PREY DANCING

An unsettling novel involves male and female prostitutes, violent drug-distribution gangs, white-collar criminals, and the invisible networks that link them. Except for the prevalence of rogues, the novel is quite unlike Gash's popular Lovejoy series. The setting is the seamier areas of a city in northern England. Richard Greenwood gives an appropriately understated reading. In the main, the characters are sad people, and only the dullest of the lot don't recognize their own sadness. Greenwood's voice conveys this atmosphere of depressed urban living. There are no heroes and only occasional acts of kindness. The narration seems exactly right for the material. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 01]