BACK TO THE GARDEN

Vivienne Leheny's steady delivery and warm tone welcome listeners into Laurie R. King's latest novel, a contemporary mystery set in California. While different from King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, it features an equally intriguing female detective in Raquel Laing, a police department cold case investigator. While working to identify victims of a 1970s serial killer, Laing investigates a corpse found on the grounds of the Gardener Estate Museum. Leheny skillfully performs a host of characters--those featured in Laing's investigations and those who were part of the estate's 1970s-era commune--by creating audio sketches of walk-on folks and personality-rich voices for the core people. Leheny's even pacing keeps listeners on track amid multiple plot lines, and when the action explodes, she delivers a satisfying burst of frenzy. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2022]