THE RIVER

Narrator Mark Deakins and author Peter Heller are an audiobook lover's dream team. In this suspenseful novel, a late-summer canoe trip in Canada goes horribly wrong for two college friends despite their being well prepared and lifelong outdoorsmen. Early in the audiobook, Deakins sets a light tone and an easy pace, matching Wynn and Jack's comfortable friendship and their obvious passion for nature, camping, and fly-fishing. Later, as a forest fire grows closer and other canoe groups display puzzling behavior, Deakins builds a foreboding atmosphere, adding tension, uncertainty, and fear to the men's voices and thoughts. Throughout, he enhances the narrative with an underlayer of subtle drama. Like making the perfect cast to a rising trout, Deakins's performance entices listeners, and they can't resist the bait. C.B.L. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2019]