BORDER SONGS

A gentle giant, Brandon Vanderkool empathizes with the placid cows on his father's dairy farm more than the humans, who never cease to mystify him. Author Jim Lynch has created a rich character in this childlike rookie border patrol agent, and narrator Richard Poe voices Brandon with respect for his unique perspective on the world. Poe makes sense of Brandon's immersion in the swamps near the Washington-Canada border, where he has a tendency to stumble upon smugglers. But Poe's strongest contribution is the color he adds to the secondary characters, including a dope-addled retired professor who is dying of cancer and Brandon's taciturn but soft-hearted father, who is struggling to keep the dairy farm. Poe misses opportunities to enhance Lynch's delicately inspired phrasing, but he compensates with a collection of virtuoso birdcalls. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2009]