THE STAR OF ISTANBUL Christopher Marlowe Cobb, Book 2

Tension should be excruciating in this romantic WWI spy v. spy story, which begins on the doomed Lusitania and boils along from there to Istanbul, but it isn't. Ray Chase plays the narrator as so laid-back and hard-boiled that he flattens, dismissively, how frightening it was when the ship was torpedoed, when he had to kill or be killed, in the many moments when he didn't know if he would survive. Instead, he seems to be saying with his laconic tone, "Oh sure, we got our hair mussed, but never let them see you sweat." Fun for him, but not for the listener. The action-packed plot has plenty of fresh twists and surprises. It's a shame that Chase's blasé tone takes out all the excitement. B.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2013]