MISS LIZZIE

Another instance of an audio surpassing its text. In 1921, a young girl discovers the mutilated corpse of her stepmother. In shock and horror she rushes to her only friend, the reclusive spinster next door--Lizzie "forty whacks" Borden. This novel's premise is at the same time intriguing and silly. Though the narrative is lean and quick-flowing, the characters are stock and the dialogue anachronistic. Narrator Christina Moore steers effortlessly around the potholes of triteness and breathes vivid personality into the dramatis personae. Her vigor seems inexhaustible, her commitment passionate; yet she retains the feel of uptight nineteenth-century New England. She gives a near-perfect impersonation of her child heroine and varnishes the entire opus with the patina of her own considerable charm. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]