Total Control

David Baldacci, read by Jonathan Marosz. Hachette Audio, unabridged, 14 CDs, 17 hrs., $29.98 ISBN 978-1-61969-623-5

Sidney Archer is sent reeling when she learns that her husband Jason, an executive at a top technology conglomerate, was aboard a plane that went down with no survivors. Then she gets some good news: Jason didn’t make the flight. And some bad news: he’s on the run from the FBI, which suspects him of causing the crash. And now, Sidney is being chased by Lee Sawyer, a hardboiled FBI special agent who is falling in love with her, and a resourceful, relentless assassin, who isn’t. Jonathan Marosz narrates this audio edition with a high energy, breezy style that not only maintains, but intensifies, listener interest. He also manages to clarify the author’s detailed explanations of how various cutting-edge technologies work by vocally emphasizing key points. Marosz selects voices that match the attitudes of the novel’s many characters, from the puzzled but determined Sidney to the equally determined and logical Sawyer, whose gruff delivery softens as his feelings for Sidney intensify. A Vision paperback. (Apr.)

Featured Audio Reviews

David Lynch, Kristine McKenna

Filmmaker Lynch and coauthor McKenna both contribute their voices to this wonderfully entertaining audiobook about Lynch’s life and his creative influences. The chapters Continue reading »

Anthony Horowitz

Voice actor Kinnear sounds playfully peevish and impatient when portraying the narrator of Horowitz’s hugely entertaining whodunit, adding to the novel’s sense of fun. Daniel Continue reading »

David Crystal

With a sharp English accent and expert pacing, Perkins largely exemplifies the lessons in linguist Crystal’s lively treatise on the subject of eloquence. Originally published in Continue reading »

Rick Bragg

Cookbooks don’t translate easily to the audiobook format, but Bragg, reading in a friendly Southern drawl, manages to effortlessly transform this collection of his mother’s Continue reading »