FIFTH VICTIM

Someone is kidnapping the children of Long Island’s super-rich, all of whom are snotty, shallow, poorly educated, and without purpose. This is already a hard sell, plus Zoë Sharp’s idea of how Americans, even the very rich, talk and behave seems derived from bad television rather than from observation or actual thought about human nature. To overcome such deficits, the enterprise would have needed taut and persuasive plotting and a winning performance from the narrator to succeed, but both are lacking. The protagonist, Charlie Fox, girl bodyguard, is English, and Eyre’s British accent wavers from fake Belgravia to hints of Cockney but never gets the vowels right. Plus, Eyre’s delivery is without energy, a problem in a thriller. This is a pretty empty calorie. B.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2012]