A Darker Reality

An Elena Standish Novel, Book 3

By: Anne Perry

Narrated by: Susan Lyons

A personal trip turns perilous after the murder of a British spy in Washington, DC, forces Elena Standish to face dark family secrets in this exciting 1930s mystery by best-selling author Anne Perry.

On a family trip to Washington, DC, Elena Standish is delighted to visit her mother's parents for their anniversary and celebrate with influential friends of her grandfather, a prominent scientist. Even Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt will attend the party. But the event comes to a sudden and tragic end when one of the guests, Lila Worth, is run over by a car in the driveway outside. Elena realizes that Lila had been trying to tell her something, and when a call from Peter Lucas back home at MI6 confirms that Lila was a British spy, Elena pairs with the American secret service to find out what vital information the young woman had in her possession.

To further complicate Elena's trip, her grandfather is arrested for the murder. Desperate to clear his name and save her family from disgrace, she looks more deeply into her grandfather's scientific life and discovers that Lila had been desperately trying to keep the latest developments in nuclear fission out of the Nazis' hands. Her grandfather's business secrets run deep, it appears, and as Elena begins to question his loyalties, she wonders if she can trust anyone in this dark new world order.

©2021 Anne Perry (P)2021 Recorded Books

Needs Abridged

All relevant details could have been presented in 2 hours. I like this series, but this book went on, and on over the same useless details over and over. For at least 4 hours of the book we seemed to go over the same information again and again.

Too much about fashion!

Would be much better without sooo many laborious descriptions of dresses and scenery. Woul be a good book if abridged.

Very Slow

Not only is the story slow but the narration is spoken at a slow pace—but then there wasn’t much to get excited about. I enjoyed previous books in this series so I am very disappointed in this one.

Darker Dilemma

Loved started reading Anne Perry's books again. Have read all the past Monk and Pitt novels twice. So
glad she is writing a new generation of modern, international ,super-spy mysteries as only she can. Also, the narrator was very enjoyable.

Continuing story of young female agent for MI5 During run up to World War II

I very much enjoy Anne Perry. My favorite are the William Monk novels. These are good too although not quite as satisfying - they occasionally feel a little rushed when it comes to attention to detail. Very involving, nonetheless. I will say the narrator, while generally very good, makes little to no effort to differentiate who is speaking. Once or twice I had to back up and try again to see if I could figure it out. I look forward to the next volume.