GOLD

Through masterful manipulation of pace and volume, narrator Emilia Fox heightens the drama of this story about Kate and Zoe, British bike racers facing their last Olympic Games. Fox's voice gives listeners a sense of the women's competitive spirit and physical pain as, strapped to their bikes, they speed around the steep banks of the velodrome, pushing themselves just to the point of passing out. After their decades of training together, Kate and Zoe's lives are as entangled out of the arena as in, adding dimension to the novel. Although Fox lowers her pitch for the male voices, she is not at her best rendering their Australian and Scots accents. Also, the use of sound effects to signal several phone conversations is unnecessary and distracting. Happily, Fox’s portrayal of the two protagonists shines. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]