Narrated by Michael Page
A Matter of Grave Concern is one of those books that has an interesting premise and starts strongly, but which loses momentum fairly quickly and ends up not living up to its potential.
The story is set in London in 1830, at a time when the study of the medical sciences was increasing disproportionately to the number of corpses and cadavers that were available to medical students for study, meaning that many colleges resorted to purchasing corpses illegally. One such institution is Aldersgate College in the East End of London, where anatomy is taught by Edwin Hale, a highly respected surgeon and anatomist. His daughter, Abigail, more or less runs the college and is devoted to her father, in spite of the fact that it quickly becomes apparent to the listener that her devotion is not reciprocated. In fact, Hale has been rather a neglectful father since the death of his wife when Abigail was six, and the only education she has received is one she has gleaned herself from her father’s books. She is thus rather ignorant of the ways of society, and also dreams of one day being admitted to the college to study rather than just supervise the accounts.
The college is in desperate need of a new subject of study, so Abigail, unbeknownst to her father, contacts the London Supply Company, a gang of body-snatchers, in order to obtain one. But things do not go well, principally due to the interference of a member of the gang she has never seen before who keeps driving up the price and whose marked insolence makes Abigail very uncomfortable. When she discovers that the gang has not only cheated her, but stolen money from the college, Abigail decides that the only thing she can do is to go to the gang’s lodgings when they are all out and retrieve the money. She reasons that confessing to her father would not serve the purpose as then he would want to call the authorities, and she cannot allow him to risk his reputation (and his possible knighthood).
Abigail is in luck on arrival at the gang’s house in Wapping, because they are all away from home – or so she thinks, until she is accosted by the very man who had caused such trouble earlier, Max Wilder, (who is, incidentally, well-spoken, less dirty and more handsome than the others!) who hauls her bodily into his room, telling her to keep quiet and do as she’s told if she wants to get out of there alive and unharmed.
Terrified, Abigail nonetheless tries to bolt and is seen by the other gang-members. Max knows that there’s no way they will let her go now they’ve seen her for fear she’ll go to the authorities, so he tells them she’s his lover, as it’s the only plausible reason he can give for keeping her with him and out of the clutches and beds of the other men. It’s been clear since the start that Max isn’t exactly what he claims to be, and he eventually tells Abby that he joined the gang because he’s searching for his half-sister, who was last seen in company with Big Jack Hurtshill, the gang’s leader. There’s more he doesn’t tell her, too, and because the listener isn’t made privy to it until Abigail is, it makes it difficult to connect with Max as the hero of the story and of the romance.
There’s a strong physical attraction between the couple and Abby’s “natural curiosity” about the male form – she’s seen plenty of dead ones but no live ones! – means that it’s not long before they’re exploring that attraction, although Max refuses to ruin her completely, much to Abby’s frustration. She’s never going to get married anyway, so what use is her hymen?!
This part of the story is fairly static, but things start moving again when Abby manages to persuade Big Jack that she could be useful as a part of the gang – a woman tagging on to a funeral procession is much less suspicious than a man, and she will be able to locate new graves and then lead Jack to them under cover of darkness. Max is appalled at the prospect of Abby becoming so embroiled in the gang’s activities – he wants to keep her safe until he can return her to her father, but Abby is determined to help him search for his sister.
This is mentioned several times throughout, but that part of the plot only gets going in the last few chapters, so it feels very rushed and is resolved rather too conveniently. The pacing is uneven overall, in fact, as there are large chunks where nothing much seems to happen and the action feels disjointed. When Max’s true identity is revealed, so is something else which not only makes him look like a total git, but is actually completely unnecessary in terms of the main plot and seems to have been put in simply to create a romance roadblock.
The author does a good job in evoking the atmosphere of the seedier parts of London, but while the writing is good, the characterisation is very thin, and the heroine verges on the TSTL too often for my taste. The mystery isn’t suspenseful and the romance is not well developed. Max and Abby are fooling around between the sheets within two or three days of meeting each other, and even Abby’s unconventional upbringing isn’t enough to explain both that, and the fact that she bandies around words like “cock” and “spermatozoa” without even the slightest blush.
My main reason for picking up this audiobook was that Michael Page is the narrator. He’s someone I’ve enjoyed listening to in the past (I really liked his narrations of Amanda Quick’s The Paid Companion and of Victoria Alexander’s The Importance of Being Wicked) and who I wish would narrate more historical romance, as the genre is sadly short of good, male narrators. His performance here is as accomplished as I’ve come to expect – he’s a good vocal actor and his characterisations are varied and always appropriate. Big Jack sounds every bit the rough, East-End thug, with real gravel in his voice, and each member of the grave-robbing gang is clearly differentiated. Max sounds suitably refined, with a hint of danger kept under wraps, and Mr Page performs the female characters well, for the most part – although on one occasion I found myself thinking of Terry Jones uttering those immortal words – “he’s a very naughty boy!” But the character in question is supposed to be a squawking old busybody, so that interpretation works. Mr. Page speaks deeply, sounding resonant and powerful, yet he’s able to perform young women very effectively by means of a softened tone and a heightened pitch that is never screechy (unless called for). His portrayal of Abigail is very good, expertly painting the picture of a young woman forced into a difficult situation and rising to the challenge. He performs the narrative expressively and at a good pace, and overall, I found myself more caught up in the story in audio than when I read the book, solely because his performance is so engaging.
Caz
Narration: B
Book Content: C
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Minimal
Genre: Historical Romance with mystery elements
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
