BLIND JUSTICE

Bowles got obsessed by the unsolved 1984 murder/suicide of Jenny Tanner, an Australian farm wife and mother, and chronicles it here in excruciating detail. That she's not an experienced writer is evident in the overlong narrative and plethora of one-dimensional investigators, witnesses, relatives, etc. Howell is the voice of Bowles--skeptical, persistent, inquisitive--and does what she can to bring courtroom scenes, police procedure and interviews to life. The story gets a boost when a skeleton is found in a mine shaft on the Tanner property and the case is reopened. But no clear connection can be made, and the whole mess remains unresolved. Howell's clear reading is a beacon in all this fog, but most listeners will have difficulty navigating until the end. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 00]