THE BOOK OF AIR AND SHADOWS

Stephen Hoye takes a calculated, possibly fatal, risk in his approach to narrating this thriller about a lost Shakespeare manuscript. His portrayal of the protagonist, Jake Mishkin, a self-loathing intellectual property lawyer, is arid to the point putting off the listener. It's a reasonable choice for a character we are not meant to like but does not create a person one looks forward to spending hour after hour with. It doesn't help that Hoye affects an annoying, sometimes disappearing, Queen's accent for the other major character, a young would-be screenwriter who is drawn into the dangerous search for the missing manuscript. Happily, Gruber himself comes to the rescue, with colorful characters and clever, intricate plotting. M.O. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]