THE BREAKER

Powell performs a neat trick in this narration. He all but disappears. His characterizations are so vivid, yet so understated, that somewhere along the way, the listener loses the sense that there is a narrator at all. Certainly, Walters deserves much of the credit for crafting an engrossing police procedural, this one built around the rape and murder of a young woman on the south coast of England. The story follows the plodding, but relentless, investigation into the crime, mounting pieces of evidence and fact, sometimes contradictory, sometimes ambiguous. Along the way comes an unexpected but gratifying adult romance. Powell's reading infuses each character--the police, the suspects and the witnesses--with recognizable humanity. So expert is his reading that you can't imagine any of the characters sounding anything but exactly like this. M.O. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 00]