This was another audiobook, and it was read poorly by Matthew Lloyd Davis. Since one of the main characters was female and she seemed to be the dominant character, why a female reader wasn't chosen for this book escapes me. Davis doesn't do female voices well. Not that this particular choice would have made any difference to the really bad story itself, which isn't, fortunately, first person, but which is told alternatively from the PoV of the main characters. I have to say that's not a style I particularly enjoy!
Those characters are Anthony Hetheridge, aka Lord Hetheridge, the ninth Baron of Wellegrave, who is also Chief Superintendent for New Scotland Yard. Why he had to be all that escapes me. I guess the author was going for as much chalk-and-cheese as she could get, but all she got was cheesy because his partner is Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield who is, as the Brits say, 'common as muck'. The book description ticked me off by using the word 'beautiful' before any other quality in the list of her traits. Lord Hetheridge gets: "never married, no children, no pets, no hobbies, and not even an interesting vice, will turn sixty in three weeks." She's larded with "beautiful, willful, and nearly half his age." Seriously? Those are her traits? Why not dispense with that description and just write "I hate women" as the book description?
Apparently the plan is to marry these two off (the author bludgeons the reader over the head with this often) and then write a series about them, but this American author knows squat about Britain. And let's completely forget about how inappropriate it is for a senior officer to have any sort of relations with one of his junior police officers. I'm not going to get into the age difference because I don't buy into that 'half his age' crap. If people love each other it's irrelevant. The question is, do they? I found it hard to believe that these two would, but then I didn't read very far before giving up in disgust.
The first problem in the narrative was that Kate has a senior officer expose himself to her and there are zero consequences for him. There isn't even an investigation, and no one, least of all Detective Kate, is remotely put-out by this. Neither is any other female on the force, apparently. Has this author learned nothing from #MeToo? That's when I quit reading this insensitive and nonsensical attempt at a story.
