DYING TO TELL

Gerard Doyle's performance here deserves what is perhaps the highest accolade: He matches his delivery to the text so perfectly that it becomes transparent; the story simply unspools in your head as if you were reading with your eyes. And the story is a tub-thumper, in which the very unlikely Lance Bradley agrees to do a favor and gets mired up to his eyeballs in a decades-old mystery involving robbery, murder, and thugs on three continents. If there are holes (and there are a few) or too many plot twists, who cares? Robert Goddard is a terrific storyteller, the plot whirls and surprises, and the reading is thoroughly enjoyable. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 03]