DESTROYING ANGEL

A lady investigator is hardly the norm in 1897—as Rose McQuinn is reminded when her fiancé says she must choose between him and her work. Now unattached and having time on her hands, she sets off to Alnwick Castle, where she becomes enmeshed in the messy family affairs of a royal photographer. Hilary Neville adopts a tone of confidentiality—as is appropriate for a lady investigator (“discretion guaranteed") who is recounting her most recent case. Neville characterizes Rose's persona of a proper lady who most decidedly is not going to be confined to her place. Neville's tone captures the manners of the period and infuses Rose with an attitude of reluctant deference and propriety. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2009]