I listened to the first in the series and couldn’t wait to listen to the rest. I really enjoy the two main characters – Julia (Lady Fieldhurst) and John Pickett. I listened to all up the latest (number 8 at the date of writing this) and I am eagerly awaiting the next one. The stories are interesting, although it’s the characters and their relationships which really intrigue me. Usually I am not a big fan of romance in my mystery stories. I always feel like saying – “OK enough of that, now let’s get back to the real story!” However, in this case, I was taken with the deep romantic nature of John Pickett. It’s definitely not a bodice-ripping type of romance – you can safely listen to the book on the bus without blushing. It’s just … romantic.
The narration is fabulous – in my view one of the best solo audio performances, and I listen to a lot of audiobooks. Joel Froomkin acts out all the characters and does a lovely Julia (who sounds amazingly like Samantha Bond). He not only has a wide range of regional accents to draw on but he nails the social class implications of the characters in his choice of accents. This is the first series I’ve listened to by this narrator and he has joined my top 5 list of narrators – along with Davina Porter and the greatly-missed Katherine Kellgren.