tends to be an officer in order to lead a
platoon in a seemingly hopeless battle
after the real officers are killed, and
another Legionnaire, a disgraced
Chicago cop, who uses his detective
skills to suss out a murderous traitor.
These yarns of adventure, which originally appeared in pulp magazines of the
1930s, are given a properly melodramatic performance by lead actor Taron
Lexton and his associates, aided by stirring music and the sound effects of
battle. As their stories progress, the
heroes take on an air of confidence and
determination until, as the fighting
begins, they’re shouting over the battles’
din, exhorting their comrades on to victory. As might be expected, the two
Legionnaire stories feature an assortment of French accents, along with a
couple of Russian growls. These enacted
“stories from the golden age” harken
back to a time when heroism was unfettered by self-doubt and action thrillers
filled the airwaves. Pulp fiction fans will
find much to enjoy. A Galaxy paperback.
(Oct.)
Spark
John Twelve Hawks, read by Scott Brick.
Random House Audio, unabridged, 9 CDs,
11. 5 hrs., $40 ISBN 978-0-553-39906-6
Twelve Hawks’s new novel, set in a
dystopian near future, is told from the
perspective of Jacob Underwood, the survivor of a terrible motorcycle accident
that left him spiritually and emotionally
dead. Lacking conscience, empathy, and
fear, Jacob is the ideal contract killer for a
secret department of a multinational
organization named DBG that will do
anything to smooth out corporate ruffles.
Trouble begins when Jacob is ordered to
kill the embezzling son-in-law of a brutal
Indian power broker, along with the
man’s daughter and young grandson. He
quickly murders the thief, but can’t bring
himself to dispatch the others—especially
the child. He becomes even more reticent
when he’s sent to find Emily Buchanan, a
young DBG employee who’s gone missing
with a flash drive containing information
harmful to the corporation. He’s to
recover the flash drive and kill Emily.
When that doesn’t happen, both of them
are on the run. Reader Brick uses an
appropriately affectless voice for Jacob,
Robert Pine, as patriarch Beverly Weston,
practically steals the show in the opening
scene—which is a touching and laugh-
out-loud performance, perfectly delivered
and totally indicative of the richly tex-
tured performances of the tragic comedy
that follows. (Oct.)
The Night Garden
Lisa Van Allen, read by Amy Rubinate. Tantor
Audio, unabridged, 10 hrs., 9 CDs, $39.99
ISBN 978-1-4945-0082-5
Rubinate narrates Van Allen’s complex, character-driven story about love
and loss. Her methodical voice is well
suited to the main character of Olivia, a
wildly successful New England gardener
whose secrets cause her to keep her
neighbors at arm’s length. Rubinate also
does a fine job portraying May, a pregnant teenager who finds refuge at
Olivia’s farm. May’s childish defiance,
combined with a very adult ability to
manipulate others, make her a force to be
reckoned with. Rubinate’s performance
is less convincing for the two main male
characters: Sam, the boy next door who
returns home after being physically and
emotionally damaged in his years outside
Green Valley; and Olivia’s father Arthur,
whose bitterness over loss and the mistakes of his past have made him an eccentric recluse. Overall, Rubinate’s voice is
quiet, gentle, and slightly breathy, its
sense of wide-eyed wonder making room
for the magical realism that infuses Van
Allen’s story. A Ballantine paperback.
(Oct.)
Fifty-Fifty O’Brien:
A U.S. Marine Sniper in One Hell
of a War with One Shot to Survive
L. Ron Hubbard, read by a full cast. Galaxy,
unabridged, 2 CDs, 2 hrs., $12.95 ISBN 978-1-
59212-320-9
The title entry, along with “The
Adventure of X” and “Red Sands,” are
short tales of derring-do involving, in
order, a fleet-footed U.S. Marine carrying messages past camps of insurgents
in the jungles of Central America, a
French Foreign Legionnaire who pre-
Revival
Stephen King, read by David Morse. Simon &
Schuster Audio, unabridged, 11 CDs, 13 hrs.,
$39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-7276-4
King’s new thriller begins in Maine the
summer of 1962, when its narrator, Jamie
Morton, at age six, meets a charismatic
young minister named Charles Jacobs,
who soon becomes something of a
mentor. Years later, as Jamie pursues a
career as an itinerant rock musician, he
crosses paths with Jacobs, who is now
working his way from carnival huckster
to wealthy faith healer and has developed
an obsession with the curative powers of
electricity. Jacobs, aged, ill, and more
than a little crazed, convinces a skeptical
but curious Jaime to assist him in his
ultimate experiment with a “secret” form
of electricity that he believes will allow
him to “tap into the secrets of the universe.” Screen actor Morse ( The Green
Mile) has a natural, down-to-earth
delivery. His middle-aged Jamie narrates
with a soft, knowing yet wistful voice as
he recalls the happier days of smalltown
life, his first paid job as a musician, his
first romance. We hear his hope that
Jacobs’s “secret electricity” will heal his
addiction to heroin, and the fear and
uncertainty prompted by the experiment’s nightmarish effects. Morse’s
Jacobs, who initially sounds bright and
witty and filled with charm, becomes a
man distracted and unemotional. By the
novel’s end, age and infirmity have
slurred his speech. A Scribner hardcover.
(Nov.)
★ August: Osage County
Tracy Letts, read by a full cast. L. A. Theatre
Works, unabridged, 3 CDs, 3 hrs., $29.95, ISBN
978-1-58081-967-1
With a keen ear for the Southern drawl,
this sharply written play gets a stellar
presentation by L.A. Theatre Works. Set
over the course of several weeks, the play
follows the Weston family as they are
pulled back to their Oklahoma homestead in the wake of a tragedy. With
uncontrolled ferocity, this dysfunctional
family proceeds to bicker and battle,
belittle and besmirch each other with
every emotional weapon in their considerable armory. At its heart is Momma
Violet, played to shrewish perfection by
Deanna Dunagan: her drug-induced,
