Above Suspicion

November 1, 1993
This tragic story by Wall Street Journal reporter Sharkey details the rise and fall of Mark Putnam, an apparent straight arrow for whom working as an FBI agent was the realization of a dream. As a rookie in 1987, he was sent to a branch office in Pikeville, a coal-mining town in easten Kentucky. There he cultivated one Susan Smith as an informant; she fell in love with him, perhaps because he was the first man to treat her with respect. An emotionally unstable drug user given to lying, she spread the news that she was having an affair with the married Putnam before this was fact. Later, after he had been transferred to Florida, he returned to Pikeville to tie up the loose ends of another case, and Smith confronted him with news that she was pregnant with his child. She threatened a scandal. After a wild battle with her in his car, Putnam killed her and threw her body off a cliff. A year later, as the law closed in, he confessed. He plea-bargained for a manslaughter conviction and a 16-year sentence, which he is serving. This grim story is expertly told. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC alternate.

This true-crime audiobook has all the elements of a fictional potboiler, right down to its surprise ending. An FBI agent cultivates a source who is a drug addict; she falls in love with him, insinuates herself into his personal life, and, well, you'll have to listen. Narrator Marc Cashman has the requisite low, masculine voice usually associated with such stories. However, his delivery sounds too nice, too informational, and too controlled to fully capture the book's tone. He needs to sound more hard-boiled. Nonetheless, he paces the story effectively, varies his voice for the characters, and builds the tension where needed. R.I.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine