Meet Me at the Morgue

Listening to MEET ME AT THE MORGUE is like stepping into a time machine. Offices have typewriters and Dictaphones. WWII is "The War." And a 50K kidnap ransom would pay a "secretary's salary for twenty years." This is a gorgeous look at the late 1940s through the eyes of Howard Cross, county probation officer. One of his probationers disappears and is accused of kidnapping the 4-year-old son of a wealthy family. Cross interviews everyone from aging film actresses and housekeepers to the filthy rich and just plain filthy. Grover Gardner is stuffy as Cross, whose righteous homilies have a judgmental tone, and folksy as the grocery clerk whose ice picks cost 26 cents. While his women characters seem more like caricatures, overall Gardner provides fine listening for Macdonald fans. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine