TURNING ANGEL

A female high school superstar is raped and murdered in Natchez, Mississippi. Suspicion falls on her lover, a married doctor who is the friend of narrator/writer/lawyer Penn Cage. Dick Hill wraps this first-person narrative in a soft Southern accent and makes the most of the opportunity the plot offers to bring to life a 9-year-old daughter, an African-American drug lord, the doctor’s chemically dependent wife, local lawmen, a Yankee professor, and a Croatian exchange student grown beyond his years. At one point, Cage is held captive and injected with heroin, the effects of which he painfully describes. The plot twists might strain your imagination, but the characters ring true--thanks to a tour-de-force performance. J.B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 06]