IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER

Clare Fergusson is quite a character, a young Episcopal priest who used to fly helicopters in the army. When she's in priest mode, we hear the soft Southern honey of her childhood; when she's in survival mode (it's not every priest who can ambush an armed would- be murderer in the freezing outback and brain him with a rock), we hear the voices of her army days, alive in her head. Suzanne Toren has the skill and range to hold us enthralled from the moment Clare finds a newborn baby on the church doorstep and the secrets of her new parish in Miller's Kill, New York, begin to unspool all around her. A terrific performance by both author and actor. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]