THE TELL-TALE HEART

With only six months to live, Patrick Bowman, a 50-year-old professor, womanizer, and alcoholic becomes an "unpopular" heart transplant recipient. Narrator Martyn Waites captures him in all of his macho bluster. When Bowman learns that his donor was 16-year-old Drew Beamish, who died in a motorcycle accident, the Londoner travels to the Cambridge fens to see where he lived--and died. Narrator David Thorpe's rural accent and daredevil presentation of Beamish make for a perfect contrast to Waite's more-privileged- sounding Bowman. It's deeply moving to hear that Beamish wanted to be an organ donor because his dad had recently died of a heart attack. Listeners will be stirred by the unusual story and setting. S.G.B. [Published: AUGUST 2014]