story. I might have to buy and read the book myself.

Dreadful narration

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