THE CREATOR'S MAP

The title object of this story is a fabled map supposedly hidden in the Vatican and drawn by God himself, and the Nazis want it. The setting is Rome, and if the phrase "Da Vinci Code" occurs to you, you can't blame an author for trying. This effort is well plotted and entertaining, but Tony Chiroldes has made the irritating choice to play all the characters with accents, which distance the listener from them as people. Further, the accents add nothing to our understanding, especially as the Catalan protagonists, who should have very different accents (and politics) from Spaniards, all sound Latino. Worse, so do the Italians. This is an enjoyable listen, but it would have been much better served by less playacting, or greater accuracy. B.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2008]