LYRICS FOR ROCK STARS

In the fine short story “Heroes,” a telling moment of verisimilitude occurs when narrator Michael Crouch imitates the shortness of breath of a runner going uphill in a Colorado race. Here and throughout this collection, Crouch ably takes the production to another level. Whether he is delivering the voice and sound of a young girl or a 109-year-old man, he gets the character’s cadence, tone, and timbre just right, elevating this collection of Colorado stories. Sappenfield writes about women in extreme moments: A model is accosted, a young woman on a bike defends herself from a would-be rapist, an outdoorsy woman watches her husband die, and the protagonist of “Coloring Beyond the Lines” leaves her home to see wild horses in Utah and is nearly trampled by a stallion. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2022 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2021]