MARKET FORCES

In this bizarre tale of the near future, the world has devolved into a Mad Max horror show in which businessmen are required to kill their competition. Simon Vance could have taken this story line either too seriously or too lightly but instead performs the work with the perfect amount of flexibility to make the listener empathize with a cadre of corporate killers. And even root for them. Vance, a British actor, brings his stylish accent into play for descriptions of lovemaking, as well as play-by-play rundowns of vicious battles on the boulevards of Britain and its boardrooms, without making the novel drift into farce. There's nothing funny here, and that's good. M.S. 2006 Audie Award Winner © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 06]