TRAITOR'S PURSE

Your head may well be aching along with Campion's as the sleuth awakens to find he has amnesia and a looming dread that some momentous event hangs in the balance that only he can put right. Time ticks along as he becomes buried under more and more incomprehensible information. Unable to recognize even the faithful Lugg or his own fiancée, Campion struggles desperately to put the pieces together while the very fate of England is at stake. A bit on the convoluted and melodramatic side perhaps, but it's all made enjoyable by the sheer breadth of talent brought to bear by narrator Francis Matthews. It's a pure pleasure to listen to this man talk. He creates a persona for his characters that never slips while moving adroitly among various strata of British society. His professional approach to this material gleans from it every possible bit of entertainment. D.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 03]