THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH

Richard Grant does a perfectly fine job with this somewhat choppy abridgment of Ken Follett's massive novel. Surprisingly for thriller writer Follett, this is a historical epic about the drama surrounding the construction of a twelfth-century English cathedral. Follett gives full play to his mastery of suspense; the results are a bit over the top but involving nonetheless. Grant's somewhat nasal inflection at first sounds too narrow for Follett's broad-brush writing. But within a couple of chapters, he warms to the plot and gives full voice to the panoply of saintly and evil characters, including a devout, disturbed monk and a troubled noblewoman. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 08]