A Tangle of Serpents

A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery Series, Book 6

By: Andrea Penrose

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

With the epic victory at Waterloo behind them, Arianna and Saybrook are looking forward to a quiet summer of scholarship, far from the turmoil of war and politics. But little do they know that an even more dangerous battle is about to test their mettle.

The shocking news that Lord Grentham, the steely minister of state security, has been accused of treason and is on the run from arrest takes them and their close circle of friends by surprise. Arianna and Saybrook don't want to believe it. Despite their fraught past with the minister, they've developed a grudging friendship....

Or has Grentham deceived them? They're shown damning evidence that proves his guilt beyond question. And yet, their friend Sophia Kirtland refuses to accept it. Arianna can't help but have her doubts, too - even when a midnight encounter with the fugitive minister tells her otherwise. Saybrook is less certain, but his sense of honor compels him to join their quest to prove him innocent....

The trail leads to Paris, a city now seething with international intrigue. Rumors are rife; loyalties are for sale as the European powers scheme against each other. Can they uncoil the tangle of serpents and find the truth? The challenges turn even more dangerous when Arianna is forced to confront an old Russian enemy...and a sin from her father's past.

©2020 Andrea DaRif (P)2021 Tantor

Like the story, not the narrator

I keep getting drawn into this series because it’s well-written and engaging but/and the narrator’s breathy voice is extremely irritating!

The narrators vpice.

The narrators voice and tone. The breathless tone portrayed the sound of a romance novel which distracted from the story.

Good story, AWFUL narrator

I really like the characters and stories in this series but I have to give it up because these days I “read” by listening and this narrator is horrendous. I keep thinking king she can’t be that bad so I listen again and it IS that bad. Her accent goes in and out and her voice is so breathy at all the wrong times is does not suit this story. Maybe she should narrate Barbara Cartland romances instead of one’s like this one!

Narration spoiled a decent story

After paying $12 for the audio book, I had to pay another $6 for the Kindle edition because the narration was so bad I couldn’t make it past chapter three. One character with an annoying breathy speech pattern is ok, but when most of the characters (and the narrator) speak like a 15 year old trying to sound sultry, it becomes unbearable.
Buy the book. Skip the Audible version.

Good story

like the characters a lot, good plot. The author noticeably overuses several words: hubris, conundrum, mercurial, frisson... There's this invention called a thesaurus...