THE GUNS OF MARK JARDINE

The smell of gun smoke fills your nose as you listen to these classic pulp Westerns. Geoffrey Lewis's narration is on track with Hubbard's short tale as he creates simple but memorable vocal characters. Several audio effects blend nicely with text. The swiftly paced production is well-done. In The Devil's Bounty actor Thomas Vorce uses all his vocal skills to paint an audio canvas of the lawless American West after the gold rush. He reveals the depth of the characters in this adventure and also knows how to get the listener interested with dialects. The story, however, is weakened by many Western clichés. Both productions offer successful single-voiced tellings in contrast to the full cast dramatizations of L'Amour's Westerns. B.P. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 93]