Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Dearest Milton James

SERIES:  Dearest Milton James, Book 1

AUTHOR:  N.R. Walker

NARRATOR:  Glen Lloyd

PUBLISHER:  BlueHeart Press

LENGTH:  5 hours and 56 minutes

RELEASE DATE: December 2, 2021

BLURB:

Malachi Keogh finds himself in a job he neither wanted nor asked for when his father, boss of Sydney’s postal service, sends him to the end of the business line, aka The Dead Letter Office. Malachi expects tedious and boring but instead discovers a warehouse with a quirky bunch of misfit co-workers, including a stoic and nerdy boss, Julian Pollard.

Malachi’s intrigued by Julian at first, and he soon learns there’s more to the man than his boring clothes of beige, tan, and brown; a far cry from Malachi’s hot pink, lilac, and electric blue. Where Julian is calm and ordered, Malachi is chaos personified, but despite their outward differences, there’s an immediate chemistry between them that sends Malachi’s head—and heart—into a spin.

To keep his father happy, Malachi needs to keep this job. He also needs to solve the mystery of the pile of old letters that sits in Julian’s office and maybe get to the bottom of what makes Julian tick. Like everything that goes through the mail centre, only time will tell if Malachi has found his intended destination or if he’ll find himself returned to sender.

REVIEW:

N.R. Walker’s Dearest Milton James is the charming story of loquacious, vivacious Malachi Keough and his sort-of boss, the sedate, seemingly dour Julian Pollard, as they fall in love while on a quest to find the owner of an abandoned pile of misdirected love letters sent from one man to another fifty years before.  Malachi is like a vibrant, flighty bird, with his purple (or orange, or green …) striped hair, his color-coordinated clothing and/or shoes and shoelaces, his inability to hold down a job, and his technicolor personality with a strong sense of social justice.  In contrast, Julian, head of the Mail Redistribution Center (aka the “Dead Letter Office”), is calm, steady, introverted, and living a bland life, as evidenced by his wardrobe full of shades of brown and beige.  

Malachi tends towards stream-of-consciousness communication with no verbal filter.  He’s OTT, loud, out and proud.  But at heart, he’s deeply romantic and emotionally sensitive, so the plight of the undelivered letters, all addressed to “Dearest Milton James”, affects Malachi deeply.  He is motivated to reunite the letters either with their sender or recipient because it breaks his heart that such beautiful words are communicated between two men in love at a time when homosexuality must be held secret, and yet no one ever gets to read them.

The cast of characters at the Redistribution Center are colorful, expertly drawn, unique multidimensional characters that Ms. Walker brings to life within an equally colorful, expertly drawn, unique storyline.  The found family created by these characters is a delight.  Ms. Walker does a terrific job with their witty dialogue.  Malachi’s sassy attitude comes through loud and clear and his sense of humor and self-deprecating observations are hilarious.

But the gem in this story is the relationship between Malachi and Julian. They bring out the best in each other. Julian tempers Malachi’s unpredictable, outrageous behavior.  Malachi infuses life and light back into Julian’s boring day-to-day existence. Ms. Walker gives them depth and dimension so we see hidden sides, like Julian’s bossiness in bed and Malachi’s need to have his mind quieted.

The entire story is told from Malachi’s point of view, yet Ms. Walker is able to convey Julian’s point of view through Malachi’s observations and commentary. Glen Lloyd’s superb narration of this title helps round out the perspectives in the way he brings each character fully into focus by imbuing them with a distinct voice and personality.  

Mr. Lloyd’s authentic Australian accent is a refreshing addition to the story.  He nails his portrayals of both leads. In Malachi, we hear a “twinky” type of effervescence, a bright, engaged, happy personality with a sassy edge and wicked humor.  Mr. Lloyd uses a faster cadence for Malachi’s speech patterns, which reflects Malachi’s runaway thoughts and dialogue.  Yet Mr. Lloyd doesn’t stumble over his words or sacrifice apropos inflections, emotional investment, or clear enunciation. Julian’s voice is slower in pitch with a warm, rounded tone, and he delivers it with a measured pacing that reflects Julian’s measured personality.

The tricky part of Malachi’s portrayal is ensuring the listener knows when we are in Julian’s head and when we are hearing dialogue. Malachi says whatever crosses the transom of his mind, so in actuality, there’s not a whole lot of difference – meaning there’s not much he says to himself that he doesn’t say to others.  However, part of this journey is Malachi learning about himself and maturing into a job he loves and a man he loves even more.  So there is introspective content and for the most part, Mr. Lloyd is able to recognizably convey that, albeit by leveraging the dialogue cues in the text to demarcate the difference.

Overall, the Dearest Milton James audiobook is a heartwarming, sweet confection of a story that is brought to life through an excellent vocal performance from Mr. Lloyd.  This audiobook will be one I revisit often.  It’s low angst, fun, feel-good fare featuring a lovely romance between two endearing men.  I highly recommend it.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible 

Amazon 

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