SO COLD THE RIVER

Michael Koryta is aiming for Stephen King country but lands nearby with this baroquely plotted melodrama. Eric Shaw, who is making a documentary film about a mysterious old man and his Indiana childhood, becomes deranged by evil mineral water. The writing is often clumsy, but this production is a huge success. Robert Petkoff hits all the right notes of bewilderment, menace, and tension as the plot thickens. He delivers an especially effective voice transformation as one character is inhabited by his demon ancestor. But most effective are the marvelous sound effects—of rising winds, a hallucinatory railroad train, sloshing waters, and a ghost violin from the dark past. The page has to be a pale comparison to this wonderful audio storytelling. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2011 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2010]