JACK, KNAVE & FOOL

Mystery fans are devouring historicals these days, and Bruce Alexander's Blind Justice books are some of the most delicious. The pseudonymous author presents a winning combination of a colorful setting (London in the 1760's) and a unique detective hero--Judge Sir John Fielding, brother of the author of TOM JONES and founder of the famous Bow Street Runners, whose pursuit of evidence is complicated by his blindness. The books pretend to be memoirs by Fielding's amanuensis, Jeremy Proctor, and reader Stuart Langton effectively captures Jeremy's character and class. Langton also renders Alexander's prose, which is styled to imitate that of eighteenth-century novels, as comfortably as if he were born to it. A clear, energetic, polished performance. S.P. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 00]