Roadside Crosses

August 31, 2009
Tony Award–winning actress Michele Pawk nicely captures the inner monologues of Deaver's protagonist Kathryn Dance, the California Bureau of Investigation's leading kinesics expert. Dance's remarkable sixth sense concerning the truthfulness of suspects and witnesses becomes a double-edged sword in her social interactions with co-workers and family members, and Pawk's portrayal of the widowed detective's angst on the fledgling romantic front rings especially true. Pawk's rendering of the dialogue proves to be her weak point: the voices of older teen boys, especially Travis Brigham, the young man at the center of the story, continually quiver into higher octaves more suitable to preadolescent males. While the listener never loses touch with the essence of Dance, others in her path come to life with varying degrees of success. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 13).

Body language expert Kathryn Dance has transitioned from occasional appearances in Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels to lead character in her own series. This time, however, competing themes from the world of cyberspace cause the plot to cross that fine line between complex and cluttered. Although narrator Michele Pawk offers a clear and brisk performance, giving Detective Dance a believable voice and presence, she's not as successful with the rest of the characters. Many are difficult to identify by voice alone, leaving the listener to depend on attributive phrases from the text to identify the speaker. This is one of those rare occasions when the book is not enhanced by its audio presentation. M.O.B. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine