ISBN: 0-7887-9499-X Order from: Recorded Books
Skillful, suspenseful and satisfying, this book features finely portrayed characters, but becomes unnecessarily wordy at times.
Reviewed by David on May 13, 2004
Genre: Mystery (Procedural)
Synopsis: This is an unabridged recording of In a Dry Season.
An exceptional drought bares the bottom of a reservoir in Yorkshire. There, in the remains of the village flooded for fifty years, a playing boy finds human remains. The resulting investigation, interleaved with the memories of a girl living in that village during World War II, slowly converge to uncover the mystery of gruesome finding.
Full Review: This is an excellent book that is perhaps too long.
The two narrative threads describe this book: the modern day investigation of an old-buried remains, and the memories of village life during the hard years of WWII. The threads start to show linkages from the start, and slowly merge into a suspenseful resolution.
The memories start quite slowly, and the narrator's exaggerated intonation imbue the dialogue with spurious innuendo. As the book progresses, the narration becomes more subtle, and the characters better described and sympathetic, increasing the interest in the historical thread.
The police characters, Inspector Banks and Sergeant Annie Cabbot are interesting, complex characters, quickly gaining the reader's interest.
This otherwise excellent book suffers from an overly lengthy plot, sometimes deliberately filled with cliff-hangers. Even when foreshadowing comes close to telegraphing the resolution, the author takes a very long way to approach it, risking the reader's attention.
The result is still a solidly enjoyable mystery, featuring a number of interesting, sympathetic and complex characters, as well as a skilled police investigation.
Overall: 6; Plot: 6; Characters: 6.5; Style: 6; World-building: 6; Originality: 6;
Copyright date 1999, Recorded Books, 2002, Audio Cassette, 12 cassettes
ISBN: 0-7887-9499-X Order from: Recorded Books