BELOVED ENEMY Jack McClure, Book 5

Some books present significant barriers to the audio format, and this is one of them. Like many of Lustbader's books, it features a large cast, quickly changing international locations and accents, fast-paced action, and a few gratuitous sex scenes. Narrator Peter Berkrot frequently gets tangled up while differentiating the character voices. His pacing easily follows the action, but his accent shifts over the course of the book, from somewhat twangy in the initial chapters to a more flat accent in the final chapters. His female voices sound nondescript at times--at other times, forced and unnatural. A few uncorrected missteps in reading create additional distractions for the listener. M.L.R. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2013]