DARKNESS PEERING

Narrator Alyssa Bresnahan captures the characters of Blanchard's first novel with crystalline portraits. The people of this small Maine town are very, very real. One of Bresnahan's brilliant artistic choices is not to give the characters local accents. A rural accent can be a terrific trap, and in avoiding it she makes the doctor, the police chief, school teacher, farmer, truck driver, and local teens everyone's neighbors. And when the town is turned upside down with mysterious deaths and disappearances, Bresnahan turns up the tension to a taught, heart-pounding pitch. She builds the suspense with deft pacing and a brilliant handling of clues and events as young police detective Rachel Storrow tries to make sense of escalating events. A chilling thriller with superb narration. R.F.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]