The Disenchantment

Madeleine Leslay distinctively narrates several characters in Bell’s debut, an elaborate tale of murder and upper-class intrigue set in 17th-century Paris. Marie Catherine bides her time in a loveless marriage to the Baron de Cardonnoy by telling fairy tales to her children and attending aristocratic salons. At a salon two years earlier, she met and fell in love with Victoire, a spirited young countess and distant relative of the king. The women keep the affair hidden until a case of mistaken identity involving Marie Catherine’s portrait painter sends the baron on a rampage that ends in his death. Although there are a staggering number of characters in Bell’s novel, Leslay adds posh embellishments to aristocratic voices and employs various accents for lower-class citizens, which makes everyone sound unique. Her Marie Catherine switches from astute to airhead whenever the character feigns naivete around the authorities. Marie Catherine’s lady’s maid Jeanne, whom Leslay performs with a broad British-French accent, has an idea of who killed the baron but fears complicity. Multiple storylines simmer until they converge toward an exhilarating but rushed ending.