HALF MOON STREET

When abridgers make their cuts, one would hope that they'd remove extraneous narrative and retain the action of the plot, especially in detective fiction. Unfortunately, the editors of HALF MOON STREET elected to excise story line in order to preserve Perry's social diatribes. The story suffers until the end, when Perry delivers a completely satisfying, tragically Shakespearean ending. What really carries this novel of pornography, shame, and murder in Victorian England is David McCallum's beautiful reading of the story as Superintendent Thomas Pitt investigates a murder on the fringes of London's theater community. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 00]