BLACK FRIDAY

Rare is the performer who can juggle multiple foreign accents fluidly. Stephen Lang somehow manages to keep well over a dozen ethnically diverse characters in the air as he narrates James Patterson's fast-paced international thriller about a conspiracy to disrupt the world's financial markets. As the story opens, a militia group known as "Green Band" detonates explosives in several key buildings in New York's financial district. They have no apparent motive or demand, and their link to an unseen international terrorist is ambiguous. It is up to Federal Agent Archer Carroll to unravel the plot before it unravels the Western world. The novel--an adaptation of an earlier Patterson book--bears minor anachronisms, but listeners won't mind as Lang's relentless pace and Patterson's storytelling guide them on this terrifying ride. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]