Nighttime Is My Time

High school hurts don't disappear at graduation. Jean Sheridan attends her prep school's reunion weekend, only to realize that most of the girls with whom she has just eaten lunch are dying in the order in which they sat around the cafeteria table. Jan Maxwell gives voice to Jean and her surviving classmates, showing equal skill at terror, timidity, maliciousness, merriment, and vacuous self-absorption. Without overperforming the dialogue, she creates distinct and credible personalities for the disparate characters drawn in the text. Maxwell's voice drops to a villain's whisper seconds before exploding into a teen reporter's exuberance at finding a story. Her performance matches the author's skill at subtle storytelling. R.P.L. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

March 22, 2004
This time out, Clark ups the ante from her standard female-in-peril plot to three females in peril, all targets of a serial killer who fancies himself a night-hunting predator: "I am the Owl," he whispers to himself after he has selected his prey, "and nighttime is my time." The Owl kills his first victim, then it's off to attend his 20th high school reunion at Stonecroft Academy in Cornwall-on-Hudson, where he intends to do in the last several women who humiliated him when he was a geeky high school student. Jean Sheridan, one of the intended victims, was actually nice to the Owl, but he decides she has to die anyway because someone told him she once made fun of him. Jean's daughter, Lily, whom Jean gave away at birth, must also die, for obscure reasons, as must Laura, the class beauty. In the course of stalking and capturing these three, the Owl kills several innocent bystanders just to vent his anger and alludes to dozens more he has slaughtered over the years. The game here is figuring out which of the men who come to the reunion, all former nerds, is the Owl: Carter Stewart, now a genius playwright; Mark Fleischman, a psychiatrist with a syndicated television program; Gordon Amory, television magnate; Robby Brent, famous comedian; or Jack Emerson, local real estate tycoon. If the killer's animal fetish is the Owl, then Clark's is surely the red herring as she cleverly throws them in by the dozen, providing irrefutable proof that first one man, then another, must be guilty. Since any of the men might be the killer, the final revelation is anticlimactic, but Clark's multitude of fans will be happy enough to spend time with the innocent and imperiled Jean and to participate in the guessing game. Agents, Eugene Winick and Sam Pinkus.
(Apr. 6)

Forecast
:No surprises here—this should hit #1.

In her twenty-ninth novel, Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark crafts a plot reminiscent of Agatha Christie's TEN LITTLE INDIANS. Before attending his twentieth reunion at Stonecroft Academy, a killer who calls himself The Owl---"Nighttime is my time"--murders one of a group of female classmates who made fun of him in school and plans to kill the others. Several other male attendees of the reunion were nerds also, so which one of them is the killer? This familiar Higgins Clark puzzler, featuring a feisty heroine, but too many suspects, too many clues and red herrings, makes for a confusing listening experience. Further, Jan Maxwell's lack of variation in character voices makes it often unclear who is speaking, and the use of long pauses between scenes slows down an already lethargic performance. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine