THE ICE HARVEST

Having spent Christmas Eve at the Golden Cage and the Tease-A-Rama, our drunken hero, Charlie Arglist, is driving a “borrowed” Mercedes with a trunk riddled with bullet holes. A business associate--inside the trunk--is praying noisily. “I want to talk to a priest,” he says. Teetering between savage humor and just plain savagery, this noir novel requires a narrator who can stay on the wire. In the precise, yet liquid voice that has become a staple of the industry, Grover Gardner gives each vile act just the emphasis required for believability, but never tips over into bathos or comedy. Shifting easily between accents and genders, he’s a full cast in miniature. Those not disgusted will be delighted. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 05]