A Matter of Honor

In the included author interview Archer says he can imagine the voices as he writes the dialogue for his books. Martin Jarvis must have tapped into this imagination. The listener is immediately drawn into a son's quest to clear his father's name (did Dad slip Goering pre-execution cyanide?) and to keep a Russian icon with a stunning document inside it out of the hands of the KGB. Jarvis's voices are spot-on, whether that of a Russian interrogator, the American president, or those of British intelligence agents. Archer's exciting plot suffers a bit in abridgment, particularly at the end, which seems rushed. If Jarvis does an uncut version, go for it. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine