The Sugared Game by KJ Charles

Narrated by Cornell Collins

Note: The Sugared Game is a direct sequel to Slippery Creatures, which should be listened to first; there are overarching plotlines running through this series, and there are spoilers for the previous book in this review.

Book two in The Will Darling Adventures, The Sugared Game picks up a few months after the events of Slippery Creatures, in which former soldier Will Darling and aristocratic spy Kim Secretan foiled a dastardly plot by a shady organisation known as Zodiac to gain information that could lead to the creation of a chemical weapon – and to also prevent its ending up in the hands of the War Office, antagonising both organisations along the way.

After things had died down, Will and Kim went to the pub a few times and spent another fantastic night together – and even though Will knows Kim is unreliable and untrustworthy, and that it’s the height of stupidity to hope, he’d started to think that maybe there was a chance that things between them might actually be going somewhere. Until Kim just disappeared without a word. Two months later, Will has not seen anything of Kim and he’s still angry; angry with Kim for being such a bastard, but angry at himself, too, for being so damn gullible as to think there could be anything between a man like him and a man like Kim other than a few drinks and a few fucks.

When the book opens, Will and his best friend Maisie Jones are going for a night out at London’s High-Low club. Will has never heard of the place, but Maisie chose it because one of her customers gave her a voucher for a free bottle of champagne – and besides, Phoebe Stevens-Prince (Kim’s fiancée) says the club is “awfully glamorous in a seedy way”, which is as good a recommendation as any. But once they arrive, Will can’t help feeling a little uneasy; when he goes to have a look around on the other floors, he spots a dope dealer along with some other dodgy-looking types, and he hasn’t been upstairs very long before the club manager approaches him and makes it clear that Will isn’t welcome there. Will returns to the ground floor and Maisie, and soon after, the club’s proprietor Mrs. Skyrme introduces herself to them – and Will gets the distinct impression he’s being threatened.

A few days after this, Will is returning home – he lives above the bookshop – and is climbing the stairs to his room when he notices a strip of light shining from under the door. He knows he didn’t leave the light on and immediately fears the worst – Zodiac has come for him. Arming himself with his trusty Messer knife he flings the door open, prepared to fight to the death if he has to – to be greeted by the sight of Kim sitting in his armchair, calmly reading a book.

Irritated – because he’s pleased to see him even as he knows Kim is there because he wants something – Will listens to Kim explain that he’s being blackmailed, and works out almost straight away that it’s a tissue of lies… and that Kim is up to something. Rumbled – and clearly rather proud of Will for having seen through him in that way – Kim tells Will the real reason for his visit – and his disappearance. A colleague of his, a specialist in following financial trails, died recently in very suspicious circumstances after having identified a number of profitable and highly illegal operations being run out of the High-Low club – operations Kim suspects are being used to finance Zodiac.

That’s all I’m going to say about the plot, which is clever and full of twists and turns that will see our heroes having to use every ounce of their wit and ingenuity to keep each other alive. And there’s even worse to come when a terrible secret is revealed at devastating personal cost for Kim.

I thoroughly enjoyed this second instalment in the series, which offers plenty of character development and insight into what makes each man tick. Will is adjusting more to his new life in Civvy Street, although he’s coming to realise there’s a part of him that misses the adrenaline rush that comes with action and – yes – violence. In the previous book, he was something of an innocent bystander who was inadvertently dragged into a series of dangerous events; here, he’s a willing participant who goes in with his eyes wide open because he wants to stick it to the bad guys. And Kim at last starts to reveal something of his true self, his past and motivations to Will, displaying a touching and unexpected vulnerability. It’s always been clear that there is a lot more to Kim than he lets anyone know, and as this story unfolds, we learn there’s a world of pain lurking behind that clever, urbane exterior. There’s considerable progression in their personal relationship as well in this story; although events are related entirely in Will’s PoV, the author skilfully shows us the truth of Kim’s feelings even though he attempts to hide them behind sarcasm and misdirection.

Cornell Collins returns to the narrator’s chair, and although I have similar reservations about his characterisation of the leads (I still can’t place Will’s accent!) as those I expressed in my review of Slippery Creatures, I have to give him credit for his consistency, and say that I enjoyed his performance overall. It’s well-paced and clearly enunciated, and I really can’t fault his expressive and emotionally nuanced delivery. He breathes life and vibrancy into both leads, bringing them into sharp focus as individuals while also conveying the depth of their emotional connection, and does an especially good job conveying the vulnerability Kim works so hard to hide, particularly in the scenes with Will in which he allows his guard to drop a little. His female voices are decent (Maisie’s accent is a bit wobbly, but Welsh accents are hard!) and all the characters are clearly differentiated and easy to tell apart.

The Sugared Game is clever, witty and wonderfully observant, with moments of genuine tenderness and poignancy, and features a group of likeable, well-rounded characters and a central relationship that is messy and difficult but somehow just… works. It’s a superb follow-up to Slippery Creatures and I’m eagerly looking forward to the release of book three, Subtle Blood, sometime in 2021.

Caz

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