TOMORROW RIVER

Author Lesley Kagen succeeds as narrator with a solid performance of this audiobook, a literary thriller set in 1969 in rural Virginia. It’s a first-person narrative, told from the point of view of Shenandoah, an enterprising, observant tween whose vocabulary is peppered with legal jargon. Her twin sister, Woody, lacks the same emotional fortitude and, triggered by their mom’s disappearance, has withdrawn into a silent world. As the mystery progresses, the teens learn dark secrets about their drunk of a dad (a local judge) and their off-kilter Southern family. There are moments when the listener may wonder what a professional narrator would have done with the same material, but Kagen (who has voice-over experience) succeeds by carefully balancing an author’s sense of intimacy with a narrator’s sense of drama. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]