The Scoundrel’s Seduction by Jennifer Haymore

Narrated by Adrian Lukis

The Scoundrel’s Seductionis the third book in a trilogy featuring the three Hawkins brothers, one of whom is the Duke of Trent, the other two being his illegitimate half-siblings. The hero of this story is the eldest brother, Samson Hawkins, who is employed by British Intelligence. He’s not so much a spy as he is a man who gets his hands dirty behind the scenes, and at the beginning of the story is carrying out the order to assassinate Viscount Dunthorpe, a French collaborator and traitor to the Crown. The operation goes smoothly until the very end, when Sam discovers that his deed was witnessed by none other than the traitor’s French wife, Lady Élise. Thinking quickly, Sam realises that he has only two options – to kill her, too, or to take her with him until he can determine another course of action. He might be a ruthless government agent, but he draws the line at killing a woman, and swiftly bundles her out into the night.

Taking her to a safe house to await orders, Sam sets his two colleagues, Laurent and Carter, to guard Élise. He suspects that she may have been in league with her husband, although she continues to protest her innocence.

Knowing nothing about these men, other than that one of them murdered her husband in front of her and then kidnapped her, Élise is both afraid and furious. She is determined to escape and hand over the important information she possesses about Dunthorpe’s activity to the Duke of Trent, whom she has met on occasion and knows to be an honourable man. Unaware of Sam’s relationship to Trent, she manages to get away, but her freedom is short-lived; Sam catches up with her and takes her back to the house. Over the next few days, Sam comes to admit the possibility that perhaps Élise is innocent of involvement in her husband’s schemes.

Unfortunately, however, their quiet, hidden existence is suddenly shattered when the house is attacked, and Sam, Laurent and Carter have to get Élise away as soon and safely as possible. Élise knows who is behind the attack on their lives – the new Lord Dunthorpe was more than her husband’s heir, he was also his accomplice – and he wants Élise dead. Not only that, but Sam suspects that the British are going to want him to dispose of the loose ends left over from the assassination – and even though he is not completely without suspicion of his lovely captive, he dreads the prospect of receiving orders to kill her.

Thus The Scoundrel’s Seduction gets off to a flying start, but once the story shifts out of London, the pace slackens off and the secondary plot starts to assume more importance. This storyline has been running throughout the whole trilogy and it concerns Sam’s mother, the dowager Duchess who, prior to the events of the first book, suddenly went missing. This being the final book in the set, it ties up those events, and answers some of the questions that (I’m guessing) were posed in the earlier books.

Both plotlines are interesting, but the story of the missing duchess overshadows Sam and Élise’s story in the latter stages of the book. They’re on the run – from Dunthorpe and Sam’s superiors – at the same time as they’re looking for Sam’s mother, and yet they spend a lot of time in one place, which is just asking for trouble! And be warned – the duchess’ reasons for disappearing as she did, while well-intentioned are also dumb.

The romance is reasonably well done, although I never got a really strong sense of connection between the two protagonists. Sam starts with the mental lusting about twenty minutes into the audio, although fortunately that is left to just simmer along without becoming too obtrusive. (It always bothers me when a character you’re told is dedicated to his job and doesn’t think about women all that much suddenly acts completely out of character and starts drooling over one.)

The characterisation isn’t especially deep, although there’s clearly an attempt to give Sam a tragic past by having him be a widower twice over who feels enormous guilt over the deaths of his wives, and who beats himself up for the fact that he didn’t really love either of them. Élise was married for eleven years to a man she didn’t even like, let alone love, and who, it’s hinted at, was cruel, but nothing is really made of that. Fortunately for Sam, Élise is well-adjusted and pragmatic and won’t let him do that whole “woe is me, it’s my fault they died” thing and use it as an excuse to push her away.

Adrian Lukis does a pretty good job in this, which is, as far as I can see, the first full-length audiobook he has narrated. He is probably best known for being Mr Wickham to Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy on the BBC back in the 1990s, and he’s a well-known face and voice on British television and radio. He has a pleasant voice with a slight natural huskiness which is very soothing to listen to and on the whole, his narrative is well-paced and expressive. There were a few times I felt his narration was a little on the slow side and that some pauses were overlong, but this didn’t happen frequently enough to become an annoyance.

Mr Lukis’ characterisations are all clearly differentiated – the five Hawkins brothers are all distinguishable from one another in the few scenes in which they all appear – and his portrayal of the female characters is achieved by a softening in tone and a very small raise in pitch. He very manfully tackles some creaky dialogue in the love scenes, and uses a variety of English regional accents to good effect, although I wasn’t particularly taken with the mild French accent he uses for Élise. It serves well enough to illustrate that she’s not English, and it was fairly consistent – I just didn’t like it very much. But that’s personal preference and I’m very picky about accents, so it will probably not be as much of an issue for some.

Overall, The Scoundrel’s Seduction isn’t a bad listen, but I can’t recommend it unreservedly. The narration is more than decent, but the story itself is unevenly paced, and I didn’t feel the emotional connection between the central couple that is, for me, the most important thing in any romance.

Caz

Narration: B-

Book Content: C

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Mild – shooting and a small bout of fisticuffs towards the end

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Hachette Audio