Katie's Kitchen

In pre-WWI London, Katherine Carter has just learned that the man with whom she shared an elegant home and a prosperous restaurant (but neither bed nor ring) has died without a will. His lecherous brother inherits everything--including Katie. But she escapes his advances by moving to the city's poor dockside, where she becomes the hard-working proprietress of her own pie-and-mash (meat pies and mashed potatoes) shop. Then her young son enlists. Suspense builds over two issues: Will he return alive, and can a woman's business succeed when women can't even vote? Nadia May subtly shifts her own British accent to fit the story's cast of aristocrats and wharf rats. Thanks to her quick-change dialogue, colorful characters draw the listener into a different time and place. E.V. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine