Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt

Narrated by Ashford MacNab

Duke of Sin has to be one of the most highly anticipated releases in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series. Since his introduction in book six, Duke of Midnight, the unutterably beautiful Valentine Napier, Duke of Montgomery, has been revealed as a villain through and through, an unscrupulous, vain, amoral man capable of blackmail, kidnapping and who knows what other nefarious acts. But if the Devil gets all the best tunes, it’s often the case that he gets the best lines, too, and Montgomery has emerged as a larger than life character who, in the hands of a lesser author, could easily have overshadowed the characters in the other books in which he has appeared. Wisely, Ms Hoyt chose to keep her powder dry and to give him a starring role – and this is it. And a wonderfully entertaining story it is.

Following his most recent blackmail schemes and his audacious plan to kidnap the sister of the Duke of Wakefield, Val was exiled from England, and has been travelling on the Continent. Or so it is widely believed. He in fact remained much closer to home, and, at the beginning of this story, has just discovered his very efficient, somewhat prim housekeeper in a rather incriminating position, draped across his bed.

Bridget Crumb is the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic lady who is the target of one of Val’s many blackmail schemes. With the assistance of her own reputation as the best housekeeper in London and references provided by her mother and other society ladies, Bridget obtained a position at Hermes House, where she keeps things running like clockwork while searching for the material that gives the duke his hold over her mother.

Their first meeting in this story possesses all the tension of a Mexican stand-off. Val quite naturally wants to know what his housekeeper is doing spread across his bed and his housekeeper quite naturally doesn’t want to tell him. The sparks fly immediately, even though they are the result of a mental rather than a physical reaction. In fact, Val thinks Bridget is rather plain and doesn’t take much notice of her appearance (other than that he’s a man so of course he wonders what she looks like without her clothes on!); but what does get him going is the fact that she isn’t at all intimidated by him and is quite prepared to stand up to him. He loves a challenge, and immediately makes it his business to see just how far he can push the very proper Mrs. Crumb. And while Bridget is well aware that her employer is the most gorgeous man on the planet, she also knows he’s devious and capable of all sorts of trickery; so her main concern is trying to keep up with his quickly changing moods and remaining unperturbed by his penchant for improper conversation.

Duke of Sin is one of those books that so completely belongs to one character that the rest of the plot is secondary to the actions and development of that character. The sexy game of seduction that is played out between Val and Bridget is superbly done, as is the way Ms. Hoyt reveals the truth of Val’s character and the utterly heart-breaking story behind it. And the man himself, of course, is utterly compelling; the very definition of “mercurial”, he’s sweet, deadly, funny, damaged, sexy and ruthless, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Bridget is the perfect heroine for him. She’s strong, stubborn, clever and compassionate, and she sees what nobody else does; that behind the glittering exterior is a severely broken man who has the potential to be truly extraordinary. She slowly gets under his skin and behind his defences so that he does start to think differently and to realise that perhaps he isn’t quite the lost cause he has long believed himself to be.

I can’t deny that there are a few holes in the story (there’s another kidnapping, for instance, which serves no real purpose) but this is Val’s show and he carries the book effortlessly on what he would no doubt describe as his magnificent shoulders and makes the plot-holes seem quite insignificant.

Ashford MacNab has narrated eight of the ten books in the series so far, and there’s no question she has done a fine job. I would imagine that working on a long-running series such as this means that a narrator gains a strong sense of what the author is working to achieve and that coming to each new book must seem like greeting an old friend, so easy is it to slip into the world the author has created and to develop a relationship with the various characters. All of this comes across in Ms. MacNab’s performances, and is, alongside her ability to inject just the right emotional nuance and expression, her greatest strength as the narrator of the series.

On the downside, however, having listened to and reviewed the most recent entries, I can’t deny that her character portrayals are very same-y, and that her voice doesn’t possess a great deal of variety in terms of pitch or timbre. She has a standard ‘hero’ voice which doesn’t vary much from book to book, and while that is true of many female narrators, the problem here is that the slight nasal quality she lends to it isn’t particularly attractive.

But the biggest problem I had with this performance overall is the lack of… for want of a better word – whimsy – in her portrayal of Val. He’s a wonderfully charismatic character who leaps off the page and the author brings him expertly to life in all his vivid, fucked-up glory. He’ll have you grinning at his wit, raising an eyebrow at his naughtiness, falling for his charm – and then leave you with your chin on the floor and your heart aching for him. If you’ve read the book, you will know exactly what I mean – and if you’ve read the book and listened to the audio, you’ll understand me when I say that this isn’t him. Anyone who follows Ms. Hoyt on social media will know that one of the inspirations for Val’s character came from Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of Loki in The Avengers/Thor movies, and that aspect of Val, that almost childlike enthusiasm for mayhem and destruction is something that struck me immediately as I read the book. He has been a law unto himself for so long that he really IS like an undisciplined child with no-one to check him or tell him no. Incredibly, Ms. Hoyt has turned this into a rather endearing trait; there’s something infectious about Val’s passion for whatever he does that communicates to the audience, but that oddly engaging, playful aspect to his character is almost entirely absent in Ms. MacNab’s performance.

I almost feel like I’m spouting heresy here because I know Ms. MacNab is a real favourite with listeners, and I’ve enjoyed her narrations of other books in this series. Her female characterisations are excellent as are the majority of her acting choices, and while her pacing is perhaps a little on the slow side, it works and doesn’t detract from the performance. But this is one of those times when the portrayal of one character is the key to the success of the audiobook as a whole, and I’m afraid she hasn’t quite pulled it off.

Caz

Narration: B

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Duke of Sin was provided to AudioGals by Hachette Audio for a review.