The Stolen Letters

A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery Series, Book 3.5

By: Andrea Penrose

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

With the hunt for a diabolical traitor finally over, Lady Arianna is looking for some peace and quiet in which to resolve lingering tensions with her husband over her daredevil exploits during the final chase. But an unexpected late night visit from The Dragon - Saybrook's feisty and independent great aunt - puts her in the middle of a very difficult dilemma....

Constantina confesses that some very private personal letters, along with some sensitive diplomatic documents, have been stolen from her French paramour. She's desperately hoping Arianna can help get them back, but says it must be discreetly and without anyone knowing - including Saybrook.

Yes or No? The task is made even more daunting when Arianna discovers that the political intrigue may entangle her with some very dangerous old enemies....

Ah, but Arianna can't resist a challenge, and when she learns that a diplomatic party will provide the perfect opportunity to steal the documents back, she and Constantina, along with their friend Sophia Kirtland, quickly devise a plan to prove the ladies can best the gentlemen at their own devious games....

©2017 Andrea DaRif (P)2020 Tantor

Give Mary Sarah a Break!

I am also picky about the narration of the books to which I listen. However, if you are this far into the series, you’ve listened to Mary Sarah for hours and chosen to continue to do so.

As for the story, it reads like a novella, except that it has important information that will be referenced in the upcoming books. So, readers/listeners had to read/listen to this book.

I was displeased by the brevity of a story line that will continue into the next books. I felt it was setting me up to have yo read the next book rather than making me want to read it.

As an English teacher, and someone who reads a hundred books a year, and listens to another hundred, I am going to give the next book in the series a chance. I have read a lot of Regency Period books, but Napoleon wasn’t a focus. The historian in me wants to see where this goes and then research it myself.

Narrator sounds different

The narrator wasn’t too bad in the first three books, some strange changes in volume and some odd intonations, but not really distracting. I didn’t even think this was the same narrator. She has added a weird lisp and an almost a baby voice for the main character and changed the voices. It is not good at all. I rarely review books, I read a lot audiobooks, several a month, and review only 1-2 per year. This was that bad. I hope like crazy that the narration returns to normal in the next book! I don’t think I’ll be able to finish the series with this narration almost bordering on baby talk.

Terrible narration, mid story

Once again, the author uses phrases that were not even invented when these books supposedly cover. For instance, the prince regent was poisoned in book one and he only lived until 1830, so how in this book is she using sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me when that phrase was not even invented until 1862?
As many reviewers have pointed out, the narrator is awful, and her affected accents are abysmal. Even Olav's accent goes from Russian to Scots to Irishm UGH! And, all the whispering, shouting, and weird intonations take away so much from a story already lacking.

Glad this was free and I didn't waste a credit on it.

Nice story but…

Totally spoiled for me by the unconvincing English accent and bad intonation. Just because the English don’t pronounce the “r” in words like “bark” doesn’t mean they pronounce “back” like that. They say “back” and similar words exactly like Americans do.

The action

This series is really good in story and plot. Mary Sarah is a good narrator but it may take a little getting used to. Sometimes you can’t understand her words, but I’ve listened to her in several books, so she’s not a “no buy” kind of narrator. I have managed to get most of this series free from my library because I’d rather spend my credits and money on something else. Good storyline though!