Death's Betrayal

May 30, 2005
The late McBain had a great idea when he got together 10 top crime writers to produce new novellas for a fat anthology called Transgressions, and the folks at Audio Renaissance have been equally smart at choosing some of the book's best stories for listening pleasure. This production does justice to two very different pieces. In Deaver's "Forever," the reliable Fass brings to life Talbot Sims, a detail-obsessed suburban cop whose love of statistics helps solve an apparent murder/suicide. Fass is less successful at catching the tougher homicide detectives, but his Sims is such an interesting, persnickety character that listeners will hope for a full-length adventure about him. In McCrumb's "The Resurrection Man," MacDuffie does a superb, well-rounded job at recreating a nineteenth century South Carolina community of men and women with distinctive "gullah" accents whose lives revolve around death and healing. These novellas are ideal for listeners who might not want to get involved in a complete novel, but still need a little crime in their audio lives.