MR. WHITE'S CONFESSION

Herbert White, a shy, ingenuous amateur photographer, supplements his faulty memory with scrapbooks and journals. The latter, highly literate and self-revealing, are, in the philosophical sense, his confession. But his coerced admission to two murders is doubted by detective Wesley Horner, who has problems of his own. Guidall shines his vocal talents on 1939 St. Paul, lighting its bleakness, moral ambiguities and the play between illusion and reality. Guidall treats Horner's basic humanity and improbable love affair with sympathy and tenderness and imbues the villain with duplicity and menace. In Guidall's voice, White's journal entries become soliloquies that rise above the sordid details of his life. Splendid prose and a tour-de-force reading yield an unforgettable listening experience. J.B.G. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 99]