THE LAST EMBER

Jeff Woodman's breathless narration maintains the suspense through each twist of this implausibly byzantine but highly enjoyable adventure. Ex-archaeologist and current antiquities lawyer Jonathan Marcus returns to his first profession during a business trip to Rome. He joins his ex-girlfriend and former classmate in a search for the eight-foot gold menorah that once graced Jerusalem's temple. At every step, they're dogged by a well-connected terrorist who seeks the ritual object's destruction. Woodman is great with the accents of English speakers—English, American, Australian. But other languages, mainly Italian and Arabic, get the same vaguely foreign-sounding inflection. A.B.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2009]