Deadly Affair by Lucinda Brant

Narrated by Alex Wyndham

I decided to give Deadly Affair a try mainly because of the very strong recommendation Caz gave me for the narrator. Caz reviewed the first book in this series, Deadly Engagement and liked it very much. In her review, she mentioned that Ms. Brant took a leaf out of Laura Kinsale’s book and paid a lot of attention to getting the right narrator. That was enough to pique my interest. I’m happy to say that I agree with Caz’s view of Mr. Wyndham’s skills. I dare say he can give Nicholas Boulton a run for his money.

I’m not a big mystery reader, but I do find I can be more adventurous with an audiobook and I can wait more patiently for things to come together. Perhaps that’s because when I’m listening I’m always doing something else as well, but whatever the reason, it means that if I decide to stretch myself outside of romance, I will usually choose audio as the medium for it. My grade for the book’s content also reflects my romance bent; there really isn’t very much romance in this one. What there was, I liked but it is firmly a mystery with just a touch of romance and listeners ought not expect the traditional romance arc (that’s a hint). I knew it was a mystery and so I was able to be happy with the book overall even though the romance factor was fairly light.

Caz assured me that I could start at book two without much trouble. In terms of the story itself, I think she was right. There are things which I didn’t understand and parts that remained a mystery (for example, the villain of the first book was not revealed here). Sometimes they frustrated me a little but it didn’t really affect the story being told in Deadly Affair. Plus, it’s my own fault anyway. I expect listeners of the first book will appreciate that there’s not a vast amount of back story given in the second book – you plunge straight into the action. The good news for me is that I plan to listen to the first book at some point. It’s a little backward but I’m curious enough to want to know what happened.

Mild spoilers for Deadly Engagement follow. Be ye warned.

Lord Alec Halsey, recently elevated to a Marquessate, has returned to London after some months away. He accepts a dinner invitation from an old school friend, Sir Charles Weir. It is not the casual dinner for two he was hoping for. Instead, there is a large number of other guests, including the Duke of Cleveley, his heir, Lord George Stanton and a “scruffy vicar” by the name of Blackwell. Charles had been the duke’s secretary for many years and has now been rewarded with a rotten borough and is therefore an MP. Alec’s politics most closely align with his Uncle Plantagenet, a humanist who campaigns vigorously for the abolition of slavery. Charles and the duke are on the other side of the political divide.

During the course of the dinner, Blackwell, who was seated next to Alec, suddenly dies. It is pronounced a heart attack by the attending physician, but Alec suspects foul play.

What follows is a rather complicated mystery, the seeds of which were sown a generation earlier. The cast is large and there are important historical (ie before the time the book is set) data given to the listener during what may appear to be fairly rambling conversations. (Or, maybe other listeners more familiar with the mystery genre will know the code and realise: CLUE).

To give much of the plot away would involve spoilers and be too complicated in any event. What I will say is that it all comes together in the end. I did have a couple of questions about how certain characters were going to deal with certain revelations but the mystery of the death of the Reverend Blackwell is certainly solved and there is even a romance, of a sort, between two of the secondary characters.

As for the romance between Selina and Alec, matters progress a little from where they were left at the end of Deadly Engagement and I was treated to the delight of hearing Alec confidently declare his feelings and regard for Selina. However, there was not a lot of time spent with the pair and matters are unresolved between them at the time the book abruptly ends.

The narration is excellent. Mr. Wyndham gives voice to the large cast with consummate skill. He differentiates the characters by accent, pitch and tone, to the point where each was easily recognisable. I was particularly impressed with his female characters.

Perhaps Lord George was a bit of a caricature, but he was a whining buffoon so I can‘t really complain about his depiction.

Had I read the book first, I’d have pronounced “Cleveley” as “cleave-lee” or “cleave-eh-lee”. Mr. Wyndham pronounced the name “Clev-eh-lee” which to the Australian ear sounds like “cleverly”. This may well be the right way to say it – after all, Featherstonehaugh is actually pronounced “Fanshawe” because English is weird. I admit I did spend a little time thinking the name was unlikely – but it settled much more comfortably for me when I looked at the Kindle sample and saw how it was spelled.

There were a couple of times where I felt the emphasis wasn’t quite right on a particular word in a sentence, but really, this is a very small niggle indeed. Mr. Wyndham’s performance was excellent. The author struck gold when she retained his services to narrate this series.

The book does have a very abrupt end but I was thoroughly entertained by the story (and especially the narration). I’m certainly keen to listen to more of Mr. Wyndham’s work. He doesn’t appear to have narrated much, if anything, by way of romance. Someone really needs to get on that and fix it because Alex Wyndham not narrating romance is a crime against nature.

Fortunately for me, there is the earlier Alec Halsey mystery to listen to and later this year (I think?) there will be another. Deadly Peril is listed on the author’s website as “coming soon” and she has promised that there will be a little more romance in the next instalment as well for extra bonus points!

Kaetrin

Narration: A

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: You can play it out loud (alas)

Violence: Fighting

Genre: Historical (Georgian) Mystery

Publisher: Sprigleaf Pty Ltd

Deadly Affair was provided to AudioGals by the author for review.