SPOOK

Pronzini and Sullivan are a good match in this audiobook, but that's not a compliment. The book and the performance are equally uneven, combining in a generally unsatisfying experience for the listener. Pronzini's "Nameless" detective, whom everyone calls Bill, is investigating the murder of a homeless man, an event that leads him back to an unsolved seventeen-year-old crime. Helping him are his youthful and willful partner, Tamara, and a new addition to the agency, Jake Runyon, a widower sapped by grief. The mystery takes far too long to become involving, the side stories involving Bill and Tamara are tedious or irritating, and Sullivan's characterizations are mainly pedestrian. Only the tragic figure of Runyon engages, both on the page and in Sullivan's performance. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 03]