cover image LIGHT IN SHADOW

LIGHT IN SHADOW

Jayne Ann Krentz, , read by Joyce Bean. . Brilliance Audio, $32.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-58788-705-5

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FictionLIGHT IN SHADOWJayne Ann Krentz, read by Joyce Bean. Brilliance Audio, unabridged, seven cassettes, 10 hrs., $32.95 ISBN 1-58788-705-3

Krentz's latest opens with an intriguing scene: interior designer Zoe Luce enters the bedroom of her latest client and is immediately assaulted by waves of terror, rage, screams and violence emanating from the walls. This sensitivity to her surroundings is Zoe's innate gift, and she immediately suspects that her client's wife has not left him, as he claims, but was murdered. She seeks out private eye Ethan Truax to discover the truth. But soon a much more tangled plot reveals itself: Zoe herself is an escapee from a mental hospital, to which she was committed after the murder of her husband, and hired goons are trying to track her down and return her to the institution. Narrator Bean deftly differentiates between the myriad character voices, including pompous Dr. Ian Harper (the asylum's crooked owner), raspy-voiced security consultant Singleton, simpering Kimberly Cleland (wife of Zoe's scheming cousin), Southern-accented Bonnie (Ethan's sister-in-law), and dramatic, glamorous Acadia (Zoe's friend and fellow asylum escapee). Krentz weaves the numerous threads into a satisfying mystery. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 4, 2002). (Jan.)