Night of a Thousand Stars by Deanna Raybourn

Narrated by Anna Parker-Naples

I read and loved this book last year, so I was delighted to see that it had recently been made available in audio and eagerly snapped it up, even though the narrator is not someone I have listened to before. Night of a Thousand Stars is one of Deanna Raybourn’s set of three loosely connected novels set in the 1920s, and in fact links back to her Lady Julia books in that the heroine is the daughter of Julia’s youngest brother, “Plum” – a fact revealed early in the story and which may have caused just the slightest squee from yours truly upon reading.

As an audiobook, however, Night of a Thousand Stars is a very different prospect, and I struggled to finish it. I often listen to audios of books I have enjoyed, so I am bound to have certain expectations of what I want to hear; and while in many cases, these are fulfilled, this is an instance where the audiobook falls very short of my expectations. I rated the book highly at All About Romance, giving it an A- and making it a Desert Isle Keeper, but I didn’t enjoy the story nearly as much here because the performance was so distracting – and not in a good way. Because of this, my description of the book content has come largely from my memory of the printed edition, because I didn’t want to make it sound as though my lack of enjoyment was down to the story or the author.

Poppy March’s parents are divorced and her mother has remarried a wealthy American, a kind man who has always treated Poppy as if she were his own daughter. She tries to live up to her mother’s expectations – even going so far as becoming engaged to a worthy, if dull, young man – but her adventurous, unconventional nature baulks at the last moment, leading her to abandon her fiancé at the altar and escape, aided by a handsome curate, Sebastian Cantrip, who drives her to her father’s house in Devon.

The following morning, and feeling rather flat following Sebastian’s departure, Poppy finds herself browsing through her aunt’s journals, the first of which is called Silent as the Grave (*wink*) and realises that what she really wants is to be herself and stop trying to fit in and conform. She wants a bit of adventure, and she decides to start by going back to London (where she will have to brave the gossip following her aborted wedding) to find Sebastian to thank him properly for his help.

But she has almost nothing to go on – all she knows is his name and that he’s a vicar, so Poppy returns to the church to see if she can find him. She is astonished to discover that the curate there is an elderly man called Hobbs, and even moreso when he tells her that the word “Cantrip” is actually an old Scottish word meaning “trick.” Poppy, who had already started to think that something is not right, becomes convinced that Sebastian whoever-he-is is in some kind of trouble and is all the more determined to track him down.

Her investigations eventually lead her to conclude that Sebastian Fox has travelled to the Middle East. Still convinced he needs help, Poppy secures herself a position as secretary and amanuensis to the elderly Colonel Archainbaud and joins him and his valet, Talbot, on their journey to Damascus.

The story is a fast-paced adventure romp that’s full of danger, suspicious characters, daring escapes, treachery and deadpan wit; and Ms Raybourn’s superb descriptions of the desert landscapes and the sights, sounds and smells of Damascus really put the listener right in the middle of the action. The writing sparkles, the dialogue zings and her attention to historical detail is impressive. In the audiobook, however, that zest and sparkle is largely absent, so the listener who hasn’t read the book could be forgiven for thinking it a merely average story. My only niggles are that the protagonists spend a large part of the first half of the book apart and the ending is a bit too pat.

Poppy and Sebastian are engaging and feel very much “of their time”, with Poppy, especially, being in the mold of the “bright young things” of the 1920s – plucky, resourceful and difficult to rattle. Sebastian would easily win the award for the “sexiest vicar ever in a romance novel”, were such a thing to exist – he’s gorgeous, edgy and a bit dangerous, trading quip for quip with Poppy in the tradition of the best screwball comedies; and even though Ms Raybourn doesn’t write sex scenes, there is a satisfying sexual tension thrumming between them.

If you haven’t read Night of a Thousand Stars but like the sound of it, then take my advice and stick to the printed edition, because the audiobook is a disappointment. The tone Ms Parker-Naples has adopted for Poppy is perhaps in keeping with the character – think a cross between Lady Mary in Downton Abbey (but about an octave higher and somewhat faster) and Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds (the 60s TV show, not the film) – terribly posh, but also incredibly girlish, overly bright and whiny; and it was very grating. I did become used to it over time, but if I’d not been listening for review I may not have persevered with it long enough for that to happen. The story is told in the first person and Ms Parker-Naples employs the same tone for the narrative portions as well as Poppy’s dialogue. I can understand why she makes that choice, but had she tempered her tone somewhat for the narrative parts of the story, the whole thing might have been easier to listen to.

She differentiates well between the various characters, and her best portrayals are of Sebastian, Masterson, Poppy’s ‘maid’, who has a warm-toned, northern accent (although I don’t know why she was given it, given that she’d have had the same sort of upbringing as Poppy) and the colonel’s valet, Talbot, whom she also delineates by accent. The rest of her portrayals are less successful, however. She doesn’t lower her pitch to portray the men, or perhaps I should say that she isn’t able to do so; she tries, but when she does, it sounds strained and, in the case of Poppy’s father, as though he’s quasi-shouting the whole time. And while her English regional accents are decent, the American accent she employs for Poppy’s step-father is execrable and the French one she attempts for the mysterious Comtesse de Courtempierre and her son is just as bad. And as for voicing the Damascenes… I don’t really want to think about it.

I tried hard to rate the story according to my enjoyment of it in audio, but it proved impossible because the narration was so off-putting, and as a result I’m sticking to the A- I gave the book. If you enjoy Ms Raybourn’s work, then skip this audio and enjoy this one in print.

Caz

Narration: C-

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: You can play it out loud

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Historical Mystery/Romance

Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.