MUTE WITNESS

O'Brien's novel gives listeners a picture of eighteenth-century life in the theater in London and Paris. When actress Ann Cartier is told of her stepfather's death, she rushes to Paris, where she finds that his supposed suicide might actually have been murder. Jenny Sterlin has an opportunity to capture the listener with suspense: There are phantoms in the opera house, and a corrupt society surrounds the heroine. But Sterlin reads with a lack of energy, and without emotional differentiation the novel's scenes overlap. Sterlin's voices are excellent, but there's no fire to take this piece out of the ordinary. J.P. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 03]