PRAYER

Narrator Mark Zeisler's understated approach tamps down some of the over-the-top elements of this mystery. FBI Agent Gil Martins is a mess. He's lost his faith and his marriage. His obsessive-compulsive disorder is getting worse. And prominent atheists keep dying in ways that look like accidents--but aren't. When Martin's investigation takes him to a megachurch and a confrontation with its pastor, frightening things start happening. In the end, though, in spite of his steady, engaging performance, Zeisler can't shorten passages that seem to go on and on. The story is less a thriller than a badly disguised religious treatise. G.S.D. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2014]