Having seen the author perform parts of her novels as a member of the Rogues and Vagabonds troupe at several crime conventions I was overjoyed when Lizzie offered me
The Ambitious Stepmother to review especially when she confirmed that the author also doubled as the narrator. The Ambitious Stepmother is the third in the series, set in Restoration times during the reign of William of Orange, featuring Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her maid/companion Alpiew.
The Countess and Alpiew are in funds for once but you can never have too much, so when Mrs Franklyn-Green arrives with a lucrative proposition they hear her out. Mrs Franklyn-Green wants the Countess to find an eligible husband for her stepdaughter Virginia and in return she'll be paid 100 guineas. Seeing Virginia's temperament the Countess tries to refuse but Mrs Franklyn-Green clinches the deal by offering to send the trio to Paris, to the Stuart court at St Germain.
The Countess, Alpiew and Virginia are only a few miles into France before misfortune strikes - they are robbed by highwaymen, and have all their hard-earned money stolen. They reach the chateau at St Germain and for the first night have decent lodgings but once the strict Lady Prude, who runs the household, realises they are penniless, she banishes the Countess to the cheap and hot quarters and Alpiew is set to work in the kitchen. Tragedy strikes again when one of the other guests at dinner is poisoned, though the doctor claims it was an apoplexy. It’s not clear who was the intended victim at the meal as many of the ladies had received notes saying, ‘Tonight I will strike’.
The court of St Germain is very dull and not at all what the Countess had wished for and her ward is a moody little character who takes great pleasure in telling the Countess that she will never get back to London. It seems that once you’ve been to the Stuart court you are deemed a traitor by the English court and are likely to be dangling at the end of a rope should you return.
If that’s not enough to worry them, when Alpiew and The Countess try to flee St Germain they are captured and taken first to the Bastille and then on to Versailles. They find their freedom and ability to return home rests on them being able to solve a riddle, thwart a dastardly plot, find the poisoner and discover who has been stealing jewellery at the chateau!
As I suspected, this was a delight to listen to. It’s a complex plot with loads
of characters and the author/reader does a great job of the many accents required.
There’s a lot of humour, some of it on the ‘rude’ side and I was sniggering
away. There are a number of jokes about book titles and a lot of fun is had
from The Countess accidentally creating Béchamel sauce. The book is rich in
detail and I got a very good picture of St Germain and the nearby town as well
as a feel for this period of history. I can’t recommend this recording highly
enough.
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Karen Meek