FAME ISLAND

You can't help chuckling the minute you hear tabloid reporter Jude Johnstone's gravelly wise-guy voice as he tells how he was hired by Lotto winner Howard Rosen. After winning the largest jackpot ever, Rosen, a 47-year-old Flint, Michigan, bookkeeper, is in the midst of engineering his own disappearance, purchasing a Caribbean Island, and planning a coup against a corrupt neighboring island, so he can be famous for more than 15 minutes. You have to grin when you hear Johnstone explain how Rosen won--with his first ticket purchase ever. Johnstone is played to a tee by Kristoffer Tabori, who has two Audie Awards to his credit. From start to finish, you never know how seriously to take this offbeat adventure. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 05]