THE HOUSE OF VELVET AND GLASS

Heather Corrigan’s voice is delicate as a spider’s web luring listeners into an otherwise unremarkable melodrama. Katherine Howe’s paranormal romance weaves the sinking of the TITANIC into the lives of those devastated by the loss of loved ones aboard the ill-fated liner. Sibyl Allston lives with her aloof father and her black-sheep brother in posh Back Bay Boston. After losing her mother and sister to the tragedy three years earlier, Sibyl seeks comfort from spirit-world sources, psychology, opium, and romance. While some of Corrigan’s character voices are exaggerated, her rendition of flashbacks and memories is affecting, and her early-twentieth-century diction is charming. However, even with Corrigan’s appealing narration, the uninspired storytelling may disappoint fans of Howe’s earlier work, THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2012]