A Dangerous Legacy

August 28, 2017
Camden (Against the Tide) weaves together a delightful story of intrigue and love against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century New York City. Lucy Drake is an expert telegrapher working for the Associated Press, sending stories from overseas to newspapers across the country. Lucy and Nick, her plumber brother, are in the midst of a decades-old legal battle with their wealthy extended family over a plumbing valve that could help many of the city’s poorest citizens. Sir Colin Beckwith is the new director of the Reuters New York office, tasked with stopping subscribers (and employees) from changing from British Reuters to the primary American competitor, the Associated Press. Although they work for different companies, Lucy and Colin work together and risk their lives to help others, after Lucy learns that her nefarious extended family is up to more than just price-gouging. The easy camaraderie between Lucy and Colin forms a realistic foundation upon which their relationship is built, which carries the sometimes overly complicated last third of the book. Camden makes it easy to visualize the setting, whether it’s New York City streets, the Western Union Telegraph building where Reuters and the Associated Press are housed, the crowded apartment buildings, or the comfortable estates. Readers will get a thrill out of reading this lovely historical romance, the first in a series.

Narrator Morgan Hallett manages a range of accents representing all levels of American and British social classes of the early twentieth century. Listeners are drawn into the New York offices of competitors Reuters and the Associated Press, where the news of the world is telegraphed to newspapers all over the United States. Lucy Drake, a bright and ambitious woman, is the AP telegrapher, and her brother, Nick, is an extraordinary plumber. Together, they become involved with decades-old litigation over the rights to a valve that enables water to reach the highest floors of New York City tenements. Their fight is fueled by morality, not greed, but before the outcome is realized, Hallett's commanding voice must negotiate twists and turns of deceit and treachery. E.B. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine