Make Death Love Me

Ruth Rendell peoples this fine psychological thriller with a handful of offbeat characters, chiefly a timid bank manager who dreams of the fuller life he could buy with a tray of the cash he handles each day. He is given his chance after two amateur crooks overlook him during their clumsy robbery. There is not a carelessly spoken sentence in all of Ric Jerrom's exceptional reading. His flexible voice perfectly fits the demands of Rendell's shifting, omniscient viewpoints. Rendell alternates scenes of the thieves and their hostage with those of the manager's new life, and Jerrom aptly blends sincerity (in passages evoking the characters' feelings) and dryness (in passages describing their futile actions). His performance matches the irony of the book's development. G.H. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine