ABSENT FRIENDS

In the weeks following the World Trade Center disaster, a truth-seeking reporter alleges that a hero of the Fire Department of New York was involved in some dark scandal. After breaking the story, the reporter dies. Was it suicide, as the police suggest, or was it murder? S. J. Rozan's convoluted exploration of the nature of friendship, tangled secrets, and survival in the post-9/11 world is intelligently read by Barbara McCulloh. What's missing is the novel's authentic flavor. While McCulloh offers a genteel omniscient narrator's voice, she never captures Rozan's keen ear for the diction of Staten Island street-tough kids who grow up to be gangsters and firemen. However, McCulloh's dispassionate narration allows Rozan's treatment of the bombings and collapse of the Twin Towers to be poignant, never mawkish. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 05]