Who knew audio performers used pseudonyms?

I was looking for audio books to listen to on a long drive, a couple of days ago, and came across The Masque of the Black Tulip. The author is Lauren Willig.

It sounded like another DaVinci Code or National Treasure type of thing, where investigators today accidently come across information that will alter the course of history in the future...

Turns out it wasn't like that at all.

Nevertheless, it was serendipitity - I quite like the book. It takes place in the "real world," but in a real world where the Scarlet Pimpernel actually existed back in the 1700s, and after he was unmasked the Purple Gentian and then the Pink Carnation took his place, meantime they had to battle the Black Tulip.

Okay, the names are amusing, but it's really good, light-hearted, funny, and exciting...

It takes place both in present day England and in Napoleonic France and England.

The performer is "Kate Reading", an "accomplished member of a London theatrical family."

Well, that's not really true. The performer is Jennifer Mendenhall, who had a brief TV career from 1992 to 1994 (if the IMDB is to be believed) and now works on stage in Washington DC and does auiobooks, of which she's done dozens. (Interesting pseudonym.... Reading...because she's a reader... get it?)

And I really like her voice and am impressed by her range. She starts out as the narrator, an American woman, and then segues into various British accents for everyone else in the book. Turns out in real life she was born in the US but raised in Britain.

The first book in this series by Lauren Willig is The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (I love her titles). Check it out - but go the audio book route!