WALKING SHADOWS Decker / Lazarus, Book 25

Narrator Mitchell Greenberg's mellow delivery of the latest exploits of Detective Peter Decker and his insightful Orthodox Jewish spouse, Rina Lazarus, is nicely matched to the series' new setting in a college town in upstate New York. It's quite a change of pace from L.A. Opening with Decker answering the complaints of elderly neighbors with smashed mailboxes, Greenberg smoothly transitions from cop talk to senior carping to interviews with teen punks, whom he terms "victims of underdeveloped frontal lobes." The vandalism exposes murder, of course, and segues into a cold case involving robbery and homicide, further violence, and official entanglements with neighboring cop shops. Tension simmers but does not boil over, even in the final hostage scenario. Greenberg's perfectly paced narration and sharp characterizations keep the listener engaged. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2018]