BODY LANGUAGE

James W. Hall has given Thorn, iconoclastic fisherman and hero of five of his previous novels, a breather and created a new character, Alexandra Rafferty, an offbeat Miami police photographer with a haunted past. BODY LANGUAGE is a more than passable effort, but it's not up to the standards Hall set in BUZZ CUT or RED SKY AT NIGHT. Laural Merlington is an excellent reader, but she shouldn't have been assigned this book. The protagonist is female, but most of the other characters aren't, and neither is the author's distinct and hard-boiled voice. M.D.B. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]