THE OFFICE OF DESIRE

This medical office melodrama features Dr. Will Strub, a Christian fundamentalist; his partner, Hap Markowitz, a nonobservant Jew; Alicia, a nurse; Caroline, the receptionist; and Brice, a shy accountant. Office politics are strained when the IRS comes after the doctors, who are involved in a suspicious patent medicine operation. Alternating between Hap's and Caroline's perspectives, played to the hilt by Renée Raudman and Todd McLaren, the messy interminglings take a risky turn when Will's wife leaves him and he marries Alicia. Other dramatic events follow, including a suicide. There's a little too much going wrong, and the audiobook could have used an abridgment. M.T.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2008]