MURDER IN THE MEWS

Hugh Fraser and Nigel Hawthorne share the narrator’s role in this trio of Hercule Poirot short stories. Hawthorne masterfully handles the title story, in which Poirot suspects that the suicide of Barbara Allen was actually murder. Hawthorne reads both the British characters and the Belgian Poirot with delightfully authentic accents. Fraser, who narrates the other stories, is impressive with his vocal characterizations. His depiction of Mrs. Macatta, a minor player in "The Incredible Theft," is amusingly on target, as is Poirot’s detective work when military plans are purloined. "Triangle at Rhodes" finds the vacationing Poirot pressed into service when a marriage turns to murder. Both readers succeed in flavoring, rather than overpowering, the stories with European accents. J.J.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]