DEATH COMES AS THE END

Between them, Agatha Christie and Emilia Fox manage to make ancient Egyptians sound believable. Christie delivers a tale of deception and murder in an extended family of upper-caste Egyptians of 2000 BC. She includes just enough historically accurate information to ground the story without making it a treatise on how people once lived. Fox wisely chooses not to attempt Egyptian accents. Instead, she reveals social strata by using a range of accents from different English classes; it’s a surprising choice that works well. Her pacing is easy to listen to, and she shades character beautifully—rarely have the sniveling sounded so uxorious, the good so innocent, or the murderous so deceiving. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 06]