THE MAN FROM BEIJING

Was there a narrator in this audiobook? I can barely remember. And I mean that as the highest compliment. Rosalyn Landor is so in sync with Mankell’s stand-alone thriller—so measured, nuanced, selfless—that it’s as if the book were downloaded directly to one’s brain rather than delivered through an intermediary. There is absolutely no showiness to her performance, and her characterizations are subtle but distinctive. Landor's gifts keep one alert and ever apprehensive in a story that begins in Sweden with the horrifying slaughter of an entire town of people and reaches in surprising directions across continents—to Nevada and China and Africa and London—as well as 150 years of time. With Landor in utter control, one is never in danger of wandering away. M.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2010]