THE COLOMBIAN MULE

Sean Barrett is first-rate in the first of Massimo Carlotto’s “Alligator” series to be translated into English. Barrett’s somber tones lure listeners into this gritty story of drug smuggling, murder, and police corruption. A Colombian mule is arrested in Venice with 800 grams of cocaine stashed in his stomach. When the police frame small-time art smuggler Nazzareno Corradi as his Italian contact, Corradi hires Private Investigator “Alligator” to prove his innocence. Barrett gives Alligator, a Calvados-drinking ex-blues singer and ex-con, a harsh, edgy attitude. As the P.I.’s even more unorthodox partners, an oddball genius and an ex-gangster, Barrett’s performance highlights their indisputable criminal logic as they bend the rules and play dirty for the sake of “justice." S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]