COCAINE NIGHTS

A travel writer rushes to a British community for the idle rich in southern Spain after his brother, who lives there, admits to arson and murder. Upon investigating, the writer uncovers the seedy underbelly of crime and decadence that props up the local society. This "philosophical" whodunit, by the celebrated author of EMPIRE OF THE SUN, provocatively suggests that crime alone rescues civilization from torpor. Gordon Griffin delivers his lines with admirably crisp intonations, though he at times misses the thrust of a phrase. Inappropriate, however, is his vocal personality, for all his characters sound sexless and stodgy. He reads the novel's one sex scene (an awkward passage in the first place) like a banker reading a financial report. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]