NO LOVELIER DEATH

This is Hurley's ninth Portsmouth procedural featuring DI Joe Faraday and former DC Paul Winter. After finding the constraints of by-the-book police work too restricting, Winter has quit the force and is working as a private investigator. When a teenager's party in an upscale suburban neighborhood turns into a riot and two bodies are found in the aftermath, the cop and the P.I. find themselves on opposite sides of a nasty mess. Narrator Tim Pepper's deep, whispery baritone sounds darker and more ominous than the grime of Portsmouth. While the brooding sense of foreboding works for awhile, his tone rarely changes, and the reading becomes monotonous and leaden, adding little to Hurley's otherwise taut crime drama. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2009]