THIEVES' PARADISE

Bill Andrew Quinn's friendly voice hooks the listener immediately. His appealing approach transforms panic into playfulness. Eric Jerome Dickey's hero, Dante, faces hard times when his dot-com job crashes. A shady figure from his past, Scamz, makes an offer he can't refuse--one last big score. While this may sound too contrived to swallow, Dickey has created more than action figures. Dante and Scamz are multilayered men with inner lives and philosophical dilemmas. Theirs is a world of violent abuse, leering sexuality, and little hope, yet somehow they hope. Quinn's performance is well suited to the text. He seems to enjoy portraying L.A.'s rejects and scoundrels. You can almost hear the grin under his words growing wider and wider. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 03]