susanvoss18

This was a fun listen! Rudolph (Rudy) enjoys relieving high society individuals of their valuables. I think he does it mostly out of boredom. His manservant, Wilhelm (Willy), has tried everything he can think of to break him of this bad habit. This situation provided plenty of humor throughout the story.

At a fancy dinner party, an expensive necklace goes missing and this newspaper reporter gets blamed but perceptive folks don’t truly believe he stole it. Rudy has a naughty laugh up his sleeve because he knows exactly who took that necklace. Meanwhile, Willy is trying really hard not to roll his eyes at this while others are around.

So this baron or count or some such decides to take extra precautions concerning his safe. He brings three others into the plan, including Rudy because he believes he is an honorable man. Of course, this just presents a challenging opportunity for Rudy to get rich. Willy once again tries to persuade him not to do so… including threatening to never, ever make Rudy his favorite chocolate tiffin ever again. Ha! This story had me chuckling at every turn.

So while I know I shouldn’t root for Rudy, I didn’t want him caught and punished either. Luckily, the story gives us a true villain. There’s murder and deception and politics! Rudy and Willy inadvertently get drawn into this and when pushed up against the wall, they have to decide where that moral line is.

My one criticism for this story is that the ladies don’t really get to do anything. They flutter about in expensive sparkly jewelry and tell their men how clever they are. Really, you could have left them out all together and the plot wouldn’t have been impacted at all. So I would have liked some real female characters.

Overall, this story was a delicious mix of humor and serious crime. The play between Willy and Rudy was great and often had me laughing. Rudy is a bit of a scoundrel but I can see him taking on greater things, especially if there’s a bit of silver or gold in it for him. I love that the author included a recipe for the chocolate tiffin. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Richard Urry was excellent in performing this book. He has distinct voices for all the characters and his lady voices are feminine. I loved his voice for Willy as I could just picture all the facial remarks this character made (rolling eyes, grimacing, etc.). Also, there’s a recipe at the end of the book and Urry proves that he’s delightful to listen to no matter what he’s reading. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Jake Urry. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.