Nerve Damage

January 15, 2007
In this gripping political suspense novel from Edgar-finalist Abrahams (Echo Falls
), Vermont sculptor Roy Valois has never recovered from the tragic death of his beloved wife, Delia, in a helicopter accident while on a humanitarian mission to Honduras. Delia worked for the Hobbes Institute, "a think tank specializing in third-world economic problems." Roy's internal scars have kept him at a distance from others, even as the effects of asbestos exposure in his youth begin to ravage his body. When a chance remark leads Roy to search out the text of his already written obituary for the New York Times
, he finds a minor error concerning the Hobbes Institute. That niggling loose thread obsesses the artist, but his efforts to set the record straight reveal that much of what he knew about his wife was a lie. The action and suspense are first-rate, but fans may find fewer insights into human nature than in such brilliant earlier books as Oblivion
and End of Story
.

Abrahams offers a meticulous investigation into the mind of someone who is terminally ill. Alan Nebelthau's performance is so convincing that listeners will be gasping for breath along with protagonist Paul Valois, a successful metal sculptor who learns he has mesothelioma, the cancer caused by asbestos. Valois hacks into his own obituary and finds an error about his wife's death 14 years earlier. While trying to correct it, he uncovers a political plot reaching into the highest echelons of government. Nebelthau's voice moves from furious denial to quiet resignation as Valois unravels the puzzle and deals with his own body's betrayal. Nebelthau keeps the accents true and the suspense high, and, while the ending disappoints, the story is consistently sensitive without being sentimental. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine