EXILE

Gritty would be a mild description for this original and tensely plotted story set in the seamiest corners of Glasgow and London. It would also be gripping, but for a very bad choice on the part of the talented narrator. Instead of reading only the appropriate dialogue in a Glaswegian accent, Katy Anderson gives us the entire text in a brogue so thick it’s like listening to Middle English. This might be quite wonderful in smaller doses, but it here includes in every sentence a repetitive upswing of the voice that in standard English would indicate intense surprise or dismay, but in Glasgow apparently means nothing. The effect is like a text marred by very frequent?! but random question marks and exclamation points, distracting and badly distorting the sense of the story. B.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 05]