Devil-May-Care

Ghostly apparitions in creaky mansions and townspeople fearing damaging secrets from the past combine to wreak havoc on Ellie's vacation house-sitting in rural Virginia. She's understandably scared, but we aren't. There's mirth as well as mayhem in Peters's mysteries, and Grace Conlin reads with a mischievousness suggesting that nothing really bad will happen. Her arch delivery reinforces Peters's descriptions of unlikable people, Ellie's stuffed-shirt fiancé in particular, but her voice warms when impersonating Ellie's eccentric aunt or Ellie herself. Even during the climactic scene her pace does not quicken, nor does her tone become tense. Consider this a puzzling caper, capably, if not dramatically, read. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine