TICKTOCK

When a thin idea is stretched into a full-length book and the characters, motivations, and incidents have little correlation with reality, the exercise requires finesse. Witness this title. A Vietnamese-born American writer is chased all over Los Angeles by a murderous devil doll that metamorphoses into an ever more horrendous opponent. A quirk of fate joins the writer with a kooky young woman with amazing resources. Dean Koontz is famous for pulling off such nonsense. His fans relish it. But to do so in a recording, one needs a narrator also capable of finesse. Unfortunately, Paul Michael exhibits neither the élan nor the inventiveness to do more than a yeoman's job. Y.R. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 06]