The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez
The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez, Volume 1
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The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez
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Narrated by:
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Jan Cramer
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By:
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Ann Swinfen
About this listen
It is the year 1586. England is awash with traitors, plotting to assassinate the Queen and bring about a foreign invasion. The young physician Christoval Alvarez, a refugee from the horrors of the Portuguese Inquisition, is coerced into becoming a code-breaker and agent in Sir Francis Walsingham's secret service. In the race to thwart the plot, who will triumph - the ruthless conspirators or the equally ruthless State?
©2014 Ann Swinfen (P)2016 Ann SwinenListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- J. Wexler
- 25-11-23
Implausible
The terror (and the implausibility) of a combined 1) woman 2) physician 3) hidden Sephardic Jew simply was difficult to swallow.
The tone of the story seemed young adult to me. While I am aware that there were, quite correctly, sephardim who posed as Portuguese to avoid the grasp of Spain and secretly existing in England, the combination of the 3 factors simply was nonsensical. ALL Jews were orthodox at that time, including hidden, converso and anusim jews. They would not tolerate gender bending, eating oysters without a thought or being a physician.
Being a woman pretending to be a man would have been trouble, being a jew would have been a death sentence until Oliver Cromwell reversed national policy. Why swinfen felt the need to stress the cross gender issue was gilding the lilly.
Just too historiclly over the top for me. PS I am a Sephardic jew and happen to have lived in Portugal for the past 4 years.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Longedge
- 13-04-20
It hasn't gripped me - see how I go with the next.
I've come to this series having first finished the "Oxford Medieval Mystery" series which I really enjoyed. This first book has been something of a disappointment by comparison and I'm not at all sure that I'll finish the series but I'll give the next one a chance and see how it goes.
I got to the end thinking that there were several major questions that hadn't been addressed at all. I much prefer to get the back story rather than just be given a bald fact without any sort of explanation or expansion.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- The Curator
- 04-05-18
So predictable
Sadly the plot was predictable, the characters pretty one dimensional and the twist could be seen from page one. As mentioned by another reader, the narration was made uncomfortable by the sound of swallowing.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- R. Hickie
- 20-09-23
Disappointingly trite
Returned this book, and won't be listening to any more in the series. As a huge CJ Sansom fan I was hoping to have found another gripping historical series, but was sadly disappointed. Lacks depth, detail or any real characterisation; what might be described as a 'potboiler'.
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