BELLE RUIN

Spirit Lake has some deep, dark secrets, and the heroine of Grimes's new series, spunky, precocious 12-year-old Emma Graham, is determined to uncover them, no matter the cost. Kim Mai Guest's delicate voice makes listeners believe that the young narrator really is a teenager, albeit one with extraordinary gifts of perception. Guest never overdoes characterizations in the third of Emma Graham's escapades. As the irrepressible Emma investigates Belle Rouen, a once ornate, now burned-out mansion, Guest endows her with all the curiosity of a natural snoop trying to put together the pieces of a forty-year-old unsolved puzzle. Martha Grimes creates an atypical mystery adventure, and Guest's performance makes its heroine judicious and delightful. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]