EDITH HOLLER

Jayne Entwistle's solid delivery adds depth to this quirky tale of a girl who is trapped in her family's tumbledown theater. In 1901, in Norwich, England, 12-year-old Edith can't ever leave the theater because of a curse. If she leaves, she'll die, and the playhouse will crumble to dust. Entwistle sounds just odd enough to be believable as Edith, who spends her days obsessively reading everything and anything about Norwich. When she discovers that hundreds of the town's children over hundreds of years have disappeared, Entwistle captures Edith's certainty that the disappearances are connected to the town's local delicacy, Utting's beetle spread, made from deathwatch beetles--and possibly the missing children. Entwistle's vivid performance adds comic malevolence to this entertaining, would-be gothic horror. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2023]