And Dangerous to Know

By: Darcie Wilde

Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt

Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

When the ladies of the ton of Regency London need discreet assistance, they turn to Rosalind Thorne - in these mysteries inspired by the novels of Jane Austen...

Trust is a delicate thing, and no one knows that better than Rosalind Thorne. Lady Melbourne has entrusted her with recovering a packet of highly sensitive private letters stolen from her desk. The contents of these letters hold great interest for the famous poet Lord Byron, who had carried on a notorious public affair with Lady Melbourne's daughter-in-law, the inconveniently unstable Lady Caroline Lamb. Rosalind is to take up residence in Melbourne House, posing as Lady Melbourne's confidential secretary. There, she must discover the thief and regain possession of the letters before any further scandal erupts.

However, Lady Melbourne omits a crucial detail. Rosalind learns from the Bow Street runner, Adam Harkness, that an unidentified woman was found dead in the courtyard of Melbourne House. The coroner has determined she was poisoned. Adam urges Rosalind to use her new position in the household to help solve the murder. As she begins to untangle a web of secrets and blackmail, Rosalind finds she must risk her own life to bring the desperate business to an end....

©2019 Sarah Zettel (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

thumbs up

I love Ms Thorne, can't wait to hear more from this story line... impatiently waiting for more

2 people found this helpful

Love the series

Preordered and thoroughly enjoyed this Regency cozy. Love Rosalind and very much look forward to spending more time with her in future installments. The narrator has a lovely voice and does reasonable different character voices and accents. There are 2 very small production annoyances that may be solved for future books: 1) every sigh, cough or chuckle written on the page doesn’t need to be acted out before speaking the words, and 2) there are 3-4 places in the book where several words are dropped, but it doesn’t meaningfully interfere with understanding.

Great Book But......

Really like this series. I prefer the previous reader. Like Ms Hewitt for the Oxford Tea Room series but this book is a bit long for her voice and the main character needs a sturdy voice. But a great story!

Delightful and relaxing listen

The narration is pitch perfect, very pleasant, and entertaining. the story is engrossing and transports you away from the daily grind and generally bad news of the world.

Great Series Gets Better

Every time I hear the first few words of a Rosalind Thorne story, I am instantly hooked. How the crimes are solved while maintaining Regency social rules is always a fascinating balance which the author manages beautifully. Love the narration.

Mostly gossip

It's written in well-spoken upper class language but the content is couched in tiring shallow depictions of upper class society and most of the "action" is just gossip -- little plot. What plot there is - is overtaken by the more interesting but very loose and unreliable biography of Lord Byron . A bath in snobbery and gossip is not what I read for.

Earns 5+/5 Stolen Letters...Engaging & Clever!

The death of an unidentified woman is obviously murder, but Adam Harkness, the principal officer at the Bow Street Station, is disappointed the King’s coroner is prepared only to make personal notes, then quietly have her interred. Nothing official, no public notice, no warrant allowing Harkness to inquire further. The body was found at the gates of Melbourne House, residence of the very influential Lord Melbourne, and it would be inappropriate, if not career ending, to put under suspicion anyone in that family, despite quiet rumors of scandalous indiscretions. However, if someone discreet could ingratiate “herself,” and without notice, investigate and find answers...Miss Rosalind Thorne is brought to mind.

Rosalind Thorne has been approached by Lady Jersey, who is personally aware of her unique abilities, to provide her “particular assistance” to Viscountess Melbourne. A packet of letters, letters that would prove embarrassing to her, her family, and George Gordon, Lord Byron, have been stolen. Acting as Lady Melbourne’s confidential secretary, she would be well positioned to ask questions, search private areas, overhear quiet conversations, and hopefully locate the stolen property. Living at Melbourne House offers some challenge since Rosalind’s wardrobe has not seen an upgrade since her family’s financial crisis, but a five hundred pound stipend is quite the inducement or is it a bribe...payment for her complete silence.

After Adam Harkness relates his predicament with investigating the young woman’s murder, Rosalind observes, “It would seem, Mr. Harkness, that our paths have converged.”

Brilliant! I am new to this series by Darcie Wilde, and after only a few pages of the third book in her Rosalind Thorne Mysteries, I am a big fan! Setting the drama in the early nineteenth century is unique in my experience (I see Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Darcy) offering fascinating historical insights into events of the day, the English ton, and the criminal justice system such as it is. Darcie Wilde also pens historical romances, so this mystery seems to take on an epic nature delving more deeply into relationships, interactions, and formal and informal social gatherings along with the drama of a murder investigation. Each chapter cleverly begins with a title and passage from the sought after “personal correspondence” selected to illustrate directly and indirectly the drama and provide insights into background, behaviors, and motives. Darcie’s writing style using a third-person narrative with descriptive language and dialogue that does well to show tone of the era, emotions, and personalities. The mystery was an engrossing tale with twists and secrets; the insights into the “ton” were fascinating reminiscent of dynamics that might be found in Downton Abbey, but a century earlier; the characters were varied, well-developed, and realistic as I understand, with Rosalind’s strength and intelligence and Alice’s independence and ambition a real delight. Then Adam....ooooh! I loved it and am eager to read the first two books!

All three Rosalind Thorne books are available on Audible with A Useful Woman and A Purely Private Matter narrated by the delightful Sarah Nichols. However, And Dangerous to Know is narrated by the fabulously talented Pearl Hewitt, my all time favorite voice artist. I decided to get the audio version to finish “listening” to Darcie Wilde’s drama. Pearl’s engaging artistry has always enriched my experience; she does well to illustrate tone and various personalities through a change in volume and style along with slight and obvious variations in the British accent to depict dialect, age, gender, and status, even a French-ish accent pops up. A challenge for all female narrators is to perform adequately the male voice which Pearl gives more than an entertaining performance. I loved it and highly recommend Darcie Wilde’s book, especially the audio version!

Great next chapter in the series.

The book is wonderful. The audio production, on the other hand, stumbles a bit. As often happens when there is a change in narrator, there were some uncomfortable differences in a few of the main character's portrayals. There were also some editing mistakes. Pearl Hewitt would say a line, snap her fingers (presumably for the editor to make an edit), and then repeat the line again. This was off-putting at best and completely destroyed the mood/rhythm of the story at worst.

Pearl Hewitt did a good job. It is always difficult to transition to a new voice while listening to a favorite series. However, she rose to the occasion. If I were to nitpick, I would say that sometimes there were not enough variations in some of her character's voices, and she often included an odd chuckle before delivering the lines of several different characters. Overall, this was a good performance.

The story itself was intriguing and kept me interested and fascinated. I think Rosalind Thorne fans will enjoy it.

Well written and Entertaining

This is a well written and entertaining mystery. Rosalind Thorne proves women are smart and capable even while following strict society rules. I love this series and wish the books would come faster.

Excellent

Interesting characters. Good plot and mystery. Made me very curious about the backstories of Byron, Lady Caroline Lamb et al. Did some Wikipedia reading to learn more. Really fascinating. Can not wait for the next one!!!