THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF ADELAIDE HARRIS

Narrator Ron Keith reads this novel set in eighteenth-century England with a slightly bemused air that fits its convoluted story and absurd characters. The story begins when a teenager, inspired by a lecture on Sparta, decides to leave his baby sister on a hillside. When a young girl stumbles across the seemingly abandoned Adelaide and brings her home, a series of lies, coverups, and misunderstandings ensues as one family looks for its lost child and two others become embroiled in a duel. While Keith's reading brings out some of the humor in the story, he can't overcome the unattractiveness of its characters, who are self-centered, egotistical, and ultimately unlikable. Only a rare listener will find satisfaction in this production. A.F. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 03]