MORE THAN SORROW

After a serious brain injury in Afghanistan, war correspondent Hannah Manning is staying with her sister's family in Ontario to recuperate. Because bright lights bring on blackouts, she sometimes retreats to an old root cellar, where she smells death and hears an old-fashioned sounding woman speaking with an unusual lilt. Is she hallucinating or in a time warp? Narrator Carrington MacDuffie deftly handles the varying accents while sympathetically rendering Hannah's feelings of helplessness at her condition. When she befriends a young Afghan woman who is brutally murdered, Hannah must cope with her faulty memory while trying to protect her precious niece. MacDuffie skillfully recounts both stories—contemporary and historical—adding immeasurably to the audio experience. This fine mystery couldn't be more timely. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2013]