Narrated by Ruairi Carter
Spectred Isle was one of my favourite books of 2017 and I’ve been eagerly looking forward to experiencing it again in audio format. The story is a captivating romantic adventure yarn set in England in 1923, wherein a small group of arcanists and ghost-hunters are England’s last line of defence against supernatural threat. Ms. Charles’ makes wonderful use of folklore, ancient myth and magical rites as she sets about pulling readers and listeners into the world she has created, one in which a war as terrible as the one being fought between 1914 and 1918 by men and machines was fought concurrently by forces of the occult.
The War Beneath, as that war is known amongst those who took part in it, was every bit as savage as the one going on in the trenches of Northern France, possibly moreso, as the opposing governments recruited as many occultists and arcanists as they could and set them to unleashing their very specialised form of warfare on the enemy. With both sides fairly evenly matched, the veil between the supernatural and the human worlds was irrevocably damaged; and with so many of the combatants dead, it now falls to just a handful of men and women to track down and repel the various creatures and malignant entities that are passing through the veil with increasing frequency.
One of the small number of guardians is Randolph Glyde, the last remaining member of an ancient family tasked by successive monarchs over many generations with protecting England from mystical forces. The Green Men take their magical ability from the land, but with so few of them left alive and so few of those up to the tasks required of them, Randolph is run ragged, doing the best he can to at the least keep London from falling prey to an attack from beyond the veil. These have become more frequent of late, what with a spontaneously combusting tree at Oak Hill Park (just north of London), a malevolent spirit manifestation in the East End… and the inexplicable appearance of a stranger who appears to be dogging Randolph’s footsteps.
Saul Lazenby spent most of the war in the North African desert – in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) to be precise – and had planned to return there afterwards to join an archaeological dig. Things didn’t work out that way though, and he returned from the war in disgrace, having been court-martialled and dishonourably discharged as the result of an ill-advised liaison with a local. Disowned by his family and practically destitute, Saul was lucky be offered employment by the eccentric Major Peabody, a man who is obsessed with the occult and the supernatural and believes London to be a hot-bed of magical activity – and whom Saul privately believes to be a harmless crackpot. Still, it’s paid work and all Saul has to do is “follow the bees in the major’s bonnet”. And those bees have led Saul to a number of locations at which odd things have happened, like an ancient oak tree in north London suddenly exploding into flame, a bizarre incident in Smithfield and several coincidental meetings with a darkly brooding, well-to-do but short-tempered man Saul begins to suspect must have escaped from an institution!
When Randolph and Saul meet accidentally again, this time at Camlet Moat in Trent Park (near Cockfosters, north of London), Randolph has to admit that it must be more than coincidence, and to understand that Saul must have some as yet unknown role to play in the defence of England. From here on in, the men have to work together in order to discover what Saul’s part is to be in the grand scheme of things, and to defeat the dark forces poised to attack London.
Randolph and Saul are superbly drawn characters, both of them outsiders, lonely and haunted by their pasts and, in Randolph’s case, the weight of the responsibility placed upon him. Their relationship evolves naturally from suspicion and scepticism to a tentative truce, friendship and respect, and then to more; and even though it grows over a fairly short space of time, nothing about the growth of their attraction feels rushed or underdeveloped. They have great chemistry, and I loved the way they were able to gradually let down their guards and be themselves with another person for the first time in ages. The love scenes are sensual, and there’s no doubt these two share an intense emotional connection as well.
Ms. Charles skilfully incorporates her (obviously) comprehensive research into ancient legends and pagan myth as she details the specifics of this world’s Earth-magic. It’s not benign and it’s not simple; it’s tricky and devious and dangerous, and those who have been tasked with using it and fighting it must suffer pain and sacrifice to prove themselves worthy of it.
Spectred Isle is a terrific book – one of the author’s best. In audio, however, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Ruairi Carter is an experienced narrator (recording here under an alias), and I liked a number of things about his performance. He’s technically accomplished, so there are no issues with things like pacing and enunciation and his character differentiation is generally good. Sam Caldwell (whom we first met as a child in The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal when he was adopted by Feximal and his life-partner, Robert Caldwell), has a slight cockney accent and the two ex-soldiers, Barney and Max, are easy to tell apart (one, courtesy of a gravelly growl, the other with a classic ‘officer class toff’ accent). Randolph sounds appropriately autocratic, although not always as caustic as he’s supposed to, but the biggest issue I had with the narration was with Mr. Carter’s characterisation of Saul. If I were describing a singer, I’d label Mr. Carter a high tenor, as his speaking voice falls into that sort of range. This means that in order to differentiate successfully between the two leads, he has to use a higher pitch for one – in this case Saul – as I suspect the attempt to push it lower would have sounded a bit silly. But this often had the effect of making him sound like a teenaged boy rather than a grown man, and while I got used to it, it was something of a problem in the sex scenes, where Saul just sounded far too young. In addition, there was a lack of emotional engagement which made the staccato utterances (“Yes!” “Please!” – that sort of thing ;)) in the heat of passion sound as though Saul wasn’t having a lot of fun and just wanted it all over and done with. There’s a fine line to be trod here, and to go over the top can be just as irritating as not going far enough, and of course, one listener’s over the top is likely another’s not far enough. Overall however, the performance was rather too low-key, and much of the atmosphere of menace and urgency conveyed through the author’s words on the page was lost.
I’ve reviewed almost every audio title by K.J. Charles and have almost always had positive things to say about both content and narration. While in general I say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, there’s no reason not to use different narrators for different projects – provided they’re right for it. And while Ruairi Carter is a good narrator, I don’t think he was the right choice for this particular book.
Caz
Buy Spectred Isle by K.J. Charles on Amazon
