THE BURNT HOUSE

George Guidall is so comfortable performing the Rina Lazarus/Peter Decker series that even first-time listeners will feel right at home. In the sixteenth book featuring the married couple, a plane crash into an apartment building, a missing flight attendant, and the burned remains of a victim murdered over 20 years earlier provide plenty of mystery. Faye Kellerman builds tenderness, intelligence, and normalcy into Rina and Peter's Orthodox Jewish family life and their conversations about God, guilt, and sin. She produces a convoluted (if occasionally coincidence-prone) story, but, thanks in part to Guidall's top-notch performance, her characters have the gritty feel of real people. Guidall's pacing, vocal shifts, and delivery of the many Yiddish expressions sprinkled throughout are masterful. This is one listeners won't want to miss. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 08]