SLIPPING INTO DARKNESS

Though he's not the most versatile reader, Michael Kramer has a knack for replicating certain types. He's near perfect when he portrays hard-boiled Homicide Detective Francis Laughlin. As a young cop, Laughlin coerced a murder confession from a 17-year-old suspect. Twenty years later, the man is released from a life sentence in prison on a legal technicality and almost immediately another young woman dies in a manner similar to the first. You can sympathize more with the felon than the pursuing lawman. So long as Kramer mimics the cops, he's on solid ground. But when he's called upon to do a foreign accent, he's barely believable. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 06]