A Dangerous Legacy by Elizabeth Camden -- Reviewed by Carrie Fancett Pagels

A Dangerous Legacy by Elizabeth Camden, Narrated by Morgan Hallett, Audible.com

A Dangerous Legacy
by Elizabeth Camden
Narrated by Morgan Hallett
Audible.com download

Reviewed by Carrie Fancett Pagels

Please note: This title is available in multiple formats.

Five Stars for Story, Narration, and Overall *****

Fantastic Listen!!! Dangerous, Indeed!

Some books are like a box full of wonderful artisan chocolates. This audible listen was like that. I savored each segment of listening that I did over the course of about two weeks. As I got to the end, though, I ended up binging a little, like you do when you know you're at the end and about to run out of those fantastic hand-made chocolates!

The narrator, Morgan Hallett, couldn't be more perfect for the voice of Lucy Drake, a telegraph operator in New York City. Lucy and her brother have been waging a legal battle with their uncle for a long time, and both are worn out from it. Sir Colin Beckwith, a Reuters News Agency, is in New York to find himself a wealthy heiress to bolster his impoverished estate in England. 

Lucy has a heart of gold and I immediately loved her. Colin has a a battered and tarnished silver heart of his own that Lucy helps polish and God pushes to heal. They are dealing with very dangerous people who will stop at nothing. At one point I was afraid to keep listening! But I kept on and was rewarded!

As usual, Elizabeth Camden's attention to research detail pulls you into the story and keeps you a century in the past. Her ability to put you in the setting is breath-taking. I was especially interested in the psychiatric asylum aspect. Having been a psychologist for twenty-five years, I was somewhat surprised by the very negative portrayal, but after all there is a reason. And it is true that many of the "treatments" used at the turn-of-the-century were little more than torture. However, a couple of the techniques discussed in the novel are still used today and aren't the horror they are portrayed as here, e.g., systematic desensitization, and the use of projective imagery to get at core issues. But these are used to pull the story forward.

Highly Recommend!!!