EDEN CLOSE

Nearly two decades of unfinished business finally demand resolution. Back in town to sell the family home after his mother's death, Andrew is drawn instead to the house next door. Eden, sexually abused and blinded the year Andrew left, lives there still, inexplicably secluded by her step-mother. Any hope of a future for either of them requires unraveling her past. Although the plot reeks of foreshadowing, reader Mary Peiffer helps maintain suspense by downplaying the predictability of situations. More than anything else, Peiffer's reading is unobtrusive. She hints at character voices and moods enough to focus attention on them but not on herself, an effective, if not particularly memorable, style. D.J. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]