THE OTHER DAUGHTER

The story opens on death row with the execution of a serial killer of children and moves to the discovery of an abandoned 9-year-old girl later adopted by a wealthy doctor. Examine the connection between the two and the horrible truth about the death of the Stokes's first daughter is revealed. Laurel Lefkow portrays the men through clipped vocal tones so they all sound similar; the women fare little better. This story of the evil and darkness within people will haunt the listener. However, Lefkow's uneven vocal tones and changes in volume throughout test one's patience. Lefkow swallows beginnings and endings of sentences, and loses accents left and right. An unvoiced narrative would have been better to portray the suspense and mystery created in Gardner's tale of hereditary evil. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]