THE SECRET OF LOST THINGS

Here is a book full of five-foot hurdles in the accents category. The first-person storyteller, Rosemary, is Tasmanian, and Vanessa Benjamin does her down-under vowels convincingly. She does less well with assorted characters who befriend Rosemary, particularly Latina Lillian, who sounds as if she's spent more time in France than South America, or some of the eccentrics at The Arcade, a stand-in for New York's famous Strand bookstore, which becomes Rosemary's emotional home when she first arrives orphaned in the city. But Benjamin succeeds with the most important matters of sympathy, energy, and pacing as intrigue develops concerning a manuscript of a (real) lost novel of Herman Melville. The story is less than completely successful, but it has its rewards, and Benjamin's performance enhances them. B.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 07]