DEATH OF A PRANKSTER

Davina Porter has a ball with the burr of the Scottish tongue; she enlivens the large cast of this amusing mystery with her ability to create deft verbal character sketches with inflection and judicious timing. Old man Andrew Trent has been torturing his family for years with cruel jokes. So when he summons his family to his deathbed, they assemble at Arrat House in the Scottish Highlands with reticence. When a murder takes place, Constable Hamish Macbeth should be in charge, but, as usual in this series, there’s a self-important superintendent muddying the clues and the suspects. It is impossible to remember that Porter is but one person. B.H.B. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 05]