MELMOTH

Listeners will be slowly drawn into the story of Melmoth the Witness, aided by Jan Cramer's deliberate and eerie narration. Helen Franklin, a briskly voiced woman living in present-day Prague with an eccentric older woman as her roommate, allows herself few pleasures as punishment for a transgression she committed decades ago. When a scholar friend leaves Helen documents he collected as he obsessed over legends of Melmoth, the witness of humanity's darkest deeds, Helen finds a name for her own haunted feeling. Cramer narrates the documents of atrocities around the world and through the centuries with subtle accents, leading the listener through tales of evil acts and complicity. Cramer amps up the drama in the final act, leaving listeners shivering and wondering what they themselves have just witnessed. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2018]