QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD

Multitalented actress Stephanie Zimbalist uses all her talents to paint a splashy, bizarre, deliciously zany portrait of Emma Gant, a Florida rookie newspaper reporter, and her encounters with Cuban refugees in Miami in 1959. Gant's alter ego is a wickedly portrayed ex-Miami madam, mistress of a mobster and known as The Queen of the Underworld. Stephanie Zimbalist adds spice and sparkle, as well as a sense of seriousness and empathy for the fleeing Cubans, to a sprawling, sometimes unwieldy, plot. Her voices, including impeccably accented Spanish and that of the narrator (three-time National Book Award nominee Godwin herself, thinly disguised) ring true. M.T.B. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 06]