THE BARBER'S WIFE

Matilda Novak's soft, slow narration hits all the right notes in this gripping story set in 1930s Oklahoma in the days of Pretty Boy Floyd, the Great Depression, and Prohibition. Surgical nurse Mayme Hollaway, married to a local barber who counts Floyd among his friends, helps patients in and, secretly, out of the little local hospital, encountering danger, intrigue, and love. Novak's Southern accents are well done. She naturally slips between the regional speech and harsher tones of the proud but sometimes dangerous hill folk and the more elegant delivery of the more educated town residents. Delivering a snapshot of a time and place, this audiobook gives listeners a romantic thriller and a tantalizing glimpse of America's past. A.C.P. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2016]