NOTORIOUS

Professional “matchbreaker” Susanna Burney realizes she’s finally met her match when she comes face-to-face with her first love, James Devlin. Katherine Kellgren delivers a calm, cool narration as Susanna and Devlin dance around each other and their feelings. Kellgren’s voice rises and falls as the two are pulled together by desire and then push each other away. She provides a tony British accent that perfectly fits the formality of the London season and switches to appropriate working-class accents for those in the servant class. Devlin’s younger sister, Chessie, and his fiancée, Emma, are portrayed in higher pitched, more demanding tones that highlight their immaturity, while the deeper, more even tones of Susanna show her maturity and worldliness. While Kellgren gives Devlin’s voice no trace of his Dublin upbringing, she provides his cousin and former guardian, a Scotsman, with a slight lilt that sets him apart from the other characters. E.N. 2012 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2012]