A Lark's Tale

Series: Verity Lark Mystery, Book 1

By: Lynn Messina / Narrated By: Jill Smith

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Not exACTly a train wreck, but…

I’d always thought that I’m a: Gee, I LOVE Author Lynn Messina-type o’ person. I mean, for the most part, I’ve vaaaastly enjoyed her Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, even tho’ the LAST one of those that I listened to (A Boldly Daring Scheme) was NOT even about the indomitable Beatrice. I’d kinda sorta wound up liking that one, but after it, I’m entirely ready for Messina to get back to m’ favorite Intrepid Woman Sleuth.

Soooo, when I saw that Messina was crafting an entirely new series, a kinda sorta spinoff, and what with the Danged Publisher’s Summary positing it to be a crafty woman, definitely a spinster, one cowed by no one and nothing? Oh Huzzah Huzzah Huzzah. Add that she’s the older half-sister of the Duke of Kesgrave and an illegitimate one at that, one with a very different and wretched upbringing, and I was so thrilled when A Lark’s Tale finally came out in audiobook form. Quite thrilled as I’d been holding m’ breath for aaaages, always checking and checking and checking. I’ve been DYING to listen to it, and I was tickled pink when it won by a landslide to be included in this Week O’ Mysteries.

Oh YIKES!

First, be aware that a familiarity with the BHC series is advisable. Actually? It’s pretty goshdanged necessary as our heroine Verity is obsessed with Beatrice’s cases, and said cases and outcomes are alluded to, like, constantly. All good for me as I’d listened to over half of those mysteries and could understand which case was being referenced. NOT good for me as some referenced I’d yet to listen to, thereby kinda sorta SPOILING future BHC mysteries.

Verity Lark is a Man Of Mystery, yes Man, seeing as only men can do certain things. She has a closet full of disguises which she uses to get info from various personages, to go places that would be forbidden her as a woman. With her first donning of men’s clothing I’d rather had a knee-jerk Boooo! as Beatrice is fond of disguising herself as a man. Messina recycling herself? Maybe. But then we come to see that this is entirely necessary for Verity as she shape shifts constantly to glean tidbits and heady info to be used for her Gossip column, holding the Beau Monde’s feet to the fire as she depicts their various quirks and scandals, holds them up to be scrutinized and mocked. THIS persona, the one who writes for the “London Daily Gazette”, goes by Mr. Twaddle-Thum, a personage NOBODY knows or sees.

UNTIL…

A Mr. Twaddle-Thum starts boldly showing up, like, everywhere. THIS is not to be tolerated, and Verity is soon on the case, hunting for this bold as brass Twaddle-Sham starts throwing monkey wrenches into Verity’s cleverly-concealed existence. There are So. Many. This Thats The Others! that go on, that the book soon starts veering into Hard To Keep Up With Territory, and things are mighty confusing from the get-go. Don’t even get me started on the timeline, what with it all opening with a fraught scene, then it jumps back to a series of events that occur prior to said scene. So when we finally get to what-all REALLY was going on during that Anxiety-Inducing scene, it’s actually quite humdrum. Follow it up with the remainder of the story, with several plot lines and characters entering by the backdoor, front door, side door, ANY door to get as many characters in as possible (And most with similar sounding name), and things get really messy as things unfold.

Okay, onto Jill Smith’s narration. Beating a dead horse here (Poor horse!), but I’m once again going to reference the BHC series when I note that Jill Smith is absolute PERFECTION there. That said? All right, she does stellar accents for the many characters Verity bumps into, brava! for a grand Cockney, and yesss! for grand male voices! That said? Oh ouch, as her choice for Verity is pretty off-putting; I mean I totally understand that she’s a brash and no-nonsense, Uber-tall, and VERY unfeminine woman, but yikes! Smith has her sounding most definitely like a straight up man. Which wouldn't be a problem if one of her two chums wasn’t a man himself, one who comes off far less masculine than Verity. But I liked her voice for Delphine, the last of the trio of friends. So fairly decent narration, just questionable character voice choices.

Nope, I didn’t fall asleep throughout this audiobook, but I DID lose my train of thought a multitude of times, and that’s never any fun. EsPECially not if you dive into something hoping for fun and frothy, witty and wicked. With p’raps a hint of looming romance.

For something I waited eeeeons to arrive in audiobook form?

Uhm, there’s a second in the series coming out soon…

…and I’m fairly certain I shan’t be getting it.

-AND-

Dude! It’s thiiiiiiiis close to a Michael J. Sullivan Booo! Award Ending!!!