Stripped

August 7, 2006
At the start of Freeman's solid second thriller (after 2005's Immoral
), detective Jonathan Stride has left his job in Duluth, Minn., for Las Vegas, Nev. The action begins with a flashback to Sin City in the 1950s and the murder of a famous exotic dancer, a case never fully resolved and having a lot to do with the present-day brutal assassination of a rich young "trust fund baby," MJ Lane, whose dad may have been involved in the earlier murder. As Stride and his new police partner, Amanda Gillen, investigate, they plunge deep into the roots of the city. Freeman depicts his characters well, especially the good-natured Stride; his cop girlfriend, Serena Dial; and his partner, Amanda. Freeman has crafted a strong narrative, rife with sex and violence, though the complex plot at times gets bogged down by overly extensive backstories and a prose style that shades toward the purple.

Brian Freeman's debut novel, IMMORAL, introduced Jonathan Stride, a Minnesota police detective with a tender side. In STRIPPED, Stride has relocated to gaudy, tawdry Las Vegas, to be near his ladylove, LVPD Detective Serena Dial. Show girls, strippers, sex workers, gangsters, and politicos combine to create a neon nightmare of murder and mystery. Joe Barrett's versatile performance takes listeners on a rocky ride as Stride and his transsexual partner, Amanda, find a connection between the hit-and-run death of a 10-year-old boy, the shooting death of a millionaire's son, and the 1967 brutal killing of an exotic dancer. Barrett deftly handles the rapid-fire dialogue, believable plot shifts, and wide variety of voices and accents. In dusky, appealing tones, Barrett turns Freeman's deliciously decadent diversion into compelling listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine