THE COLD CALLING

Sean Barrett turns in a fine performance of this sprawling hodgepodge of a thriller, but it’s not without problems. It’s your basic serial killer deal, except that this killer thinks he’s England’s ancient pagan deity, the Green Man, plus you have your cross-dressing shaman subplot, the faith healer who is not who she seems subplot, the vanished American New Ager subplot, the sensitive police inspector on the run from his corrupt bosses subplot, and the anthropologist turned TV-exploiter-of-the-gullible subplot. When the story jumps from one to the next, there must be white spaces on the page, but there are none in the ear. To add to the confusion, Barrett’s acting is terrific, but you often can’t tell from the voicing what character he’s doing. B.G. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2010]