UNLIKELY ANIMALS

Two narrators perform this quirky novel. Mark Bramhall tells the story of the colorful Starling family in Everton, New Hampshire, while Kirby Heyborne portrays the animal-loving ghost who is haunting their patriarch, Clive Starling. Bramhall provides a suitably straitlaced portrayal of Emma, who returns to Everton to care for her dysfunctional family, and he infuses Clive with a slightly wacky voice when he converses with the ghost and the animals only he can see. Heyborne employs a gently professorial tone for Ernest Harold Baynes, the late naturalist who shares Clive's love of animals. When Emma discovers her talent for teaching fifth graders and rekindles an old romance, the departed townspeople who are buried at the Maple Street Cemetery avidly discuss her prospects. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2022]