The Statement

There are few genres more perfectly suited to audio than the short thriller, and Andrew Sachs's reading of THE STATEMENT is a marvelous example. Brian Moore's novel (based on a true story and recently made into a film starring Michael Caine) follows the flight of Pierre Brossard, a Nazi collaborator wanted for murdering Jews in occupied France. Now 70, an unrepentant Brossard is being hunted by the GENDARMARIE and by a vigilante group that wants him dead. The tightly written text is handled brilliantly by Sachs, who makes the most of the novel's tension with his pacing and subtle characterizations, especially that of the quietly sinister Brossard. D.B. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine