THE SILENT OLIGARCH

Narrator Jason Culp convincingly communicates the emotional and ethical turmoil of the central characters in Jones’s first novel. Culp’s pace and tone make their actions believable, their inner struggles compelling, and their intricate cat-and-mouse games understandable. This cerebral thriller features no superheroes, fast-paced action sequences, or facile resolutions. Instead Jones’s central characters—one an expert in business espionage and the other a Russian oligarch’s personal toady—must choose between personal and professional loyalties in trying to make sense of a post-Soviet world that neither fully understands. Although Culp’s pronunciation of Russian words is tinged with a characteristic American flatness, Culp creditably reproduces a wide range of accents in bringing to life this story of uncertainties and divided loyalties. L.X.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2012]