Narrated by Beverley A. Crick
This final book in Caroline Linden’s Scandalous series – Six Degrees of Scandal – brings it to an extremely satisfying conclusion, tying up the loose ends deliberately left over from Love in the Time of Scandal, and also finally revealing the identity of the mysterious Lady Constance, author of the popular Fifty Ways to Sin series of erotic pamphlets.
The story opens some years earlier when young James Weston (brother of Penelope and Abigail, heroines of the previous two books) meets Olivia Herbert, who lives on the neighbouring estate. The Westons have recently purchased Haverstock House, Mr. Weston being a very successful businessman, and Jamie invites Olivia home to play with his sisters. Olivia’s father is a baronet, but the family finances are in dire straits, so even though the Westons are nouveau riche and will never be fully accepted into society, Lady Herbert allows the acquaintance. Over the years, Olivia and the Weston girls become firm friends, and she and Jamie fall in love. When she is seventeen and Jamie twenty, they pledge themselves to each other, making love one idyllic afternoon. Knowing how badly the Herberts need money, Jamie is confident that his suit will be accepted, but with the arrogance and over-confidence of youth, he fails to seek her father’s consent before going away to attend to some business on Mr. Weston’s behalf.
Jamie is devastated when he returns some weeks later to discover that Olivia’s father has married her off to Henry Townsend, whose wealthy father was seeking a steadying influence for his wayward son, basically selling Olivia to him so that he could pay off his debts. In the ensuing eight years of her marriage, Olivia and Jamie keep a distance between them, both of them knowing it’s the only way they can cope with the depth of the hurt that now lies between them.
Listeners of the previous book will recall that Olivia was being harassed by Lord Clary, a thoroughly unpleasant piece of work who insisted that she hand over something he believed to have been in the possession of her late husband. Olivia honestly has no idea what he is talking about. Henry died two years earlier, at which point her income suddenly dried up and it became apparent that he had made no provision for her whatsoever. In an attempt to discover what Clary might be after, Olivia flees London and heads to Gravesend in Kent, from whence the Townsend family originates. Following an unsuccessful visit to the family’s solicitors, Olivia is scared she is being followed back to the remote cottage she has rented by the sea and prepares to attack – only to discover that her ‘stalker’ is none other than James Weston, who has tracked her down at the behest of his sister Penelope, who is very worried about her friend.
Surprised, but pleased and relieved to see him, Olivia takes Jamie back to the cottage where the two of them start to try to figure out exactly what is going on. Having heard something of Olivia’s situation from his sister and her new husband, Benedict, now the Earl of Stratford, Jamie is convinced that Clary and Henry Townsend were involved in some sort of illegal trade. The question is, what was it, and what is Clary so desperate to obtain that he would hound and frighten Olivia so badly?
One of the things I enjoyed most about the story is the way in which Olivia is neither too proud nor too stupid to accept the help that Jamie offers. That’s not to say that she doesn’t play her part; she and Jamie are very much equal partners in their investigation and he recognises Olivia’s need to be involved and treats her as neither delicate nor incapable. I also loved the fact that Jamie is so thoroughly delighted by Olivia’s growing confidence in herself and her abilities; when he first encounters her in Gravesend, she’s scared, drawn and very much the victim of Clary’s bullying, but as the story progresses, she begins to rediscover her own strength and Jamie adores her all the more for it. There’s no question that these two are still very much in love with each other, but they have to re-learn to trust one another and to come to terms with the mistakes which separated them in the past. Because their situation is a potentially dangerous one, there is no need for the author to have to invent silly roadblocks to create tension in the story – something else I greatly appreciated.
Beverley A. Crick returns to narrate this final instalment in the series, and delivers another accomplished and enjoyable performance. Her pacing in both narrative and dialogue is excellent as are all her acting choices; and she differentiates well between the major and secondary characters throughout. She lowers the pitch of her voice just a little to portray Jamie and adds some edge to her tone, which is enough to make him sound like the thoroughly nice guy he is and to enable listeners to distinguish his speech from Olivia’s and from the other male characters. Lord Clary is characterised by a slow, supercilious drawl which quickly marks him out as the villain of the piece, and salty ol’ sea-dog Captain Pike’s speech is bluff and appropriately accented. I noticed a few odd mispronunciations here and there (irrevocably is pronounced irre-VOKE-ably instead of ir-REV-ocably, for instance), but there weren’t too many.
I’m giving Six Degrees of Scandal a strong recommendation in terms of both narration and content. It probably helps to have read or listened to Love in the Time of Scandal in order to fully understand the set-up here, but it’s not essential, as the author has included enough of the pertinent details to allow Six Degrees to work as a standalone. Caroline Linden is an auto-buy author for me these days, and the whole Scandalous series, beginning with Love and Other Scandals, is well worth investigating by anyone looking for intelligently written, well-developed historical romances.
Caz
Narration: A-
Book Content: B+
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence Rating: Minimal
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Six Degrees of Scandal was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.
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