NO ONE TO TRUST

Kate Burton slowly builds the tension in Iris Johansen's latest thriller. This action-filled abridgment omits some necessary character development, leaving the story rather hollow. Elena is a Colombian freedom fighter who has been raped and impregnated by Chavez, a powerful drug lord. The narrative begins years after the rape, when Chavez finds out he has a son and resolves to kidnap him. Galen, a renegade hired by the DEA to aid Elena in her escape from Colombia, helps her to retaliate against Chavez. While Burton's narration is appropriately tense and exciting, she butchers the accents. Galen, who hails from Liverpool, is read in a muddle of Scottish and Irish accents, and Elena's Spanish accent is inconsistent at best. M.B.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 03]