ISLAND OF EXILES

An exiled prince is murdered while serving his term in the dreaded penal colony on Sado, the Island of Exiles. Our hero, Sugawara Akitada, must pose as a prisoner himself to get to the bottom of the crime. Sounds like a good premise, and it may be a good read (despite the rampant use of anachronistic clichés), but Roy Vongtama does little to engage, enthrall, or entertain. His Japanese accents are so downright cartoonish (sometimes offensively so) that the main character, the handsome, daring, and honorable Akitada, sounds more like he's from Hollywood than ancient Japan. Unfortunately, Vongtama reads with the air of an inexperienced narrator and treats the text with an artsy aloofness that undermines the potential of the story. It's a real shame too—this one looked so good. A.H.A. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2008]