The Rogue by Katharine Ashe

Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld

I was so pleased when I saw that The Rogue was coming out in audio format. I read and loved the book earlier this year; it’s a beautifully written, sensual and tender romance combined with a dash of mystery and boasts one of the most wonderful romantic heroes I’ve read in quite some time. While it’s a continuation of the author’s Falcon Club series, the book also marks the beginning of the Devil’s Duke trilogy; so while some of the characters from the earlier books are referenced and make cameo appearances, it’s perfectly possible to enjoy The Rogue as a standalone.

Six years before the start of the story proper, Lady Constance, eighteen-year-old daughter of the Duke of Read, meets and falls in love with a mysterious, stunningly handsome young man. They enjoy a gentle flirtation and exchange some passionate kisses during the two weeks they manage to meet in secret, but it’s not long before they are discovered and Constance’s love is sent away.

In the years that followed, Constance became a member of the Falcon Club, an exclusive group of aristocratic spies dedicated to rooting out those among their own class intent on the betrayal of England’s interests. With the war against Napoléon ended, the members of the group have now retired; some have married and moved on, but Constance continues to work against wrongdoers and is currently investigating the disappearances of a couple of young women from the area around her Scottish home.

Suspicion falls heavily upon the somewhat reclusive Duke of Loch Irvine, widely rumoured to be the head of a secret society that practices pagan sacrifice and satanic rituals. Constance is determined to find out the truth and to protect other young women from meeting similarly terrible fates, and, when she learns that the duke is seeking a wife realises that this might be her ticket to discovering the truth. Her father insists she marry before her twenty-fifth birthday in a few weeks; marriage to the “Devil’s Duke” will enable her to get to the bottom of the mystery of the vanishing girls.

Frederick Evan Stirling, Chevalier St. André – known as Saint – is the finest swordsman in England, and has travelled to Edinburgh with his cousin, Lord Michaels, who is desperately in love with a young woman who lives there. Believing this to have been the only reason for their journey, Saint is not pleased when he discovers that Michaels owes a debt to the Duke of Read which the latter has called in and wants repaid in the form of fencing lessons for his ward.

The irony of now being invited back to a house from which he was summarily banished six years ago isn’t lost on Saint, but the realisation that the duke’s ward is also his daughter sets the seal on his refusal. The duke is a wily old fox and won’t take no for an answer, but Saint is adamant. Until, that is, he discovers the reason that Constance wants to learn to defend herself against a man. No matter how bitter he still is at the way they were forced to part, and the fact that she refused to see him on the one occasion he tried to contact her, Saint knows he couldn’t live with himself if anything happened to Constance, so he grudgingly agrees to give her some lessons in self-defence.

There’s quite a lot going in in this story, yet Ms. Ashe has achieved the perfect balance between her mystery plot and the romance. The romantic and sexual tension between Saint and Constance crackles from the start, and it’s very clear that they have never really fallen out of love with each other, despite the fact that Constance was betrothed for a time during their separation. The bulk of their story is thus one of two people who have been burned by love finding their way back to each other and learning to trust one another. It’s not an easy process. Constance can be a difficult heroine to like because of the way she tries to manipulate Saint and of the way she stubbornly clings to the walls she has set up in order to stop anyone getting close to her. It’s clear that she’s been badly hurt in the past and that her determination to get to the bottom of the mystery about the disappearances is motivated by more than simple altruism; but even knowing that, she can come across as cold and prickly. On positive side, however, her strength of character and determination to proceed with her investigation in spite of her fears are admirable qualities.

But this is Saint’s show. In him, Katharine Ashe has created a truly memorable hero who stands out as being just that bit different from most of the other heroes in the genre. He’s gorgeous of course, but there’s a wonderful honesty about him, the sense that here is a man who is fully confident in himself and who isn’t afraid to own his vulnerabilities. His aura of competence is incredibly sexy and his support of Constance – whether it’s his insistence on pushing her to her limits in their training sessions, or the way he lends her his quiet strength and shows how deeply he cares about her – is sure to melt even the iciest heart.

Saskia Maarleveld is a narrator who has been on my radar for a while but to whom I haven’t yet listened. I admit to some trepidation – as I said in our monthly picks post for June, this is one of those audiobooks whose success hinges completely on the narrator’s characterisation of the hero – and the combination of a new-to-me narrator and a book I loved could have been a recipe for disaster.

I’m pleased to report, however, that it wasn’t a disaster, as Ms. Maarleveld proved to be an accomplished performer whose mezzo-range, slightly husky voice is nicely expressive and easy on the ear. Her pacing in both narrative and dialogue is good, and she differentiates effectively between all the characters – mostly by means of accent and timbre, but with a slight lowering of pitch to characterise the men which works well. I wasn’t completely happy with her interpretation of Saint, however, because while most of the time her portrayal is pretty good, there are times she delivers his dialogue in an almost monotone which loses something of the wit and playfulness in his character that is so clear on the page. The story is set in Scotland, so most of the characters are given suitable accents, some of which, like Constance’s, are fairly light, some of which, like her father’s, are stronger. Ms. Maarleveld maintains the Scottish accents reasonably well, although in speeches that are longer than a couple of sentences, I noticed that they tend to veer to the west and end up on the other side of the Irish Sea. Overall though, the narrator delivers a strong performance and as a result, I’m certainly not averse to listening to her again.

Katharine Ashe’s prose is lyrical and quite beautiful; and she has the ability to create very strong, believable connections between her heroes and heroines and to pen witty, humorous dialogue that never feels forced or unnatural. If you’ve never tried one of her books before, I can definitely recommend The Rogue, which is a terrific story, full of action, mystery and romance and featuring a hero who will stick in your mind for quite some time after the book has ended.

Caz

Narration: B

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

The Rogue was provided to AudioGals by Blackstone Audio for a review.