RAIN GODS

James Lee Burke and narrator Will Patton are a brilliant duo. Burke writes a tale of evil and redemption, and Patton vividly embodies the succession of bad guys and innocents caught in the sights of greed and violence. The setting is poverty-laced West Texas, where a mass murder of Asian women is discovered by an aging sheriff who hopes to leave his own past behind. The searing detail of evil is offset by elegant, elegiac descriptions of the natural landscape. Patton knows exactly how to get maximum effect from both facets. Listeners may cringe from the violence but are soon calmed and delighted by descriptions of the hills and sunsets. The natural landscape soothes the story’s boiling venom and hopelessness. Patton plays each emotion, creating a listening powerhouse. R.F.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2009]