The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell @CharlotteVass17 @ImogenWilde_ @PRHAudio @librofm

the setup…
DI Caius Beauchamp is on an early morning jog, part of his self improvement journey following his breakup with his French girlfriend Heloise, when he discovers the body of a dead woman in the park. He’d just stumbled into the world of “the other half” as the woman was later identified as Clemency (Clemmie) O’Hara, the longtime girlfriend of Rupert Beauchamp (no relation and pronounced differently) who had celebrated his 30th birthday nearby the night before…at a McDonald’s.

the heart of the story…
We meet Rupert and Clemmie’s circle of “friends” and acquaintances through the course of the investigation. We get a satirical view of the British class system on full display and it’s a world of self indulgement, who’s who and who’s not, money and entitlement. Rupert is the worst of them all, moving through life fearlessly, knowing the rules for him are different and he isn’t even worried about being a suspect in Clemmie’s murder. Central in the investigation is Helena (Nell) Waddingham, a complex woman whose relationship with Rupert dates back to their days at Oxford and has always been his true focus. She’s emotionally damaged and to say her relationship with Rupert is complicated is the understatement of the century. It’s through her eyes we see the most truths of their world, how it works and the likely suspects. Throughout it all, Cais and his partners on the case, DS Matt Cheung and DC Amy Noakes, do an admirable of job of sifting through the mire and developing the case despite internal pressures to “protect” some of these people who have associations with the powerful and influential.

the narration…
Imogen Wilde was primarily giving voice to Nell and she captured her perfectly. Her storytelling was superb. However, I struggled with Muyunda’s performance as it was hard to distinguish the dialogue as it lacked inflection and he spoke too rapidly. It made it hard to understand what he was saying.

the bottom line…
I enjoyed the story as the author cleverly captured the world of the other half through a myriad of interesting but truly unlikeable characters. While it was satirical in nature, there was always an underlying sense of despair and desperation as the players grasped for recognition and place. Cais and his team could have fallen into the trap of feeling intimidated by this world but did their job despite being looked down upon and challenged internally. While I wanted to know who killed Clemmie, that part of the story almost took a back seat to the intrigue of the despicable Rupert, the conflicted Nell and Alex, the man intent on saving her. The ending left some threads to unravel and I’m glad this is now a series.

Book Info

• Release Date: November 21, 2023
• Series: DI Cais Beauchamp #1
• Narrators: Imogen Wilde & Michael Muyunda
• Audio Length: 9 hours, 5 minutes
• Publisher: Random House Audio

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(Thanks to Libro.fm and Random House Audio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)