OLIVIA JOULES AND THE OVERACTIVE IMAGINATION

Olivia Joules wants to be a foreign correspondent for the SUNDAY TIMES, but her overactive imagination gets her demoted to the lifestyle pages. While in Miami covering the launch of a skin cream created by the alluring Pierre Ferramo, she witnesses the destruction of a floating apartment complex at the hands of al Qaeda. Olivia is recruited as a CIA/MI6 agent--with weapons in her underwire bra, a GPS earring, and a pocket survival kit-- to pursue the terrorists. Josephine Bailey creates distinctive voices for loony Olivia, the faux-French Ferramo, and the many other characters. Bailey's witty voice is perfect for the ludicrous moments--of which there are many--but less fitting for the occasional serious ones--for example, when Olivia is rescuing residents from the sinking apartments. Fielding's fault perhaps, but mildly jarring all the same. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]