IN A DRY SEASON

The village of Hobb's End was deserted almost a half-century before civil engineers transformed it into a reservoir. Now a drought has uncovered the old village, and the skeletal remains of a young woman are found where her murdered body was hidden fifty years earlier. Ron Keith reads Robinson's police procedural--which shifts between the 1940s and the 1990s--with a delightful North-country accent. It works reasonably well with Robinson's Yorkshire setting--although Keith's voice is somewhat older than what one would expect for Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But the brogue is distractingly when reading dialogue with characters from Texas or California. Nevertheless, Keith's reading is precise, melodious, and sincere, and Robinson's storytelling in this Anthony-winning novel carries the day. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 02]