Play Book Tag discussion

A Certain Age – Beatriz Williams
Book on CD performed by Adrienne Rusk, Mia Barron, and Barbara Goodson.
3***

Williams gives us a novel of romance, family secrets, and scandal in New York Society, set during the Roaring Twenties. The title refers to two things: the age of the era in American society, and a woman of “a certain age.”

Theresa Marshall is a married woman with a Fifth Avenue apartment, and a boy-toy lover, basically the same age as her grown son. Her family is an old, established one in NYC social circles, but they are without much money. (Theresa’s wealth comes from her husband.) When her brother, a confirmed bachelor, announces that he’s going to marry a young woman with wealth but no family history, Theresa asks her lover, Octavian, to research the girl’s family. And things get complicated once he meets the lovely Sofie.

I was not a great fan of Theresa; I thought Williams made her far too cold and calculating. Sofie, by contrast, was treacle-sweet. Still, it certainly held my attention, though I saw through the old murder mystery pretty quickly. Williams definitely gives the reader a sense of the era … speakeasies, flappers, bathtub gin, horse races, etc.

The audio is performed by three talented voice artists. Unfortunately, I don’t know which performer did which sections. They were equally good, and the change of voice did help with the changes in point-of-view during the novel.



LINK to my review