EARLIT SHORTS 4

Quite a range of tales emerges in this fourth collection of short stories, originally by Newfoundland authors, now from international authors. A delightful time-travel piece, "Slip," by Michael Collins, is well paced and suspensefully wrought by Joel Thomas Hynes. Hynes also skillfully narrates Vryenhoek's story, "Cycle." The author's own narration of her second story, "All She Swallowed," is as weak as the sad character it features. In Rosenblum's “The Weatherboy," narrator Gerard Neil's gentle reading shares the bewilderment and burgeoning emotions of a young weather newscaster who believes that his emotions impact the weather. The mellow guitar music that separates the stories is mostly unobtrusive but does not suit the folktale “The Birchy Maid,” elegantly spun by Anita Best. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2011]