HEARTSTOPPER

Someone is stalking and killing pretty young girls in tiny Torrance, Florida. From entries in the killer's journal, listeners learn the townspeople's secrets, experience the horror of the kidnapped girls, and glimpse the pathology that inspires the murders. Judith West has a field day portraying the quirky characters in Fielding's latest thriller. She is best as Sandy Crosbie, high school English teacher, whose handsome husband has left her for a surgically enhanced "Barbie clone" he met online. West is also credible as the various high school students, from Goths to jocks, from tormented teens to privileged princesses. While she is less successful with the oddball assortment of teachers, making them more stereotyped than realistic, she's positively chilling when reading from the killer's journal. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 07]