Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

Cathy Maxwell’s The Chattan Curse trilogy which tells the stories of three siblings – Neal, Harry, and Margaret Chattan – whose family was put under a powerful curse almost two hundred years previously.

Each book (including the third, The Devil’s Heart) opens with a prologue telling the story of the curse from a different viewpoint. We learn how, in 1632, a young Scottish girl was cruelly jilted by her lover, Charles Chattan, and killed herself as a result. Over the girl’s funeral pyre, her mother, the witch Fenella Macnachtan, curses Chattan and all his decendants  before consigning herself to the flames.

“When a Chattan male falls in love,
strike his heart with fire from Above.
Crush his heart, destroy his line;
Only then will justice be mine.”

At the end of Lyon’s Bride, Harry Chattan, a somewhat cynical and bitter former Cavalry officer, had some serious thinking to do and obstacles to overcome. By the time we meet him again, he’s firmly back-in-the-saddle, so to speak, and hunting desperately for a way to break the curse and restore his brother to health. His search takes him to Glenfinnan in Scotland, where he rather foolishly announces that he’s looking for a witch and offers a substantial financial reward to any who can help him. One of those who decides to do so is Portia Maclean who arranges to meet him under cover of darkness and induces him to believe that she is Fenella Macnachtan.

Not only is Portia not Fenella, she’s not a witch either. She, her younger sister, Minnie, and their mother have had to leave London in order to live more cheaply at Camber Hall, a somewhat neglected property belonging to the Duke of Moncrieffe. Portia’s sister is the beauty of the family while their mother is one of those so-called invalid mamas so often found in historical romances. Lady Maclean either cannot or will not bring herself to take an interest in the running of their household so naturally, all the decisions and worries fall to Portia who, while being quite capable, would nonetheless appreciate some help occasionally, even if that help came in the form of her mother’s being willing to economise and not be so concerned with keeping up appearances. Portia longs for more, for a life of her own – even as she knows she’s doomed to be the spinster daughter, firmly on the shelf and destined to be her mother’s support (and unpaid servant) for the rest of her days.

Harry is a man with much in his past about which he is not proud.  His army service was brutal and bloody and I thought the author handled that aspect of his character well. She made it clear that he had issues with the things he’d seen and done and that they led him to believe himself to be less deserving than his brother – but she didn’t continually hit us over the head with it.

While Harry and Portia’s first meeting is somewhat inauspicious, she soon begins to feel respect, and more, for this strong, proud man who is so desperate to save his brother that he will get on his knees and offer his own life in exchange for Neal’s. Not that she believes in the curse – far from it, but she believes in Harry’s conviction and soon decides to help him to try to find a way to help Neal.

The romance between them begins to grow at a sensible pace and I enjoyed the way the author developed their growing awareness and attraction. But then suddenly (and, it would seem, with some supernatural intervention as things escalated so quickly as to make me wonder if I’d missed a couple of chapters), Harry and Portia begin a clandestine affair.

It seemed out of character for both of them. I think it’s supposed to feel that way, given what I’ve said about the fact they appear to have been given a magical push in that direction (not that they needed much pushing) but I did find it rather jarring.

Before long, Portia realises that she has fallen head-over-heels in love with Harry and, finally accepting the reality of the curse, realises that he can’t afford to fall for her, so she attempts to break things off with him. Being a man and thus somewhat dim (!), it takes him a while to work out why she has spurned him, even when the local witch more or less spells it out for him.

But once Harry does realise the truth, he – like Neal – admits to the importance of love in his life and instead of shutting himself away to mope, wants to spend whatever time he has with the woman he loves.

So now, it’s all up to Margaret, their somewhat sharp-tongued, waspish sister, to do what she can to break the curse in the final book, The Devil’s Heart.

Ms. Landor once again brings her considerable range and interpretative skill to this audiobook. The female roles are especially well done, with Portia and Minnie both voiced in ways which are well suited to their respective ages and dispositions. She gives Lady Maclean a rather bored-sounding drawl at the start of the story that expertly conveys her weariness and disinterest in those around her. Where Harry often sounded curt and abrasive in the previous book, here, Ms Landor has effected a slight softening in tone, which definitely helps to show how much he’s changed from the harsh, self-centred man he had been and has become a man who is prepared to do absolutely anything for the people he loves.

The secondary characters are so distinctly defined as to be immediately identifiable, and Ms. Landor does a very good job with the various Scottish accents she uses to portray the villagers.  There is also the added challenge of voicing Rowan, Harry’s Indian servant, which she does well, and without resorting to caricature.

I enjoyed listening to The Scottish Witch, although as I’ve said, I did have reservations about certain events which took place in both this and the previous book. But even so, they were very entertaining and beautifully told and the central couple in each book was likeable and well rounded. I definitely plan to listen to the final story in the trilogy in the near future.

Breakdown of Grade: Narration – A; Story – B-

Running time: 7 hours 34 minutes