THE VIRGIN BLUE

In Tracy Chevalier's first novel, we follow two very different women born centuries apart living in the same rural area of France. In an entertaining mix of historical fiction and detective story, Chevalier uses her proven talents to make us care deeply about the conjoined fates of seventeenth-century Isabelle du Moulin and twenty-first-century Ella Turner. Narrators Carter and Marceau Clarke both read terrifically well. They infuse their respective characters with vivid personalities and make the extra characters for which they are each responsible believable--from aged French male peasant to 10-year-old girl. As an added bonus, all the French accents are spot-on. An utterly involving listen. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 03/JAN 04]