cover image The Most Dangerous Thing

The Most Dangerous Thing

Laura Lippman, read by Linda Emond. HarperAudio, unabridged, nine CDs, 11 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-0-06-209785-9

When a fatal car accident—that may or may not have been a suicide—claims the life of Gordon Halloran, an alcoholic, it rips opens forgotten emotional wounds as the friends he left behind are forced to revisit old traumas and an awful lie they all share. Narrator Linda Emond’s understated performance is a perfect fit for Lippman’s leisurely prose in this stand-alone novel that alternates between past and present and employs crime as a means of probing beneath psychological facades. Edmond’s narration conveys a wide range of emotion, ably captures the book’s many characters, and never fails to keep listeners engaged as the author gradually reveals what “the most dangerous thing” really was. A Morrow hardcover. (Aug.)