DRIVER 5

Ray Clark's plotting and characters are both the stuff that make a fun listen, and narrator Larry Lang's tones are by turns incredulous, terrified, and smug. In this paranormal romp, the unexpected gift of a car turns out to be the beginning of an unwanted, although romance- and humor-tinged, alternate-world adventure. Even though Lang's line endings are often lost, his voicings of various male characters are successful. However, the only (semi-human) female is less so. Kitschy sound effects--running feet, engine roars, and a popgun-sounding weapon--suit the story. Because of the audiobook's brevity and the comic-book-like plot, the mediocre production quality of the vocals is tolerable. Maybe that's how audiobooks sound when you wind up in a place overrun by zombies, locked in a car and unable to escape. F.M.R.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2016]