SHEER ABANDON

In 1985, three women bond during their backpacking adventures in Thailand. Fifteen years go by before their lives intersect once more. Cleo has become a geriatric doctor, trapped in an emotionally abusive marriage, Jocasta is a journalist for a tabloid newspaper, and Martha is a self-centered lawyer with political aspirations. A fourth character, Katie, abandoned at birth at Heathrow, is the daughter of one of these women. Desperately seeking her mother, she provides the narrative drive for the story. Susan Duerden's sophisticated tones give the characters forthright voices. While she persuades listeners to engage with the mystery of Kate's parentage, her delivery is, at the same time, somewhat distant. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]