THE HANGING VALLEY Inspector Banks, Book 4

The title makes THE HANGING VALLEY sound like a Western, but James Langton’s broad Yorkshire accents make it clear there are no cowboys here. When a mutilated body is discovered by a hiker in the titular valley, Inspector Banks, formerly of London, must identify the victim. He works with the gruff-voiced Superintendent Gristhorpe, questioning witnesses, including a brutal innkeeper and his traumatized wife. Langton gives most of the women feathery voices, but Katie is made to sound so fragile as to be debilitated. Banks travels to Canada to search for a potential witness, but the voices heard there bear little resemblance to those of actual Canadians. B.V.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2010]