Innocent Graves

Published in 1996, this eighth entry in his series about Police Chief Inspector Alan Banks marked a change in formula for Robinson who, in order to delve deeper into justice's dark side, allowed his humane Yorkshire policeman to share the spotlight with Owen Pierce, an unlikable schoolteacher accused of murdering a pretty teen in a cemetery. The dueling protagonists help explain why James Langton's narration initially sounds too gentle for a police procedural. However, he quickly establishes his versatility, creating an assortment of properly accented and modulated voices for witnesses, lawyers (there's an extended courtroom section), and coppers, including a deep, commanding voice for Banks. But Langton's main success is in capturing the many moods of the hapless Pierce%E2%80%94confusion, arrogance, petulance, self-pity, despair, and, eventually, fierce anger%E2%80%94as he faces the growing circumstantial case against him. It's a performance that adds a punch to the book's powerful conclusion. An Avon paperback. (March)