The Mystery of Edwin Drood

David Thorn reads Dickens's last, incomplete, novel, a dark romance involving a disappearance and possible murder, with a variety of voices and accents worthy of a multicast performance and an extraordinary range of color and expression. His reading, complex but neither forced nor affected, is both intimate and vivid, enlivening passages that might have been dull. One quibble: Some voices don't match Dickens's description. Thorn attempts the audacious tactic of maturing Drood and his betrothed, Rosa, by subtly altering their voices over time. He miscalculates only in starting them too callow and silly; by the time the change comes (and it succeeds remarkably), it's too little too late. A pity this is only a fragment. W.M. 2006 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine