Sandcastles

Anne Marie Lee captures true depth of emotion, carefully changing expression to highlight the emotions experienced by Rice's characters as they face the highs and lows of their lives. Honor and John Dillon's marriage is destroyed when he is arrested in Ireland and doesn't return to their U.S. home for 11 years. Lee's crisp Irish accent brings the Irish police to life as John's arrest changes Honor's life forever. Though time and distance alter Honor and John's relationship, Lee's careful pacing and expression provide an audio experience tinged with a lilting hopefulness, allowing the listener to believe in the healing power of unconditional love. S.M. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

May 8, 2006
Given the title, July 4 pub date and settings on the Connecticut shore and County Cork coast, readers may expect the consummate beach feast from bestselling Rice (Summer of Roses
). She almost delivers: all the ingredients for a clambake are here, but Rice doesn't bother to light the fire. Honor Sullivan is a woman torn apart. Her famous earthworks artist husband, John, has spent six years in an Irish prison for killing a man who attacked their then 14-year-old daughter, Regis. Now he's back at Star of the Sea Academy, the convent and school in Connecticut where the Sullivans live and teach—or rather, is in the area, but hesitant to return home and face Honor's ire at being effectively abandoned. His notes find their way to Honor, perhaps via Sister Bernadette Ignatius, who runs the community and is John's sister, and Auntie Bernie to John and Honor's daughters. Or perhaps they come via Tom Kelly, still in love with Bernie and bone-loyal to John. Add a little moonlight mysticism, Regis's impending bad marriage and a red-haired nurse given up for adoption the same year Tom and red-haired Bernie went off to Ireland to trace family roots. If only Rice seemed to care. If only she didn't craft an entire paragraph out of the word "Moonstones," which will have fans wistfully recalling nuanced Rice fiction like Blue Moon
.

Six years ago, on a visit to Ireland, a violent act changed everything for artists Hope and John Sullivan and their three daughters. Imprisoned since, John has had little contact with his family. Now Regis, the eldest girl, is about to be married, and she wants her recently paroled father to attend the wedding. The upcoming event forces them all, especially Honor, to examine their feelings--and the truth--about what happened. Blair Brown's crisp, concise delivery contrasts well with Rice's emotive prose. Without fully voicing the characters she makes each of them easily identifiable simply through cadence and emphasis. A happy pairing of reader and writer indeed. C.E.W. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine