The Anatomist’s Wife by Anna Lee Huber

Narrated by Heather Wilds

It’s possible that I may have squealed with delight when I learned that Anna Lee Huber’s series of historical mysteries featuring Lady Keira Darby were being released as audiobooks. The books themselves (there are three so far; The Anatomist’s Wife is first in the series) have all proved to be highly entertaining, well-constructed tales featuring an engaging heroine, a gorgeous hero and a delicious slow-burning romance which has developed slowly but surely across all of the stories.

The widow of a renowned surgeon and anatomist, reclusive artist Lady Keira Darby was thrust into the limelight in the most unpleasant way following her husband’s death. A much older man, Sir Anthony Darby married Keira with the sole intention of putting her artistic skills to use by forcing her to illustrate the book on anatomy he was writing – simply because he was far too tight-fisted to pay someone to do the job.

The exposure of her involvement in the project led to Keira being branded as “unnatural” and shunned by society at large, the worst gossip painting her as an evil woman who trawled the streets looking for likely subjects for experimentation. That might seem rather a leap, but when one considers that these stories take place just a short time after the discovery of the shocking activities undertaken by Burke and Hare, and all the sensationalist stories and scandal that surrounded them, it’s perhaps not so difficult to understand the impetus behind such lurid accusations.

In the sixteen months since her husband’s death, Keira has lived quietly with her sister and brother-in-law, the Earl and Countess of Cromarty, at their remote residence of Gairloch. But when, during a house-party, one of the guests is found murdered, many of the other guests are only too willing to point the finger of suspicion at the woman dubbed “The Butcher’s Wife” and “The Sawbones’ Siren”.

With the necessary authorities several days ride away, the earl asks one of his guests, Mr Sebastian Gage, the son of a renowned military officer and inquiry agent, to begin his own investigation into the murder. Keira doesn’t like what she’s seen of the handsome and charming Mr Gage – he’s too handsome, too charming and too often surrounded by hoards of women who are only too eager to throw themselves at his feet and into his bed. But when her brother-in-law also requests her help – her knowledge of anatomy may enable her to assist in the investigation – the unlikely pair reluctantly agrees to work together until the authorities arrive.

Gage isn’t wild about the idea of having someone assist him, and Keira is hard-pressed to hide her dislike. But as the book progresses, the two begin to make discoveries about each other, as well as discoveries relating to the murder; Keira realises that there’s much more to Gage than a pretty face, and he comes to value her insight and her keen powers of observation.

Both central characters are strongly drawn. Keira has been through some truly horrible experiences and wants nothing more than to forget them, move on with her life and immerse herself in her painting. She reveals little of herself to others and trusts nobody other than her close relatives, and yet there is something about Gage that draws her and begins to earn her trust. He is similarly restrained and careful to deflect personal questions and comments, preferring to hide behind the persona of the “golden lothario” he presents to the world.

This mutual reluctance to reveal too much of themselves is one of the things that makes the slowly moving romance between them work so well. Keira finds herself becoming increasingly attracted to Gage as his more admirable qualities are revealed, even as she tells herself how unlikely it is that a man who can have his pick of women could find anything to admire about her. Because the story is told in the first person, from Keira’s point of view, the listener is not given access to Gage’s thoughts on the matter, yet the author skilfully drops in subtle hints as to the fact that he may not be as indifferent to her as Keira thinks. The romantic and sexual tension between the pair is palpable throughout, and Ms Huber develops it brilliantly – there’s one scene in the first half of the book which is a real temperature-raiser, and the couple doesn’t even touch!

The murder mystery is a complex story which takes a number of convoluted twists and turns, and has a few red-herrings thrown in for good measure. It comes to a satisfying and plausible conclusion – but not before Keira’s quick understanding and keen eye have landed her in serious jeopardy.

Heather Wilds is a narrator whose performances I normally enjoy, so I was pleased to see her name attached to this series. But while her portrayal of Gage is very good and she effectively differentiates between all the characters, she has a number of vocal ticks – related principally to phrasing and intonation – which I’ve discovered can become a little obtrusive, and for which I need to make adjustments and allowances once I’ve started listening. She has a tendency to snatch a breath in the middle of what should be a continuous sentence or phrase, and this sometimes leads to her placing the emphasis incorrectly. It’s difficult to describe in writing – but the closest I can come is to say that it’s like listening to someone reading aloud who hasn’t read ahead, and so doesn’t realise that a sentence continues over the page or that the eventual context requires a different cadence.

I also noticed a number of mispronunciations, the most common of which is the fact that she says the first syllable in Cromarty as “Chrome” – so the word is pronounced “Chrome-arty”, whereas the correct pronunciation has the first syllable pronounced to rhyme with “from”.

This is the first time (I think) I have had cause to take issue with Ms Wilds’ use of regional accents. I’ve heard her pull off a variety of European and English accents successfully, but I’m afraid her Scottish accent is… I was trying to find a nice way to say this, but I have to be honest and say that her Scottish accent is pretty poor. And here, I have to raise my eyebrows in Tantor Audio’s direction, and ask why on earth they engaged a narrator who struggles with Scottish accents to read a series of books set in Scotland and in which there are a number of Scottish characters?

Had these been limited to the odd servant or “bit player”, I think I could have accepted it, but Ms Wilds has opted to perform the Earl of Cromarty – Keira’s brother-in-law – using a Scottish accent (even though the text clearly says that most of the time, he sounds like an English gentleman); and because he has quite a lot of dialogue in the first couple of chapters, I found them quite difficult to listen to.

All these points of criticism must make it sound as though I disliked Ms Wilds’ performance – but that’s far from the case. It’s probably because she’s such an accomplished performer that I have higher expectations of her, and am thus more disappointed when she fails to fully live up to them. None of the issues I’ve mentioned made me want to rip out my earbuds and stomp on them (although the Earl of Cromarty’s bad accent came close once or twice!) and weren’t enough to spoil my enjoyment of the story. I intend to listen to the other two books in the series, which I certainly wouldn’t do if I’d been unable to enjoy this one, and the story is sufficiently compelling as to enable the listener to get past the more minor frustrations.

Caz

Narration: C+

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: You can listen out loud

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Historical Mystery/Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

The Anatomist’s Wife was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.