A Dark and Stormy Knight by Kerrigan Byrne

A Dark and Stormy Knight by Kerrigan Byrne

Narrated by Derek Perkins

Note: There may be spoilers for the earlier books in the series in this review.

Back in 2015/6 when I reviewed the first two books in Kerrigan Byrne’s Victorian Rebels series, I became intrigued by the secondary character of Chief Inspector Sir Carlton Morley of Scotland Yard, and like many other readers, hoped that the author planned to write his story at some point. Well, five years later, here it is; A Dark and Stormy Knight is the seventh and final (?)book in the series and… well, I can’t say it lived up to my expectations. I’m convinced the series was originally conceived as a trilogy; the later books were pretty disappointing (with book six, The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo basically being a rehash of book one, The Highwayman, still, to my mind, the best of the series), and in those books, there was what appeared to be a gradual retconning of Morley’s character going on as the author started to drop hints of his being a Batman-style vigilante with a tragic past. Sure, we didn’t get into his head in any of the earlier books, and maybe my memory is at fault, but the Carlton Morley in this book doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to the tightly controlled, uncompromising and hard-nosed copper I recall appearing in books one and two.

In the previous book, the violent death of his twin sister was revealed as the reason behind the adult Morley’s devotion to the law and relentless pursuit of justice. A kid from the streets, he’s become one of the most powerful men in London, but not content with his daytime efforts to put away as many criminals as he can, he’s also started patrolling the streets of the city by night and meting out his own form or justice to wrongdoers as a masked crusader dubbed the Knight of Shadows. In that guise, Morley has made his way to the garden of Miss Henrietta’s School for Cultured Young Ladies in order to continue his investigation into the deaths of several young men known to be part of a group called the Stags of St. James. He’s only just realised that the “school” is a brothel and the Stags are prostitutes when a young woman literally falls into his lap, and promptly – if rather inexpertly – propositions him. At first he can’t quite believe his ears, and thinks he should leave or take the young woman home, but he can’t – something about her awakens within him with all the ferocity of a hibernating beast. It had teeth and claws and tore his decency to shreds before going to work on his restraint.

Prudence Goode had been happily engaged to marry the Earl of Sunderland until her illusions were shattered when she overheard a conversation discussing the man’s frequent affairs and numerous bastards. Hurt and angry, Pru decided that what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, hence her seeking to have some sexytimes with one of the Stags of St. James.

Three months later, Morley arrives at the wedding of the daughter of Commissioner Clarence Goode, Baron of Cresthaven – his boss – only to be immediately accosted by the Vicar and all but dragged away to a room at the back of the church where he is confronted by a scene that’s shocking in more ways than one. Firstly, the bride is soaked in blood, clutching a knife and standing by the lifeless body of her fiancé. Secondly, the bride is the woman from the garden… the woman whose image and responses have taunted him for the last three months and whom he hasn’t been able to forget. And thirdly… not only did Morley shag his boss’s daughter – she’s pregnant.

Oops.

Being the honourable man he is, Morley proposes a marriage of convenience to Pru, who has no alternative but to accept. He makes sure no word of her possible involvement with the Earl’s death gets out, marries her, quickly moves her into his London mansion – and promptly leaves her to her own devices while he investigates the murder and continues his night-time activities as the Knight of Shadows.

The romance between Morley and Pru proceeds as you’d expect. He’s spent most of his life focused on the fight for truth and justice and has no intention of allowing anyone – least of all his new wife – to distract him from it; Pru wants more of the man she’d glimpsed that night in the garden, the passionate, tender lover she is sure is still there beneath the inflexible, stoic surface. I was expecting an exciting plot about a hunt for the real murderer in which Morley and Pru would have to work together in some way in order to prove her innocence… but that didn’t happen. Given the stakes – Pru could have been hanged if found guilty – that aspect of the story was very low-key. There’s an interesting sub-plot surrounding the possibility of some deep-rooted corruption in the Met (Metropolitan Police Force), but both plotlines are largely absent until near the end when the story takes an abrupt – and somewhat clichéd – turn into the Big Showdown.

Probably the biggest problem I had with the book was the writing. In the past, I’ve praised Ms. Byrne for her use of lush, lyrical language, but A Dark and Stormy Knight contains some of her purplest prose ever, and I honestly had trouble concentrating on the story because I kept being taken out of it by the incredibly flowery language. (As for the sex scenes… they went on for EVER and (I can’t believe I’m saying this), I fast forwarded through them to avoid cringing or laughing so hard I pulled a muscle). I’m quite willing to entertain the possibility that the problem is me and not the writing; Kerrigan Byrne’s melodramatic, almost gothic style wasn’t something commonly seen in historical romance back in 2015, and her impactful, insightful prose, and the visceral reactions induced by some of the darker elements of her stories were refreshingly different. I’m asking myself if it’s simply that I’ve grown out of it, but… I don’t think so. The darkness that permeated the first three books has been disappearing since book four, and here, it’s pretty much gone completely. In my review of The Duke, I mentioned the author’s ability to create larger-than-life, dangerously sexy heroes – but the cameo appearances by previous heroes Dorian, Christopher and Ash turn them into pale shadows of their former selves who would be more at home in an episode of Friends than in a darkly sensual Victorian romance.

But I DID like the central romance and the corruption sub-plot, and I liked Morley, who while perhaps not quite the individual I remembered was nonetheless a fairly compelling hero. I also liked Derek Perkins’ performance, and once again take my hat off to him for being able to utter so much overblown sentiment and affected dialogue with such aplomb. His smooth, deep tones are easy on the ear, his pacing and enunciation are excellent, and he portrays the recurring characters consistently, reprising Dorian and Farrah’s slight Scottish burr and Argent’s less polished accent and slight huskiness, for example. This is also true of his portrayal of Morley, whose upper-class accent and clipped delivery appropriately reflect the ruthlessly dedicated police inspector who takes no prisoners (not literally, of course!) Mr. Perkins effortlessly conveys the moments of humour and terror and everything in between, differentiates clearly between all the characters and portrays the female characters effectively by means of a slight raise in pitch and softened timbre. It’s an engaging and accomplished performance, and as I’ve said in previous reviews, it’s due to his participation that I’ve continued to follow this series; had he not been involved, I might have given up on it after The Duke.

Arriving at a final grade for the story has been difficult; I’ve settled on a B- mostly because I gave the previous book a C+ and this was better than that one! I think fans of the author will either lap up A Dark and Stormy Knight (there are plenty of 4 and 5 star reviews on Goodreads to indicate that to be the case) or will be as disappointed as I was that a story we’ve so long looked forward to didn’t quite make the grade.

Caz


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5 thoughts on “A Dark and Stormy Knight by Kerrigan Byrne

  1. Well, huh. I may go look up the earlier books, but I’ll give this one a miss! Thanks for the great review.

    1. Books 1 and 2 were definitely the best of the bunch – I reviewed them both – The Highwayman; The Hunter. The author’s style is something of an acquired taste, but I think in the last few books the pudding has been overegged to an extent I can no longer stomach!

  2. I love the whole series. I Think the narrator is awesome.

    Then I tried her other book, The Business of Blood narrated by Justine Eyre. Oh My God! What a book. I knew after the first 15 minutes of listening that it was going on my favorites list. The characters are awesome, the story is fantastic, and the narration is perfection. It’s so good that immediately after finishing it, I started it up again. I even convinced my husband to give it a try. He loved it as well.

    1. Isn’t that one more of a mystery/suspense title than a romance? But even if it isn’t, I can’t stand Justine Eyre, so…

      Derek Perkins is terrific – he’s the only reason I finished this series.

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