LANCASTER AND YORK The War of the Roses

Weir's riveting account of the Wars of the Roses is so deliciously detailed and so attractively delivered by narrator Maggie Mash that listeners will want to set aside time to savor this enjoyable offering. While Mash consistently employs the brisk pace such a lengthy book requires, the painstaking organization of the text and the clarity of the presentation guide listeners successfully along England's serpentine and grisly path to the Tudor throne, which stretched across half the fifteenth century. Weir focuses as much on personalities as events, and Mash effectively uses tone and timbre to delineate the myriad players, stumbling only when shifting to the accents of non-British individuals. This proves a minor distraction in an otherwise outstanding audio experience. M.O.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2013]