500 DAYS Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars

Eichenwald gives a (sometimes painfully) detailed history of the period following the 9/11 attacks, frequently moving among people and places in the manner of contemporary thrillers. Holter Graham's voice is slightly and pleasantly hoarse, though rather nasal. His emotional expression is effective in representing people's thoughts and feelings, and his intonation is usually appropriate to the text, for example, expressing Eichenwald's scorn for frequent examples of stupidity and cruelty. Graham is energetic and moves the book along at a good pace. While he provides serviceable facsimiles of the speech of Bush and Cheney, his Middle Eastern and Eastern European accents wander and merge, and his British accent is weak. And he mispronounces "extremists," a frequent irritation. Still, this is a serviceable reading of wide-ranging, sometimes complex, material. W.M. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2013]