OUR LADY OF PAIN

Davina Porter is always fun, but she made me laugh out loud doing the sepulchral voice of the Earl's butler whenever he answers the door to Captain Cathcart or Detective Kerridge, who are, after all, only trying to keep Lady Rose, the daughter of the house, from being arrested for murder. M.C. Beaton writing as Marion Chesney has created an Edwardian froth about headstrong Lady Rose, who doesn't want to get married, and her Cockney companion, Daisy, who does, and the uproar when Rose's fiancé, Private Investigator Cathcart, provides paid protection to a mysterious courtesan, and Rose is found standing over the woman's body with a gun in her hand. Class and character tell in the accents, and Porter's command here is witty and total. B.G. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 06]