CLASSIC CRIME SHORT STORIES

The best stories in this crime collection are the gruesome narratives of sociopathic madmen read by Patrick Malahide. He has a knack for murderous schemers, expressing their leisurely paced yet dangerous thoughts with a voice that seethes with repressed rage and insane logic. The other narrator, Jack Shepherd, reads in a cool, reasonable voice and mostly narrates the good guys—the detectives, for instance—or the characters who at least seem good on the outside. The best stories, "Loopy" and "Bluebeard's Bathtub," are both Malahide masterpieces. With impressive malice he delivers statements like, "Once inside the wolf costume, I felt calmer, and yes, happier . . ." and, "Of the three homely middle-aged women whom so far he had persuaded to marry him . . . Edith was proving the most annoying." R.L.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2009]