The Other Half - Charlotte Vassell

The Other Half is Charlotte Vassell's debut novel. 

The publisher uses 'cozy' in their description of the book. And the cover image seems to bear that out. Well, yes, but not quite the way I had expected. There are no older sleuths and their cats on the way to the village fete when they discover a body under a hedge. But that's where all of my expectations went out the window. Instead it is Detective Caius Beauchamp who finds the corpse on his morning jog. 

Caius and his sidekicks DS Matt Cheung and DC Amy Noakes are on the job. Where their inquiries takes them is to the the homes and lives of the upper echelons of society. And as much Caius hates to admit it, he is drawn to how the half lives.

And that's where Vassell takes out her sharpest pen and starts skewering the upper classes. I do have to say the dark humor was quite amusing. 

But I found the case itself is darker and well, more than a little sad. Money, power and more define the upper level. It was quite easy to dislike them.

I chose to listen to The Other Half. The narrators were Imogen Wilde, whom I've listen to in the past. She has a very versatile voice and easily captures the characters. Her posh tones were perfect for this plot. She speaks clearly and is easy to understand. I thought she did a great job of presenting Vassell's work. The other narrator was Michael Muyunda, who is a new to me performer. He has a wonderfully rich tone to his voice. The tone is lower and calls on the listener to pay attention so as not to miss anything. I think he has the perfect voice for Detective Caius Beauchamp. The speed of his reading varies and I ended up turning the speed down to .09, which worked well for me. I think I enjoyed the audio performance more than I would have enjoyed a printed copy. Hear for yourself - listen to an audio excerpt of The Other Half.