CLASSIC RAILWAY MURDERS

Here are four short stories return from the era of Sherlock Holmes by nearly forgotten popular adventure writers of the day. For instance, the Baroness Orczy created the dashing Scarlet Pimpernel, a British lord who rescued innocent victims of the French Revolution and who became patriarch of all dual-identity crusaders of fiction. Her story, "The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway," is an intricate tale of Gothic mystery. Malahide reads it and the other tales in the scratchy tones made familiar by his TV portrayal of Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn. With astonishing deftness, he uses this unpromising instrument to deliver, not only strong portrayals of the characters, but evocations of time, place and culture. He manages to tame the turgid Edwardian melodrama so that it retains its character without sounding excessive. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT 97]