THE BLUE AFTERNOON

Equal parts romance and mystery, Boyd's engaging novel unfolds in a most exotic time and locale, Manila in 1902. His hero is a brilliant, young surgeon named Salvadore Carriscant, who becomes obsessed with the beautiful wife of an American officer. The plot involves a series of murders and meanderings through fascinating descriptions of turn-of-the-century surgery, early aeronautics, and imperialism and insurrection in the Philippines. Peters's performance is both tart and intelligent. She has a fine sense for the comic and the ironic but never forgets that the novel is primarily one of intrigue and suspense. Furthermore, her strength as a narrator underscores one of the weaknesses of the book. Boyd frames his narrative with Carriscant, as an old man in 1936, appearing on the Los Angeles doorstep of his daughter, Kay Fisher, who isn't even aware of his existence. The romance is then told in flashback. Peters invests Kay with so much verve that readers can't help but feel let down by Boyd's failure to make her integral to the story. M.O. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAR/APR 98]