THE ADVENTURES OF FLASH JACKSON

The author's third novel continues to record doings in the fictional rural community of Mannville, New York. In this one, 16-year-old iconoclastic tomboy Haley "Flash Jackson" Bombauer breaks her leg and hence looks forward to a boring summer of convalescence. But the next months prove very interesting--indeed, life changing--as Haley discovers that she has inherited psychic powers from her Mennonite forebears. The book keeps the listener alert with its humor, colorful characters, suspense, and, as read by Julie Dretzin, considerable charm. Dretzin wonderfully impersonates our heroine and, without actually fully voicing them, such other characters as her idiot savant neighbor, her timorous mother, and the sweet little old lady neighbor who turns out to be a retired CIA operative. The text lends itself to this approach, and had Dretzin managed to sustain that impression of storytelling, she would have made an excellent reading a superb one. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 03]