The Player by Stella Riley

Narrated by Alex Wyndham

Keen-eared listeners may have already worked out the identity of the hero of this, the third book in Stella Riley’s series of Georgian romances. In The Mésalliance, the Duke of Rockliffe mentioned seeing an actor at the Comedie Française in Paris who bore a striking resemblance to one Francis Adrian Sinclair Devereux, Earl of Sarre, who was the subject of a terrible scandal some ten years earlier.

That scandal concerned the death of his fiancée, who fell to her death from a rooftop and whom Adrian was subsequently accused of murdering. A day or two short of his twenty-second birthday and their wedding, distraught at the death of the girl he loved to distraction, Adrian protests his innocence, but all his autocratic father cares about is that there is no way of proving it and he immediately hurries Adrian out of the country to try to mitigate the scandal.

Betrayed, furious and grieving, Adrian vows never to touch a penny of the meagre allowance his father sends him, and sets about reinventing himself and making his own way in the world. For the past five years, he has been L’ Inconnu (The Unknown), the most highly praised actor of his day in Paris, if not all of France, and he takes great satisfaction from knowing that everything he has, he has earned for himself. He is content with his life and continues to live in Paris, but a tragic accident calls him home and Adrian reluctantly bows to the inevitable. He must return to England and assume his position as the Earl of Sarre.

The problem is, however, that Adrian has spent so much of his life – the past decade, in fact – being someone else, that he has no idea who the Earl of Sarre actually is. He’s become so good at shutting off his emotions that when he needs to express feeling, he simply acts it. The Player is, in part, the story of a man who needs to rediscover his identity and learn to be himself rather than assuming role after role. But after ten years, acting is a habit Adrian finds very difficult to break – until he meets Caroline Maitland, the grand-daughter of a wealthy Yorkshire cloth-merchant.

Caroline has a dowry of one hundred thousand pounds, which naturally makes her a target for every fortune hunter in London. One such is Marcus Sheringham, formerly Adrian’s best friend and now his greatest enemy, having been the one to accuse him of murder all those years ago. Sheringham is in desperate straits and is determined to have Caroline by hook or by crook – but she very sensibly wants nothing to do with him, sensing his desperation and that there is something unpleasant lurking beneath his handsome exterior.

She is well aware that she’s no beauty, but knows she deserves better than a life built around duty and responsibility even though she has resigned herself to that fate. But even though she is a practical young lady, she can’t help wishing that just once, she could meet a man who is genuinely interested in her rather than in her money. Much to her surprise and delight, she gets her wish in the form of the dashing, seductively-voiced French highwayman who holds up her carriage late one night and insists on a moonlit dance and a kiss before sending her on her way.

Adrian’s re-entry into society turns out to be not nearly as difficult as he had expected, thanks in part due to his friendship with Lord Nicholas Wynstanton – the Duke of Rockliffe’s younger brother – and his acceptance by Rockliffe and his set. When he learns of Marcus Sheringham’s plan to marry an heiress, however, Adrian is determined to take steps to make sure that such a match will never happen. For the last couple of years, he has been taking careful note of Sheringham’s activities, just waiting for the moment to exact his revenge, and now that Sheringham has all but beggared himself at the gaming tables, that moment is near.

When Sheringham attempts to abduct Caroline – an attempt foiled by the intervention of a certain Frenchman – Adrian, who has come to like and respect her, realises that there is only one sure-fire way to keep her safe and proposes marriage to her himself. But Caroline is already half-in love with her mysterious highwayman and turns him down, leaving Adrian with few options, any one of which he knows is likely to make her hate him for a very long time.

Once again, Stella Riley has written a compelling and thoroughly entertaining story that is full of wit, warmth and memorable characters that listeners can come to care about. We’ve met some of them before – Nell and Harry Caversham and the Marquis of Amberley, for example – but Adrian’s business partner Aristide and his pithy manservant, Bertrand Didier, are new and engaging introductions. As is ever the case with this author, the male friendships are very well-written, with an outer layer of easy teasing and banter covering strong bonds of affection, and her heroes are attractive, honourable men. Adrian is intelligent and witty with an aura of quiet competence about him that is very sexy, but possesses a vulnerable streak he has worked hard to suppress and ignore. And while Caroline may be a bit of a wallflower, she’s no simpering miss; she’s warm-hearted, quick-witted and insightful, and it’s easy to understand why Adrian falls for her so completely.

I could conclude this review by saying “Alex Wyndham narrates” and that would be sufficient to assure anyone reading it that they’re in for a great listen. But I won’t be so cruel ;) And in fact, Mr Wyndham does a great deal more than simply “narrate” – he invests, he performs, he inhabits; whatever the description, he brings Ms Riley’s words and characters to brilliant, vibrant life with an incredible amount of skill and insight. Every single character is clearly delineated, from the principals to the smallest bit-players, and those we have met before sound consistent with the way they are portrayed in the previous book(s). Of the secondary characters, I particularly enjoyed his interpretation of Nicholas, who sounds exactly as I imagined him; less reserved and altogether more outgoing than his brother, but just as charming, and of Bertrand, who has clearly been with Adrian through thick and thin and is one of the few people to know him well.

Having read the book, I knew that there was going to be one aspect that might present a particular challenge to a narrator, as there are several places where the reader is made privy to characters’ internal monologues. Differentiating between thought and speech is tricky, as it needs to be in character but distinct enough from both dialogue and narrative for the listener to be able to tell the difference. Needless to say, Mr Wyndham carries it off seamlessly and to excellent effect, especially in those places when the character concerned is switching quickly between what is said and what is thought.

This is the last book in the Rockliffe series – but I can confidently say “so far”, as I believe the author has more planned. The Player is another beautifully realised romance, and I don’t think Alex Wyndham has ever been better. We may need a new grading system for narration here before very long; A, A+ and AW.

Caz

Narration: A+

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in (but at the very tame end)

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Stella Riley

The Player was provided to AudioGals by Stella Riley for a review.