LIGHT OF THE WORLD

This very bloody book features a crazed serial killer who arrives in Montana about the same time that Louisiana sheriff’s detective David Robicheaux gets there for a vacation with family and friends. Will Patton’s narration of this entry into the series is, with a few exceptions, top-notch. Patton’s thick Southern drawl is a good match for the book’s lush prose, and he masterfully renders Clete Purcel, Robicheaux’s gravelly voiced best friend. The point of view is Robicheaux’s, though, and he sometimes lectures readers about politics or sociology. Patton sounds no less pedantic delivering those lines. Also, Patton slows the pace to that of a poetry reading when Burke gets into a descriptive mode, a style that only draws attention to the occasional over-the-top prose. A good, not great, listen. G.S.D. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2013]