THE STRANGE FATE OF KITTY EASTON

This mystery is ostensibly about the disappearance of a 6-year-old girl from a country estate before WWI, but it quickly turns into a larger story. After the war, former infantry officer Laurence Bartram gets wrapped up in the many mysteries of a crumbling estate in the oddly named village of Easton Deadall when he is asked to help recreate a hedgerow maze. Despite narrator Matthew Brenher's considerable skill, the story moves at an incredibly slow pace. Brenher has a pleasant voice and successfully evokes more than a dozen characters, giving each a distinct voice. But the novel is hampered by its unfamiliar setting, both time and location, and the author's tendency to go into unnecessary detail. M.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]