• The Silver Swan. Benjamin Black. Read by Timothy Dalton. Macmillan. 9 hours. Unabridged.
Dalton, best known for his portrayal of James Bond, quickly wins us over reading this dark and ugly story by Black, a pseudonym of Booker Prize-winner John Banville. A beauty salon owner has been murdered in 1950s Dublin. Who did it? Her overly needy and possessive husband? Her sleazy lover and business partner? His jealous, frustrated wife? The doctor who dabbles in drug dealing and pornography? Quirke cares. The cynical, alcoholic pathologist from Christine Falls has given up the booze, and his insatiable curiosity will only get him into trouble.
An edgy smokiness singes Dalton's British accent, giving the characters an extra layer of gray in their lives. These are people who are inexorably drawn to excitement precisely because they know they are going to get burned. It's a bleak, hell-on-earth existence, more noir-ish and fatalistic than many contemporary tales. That brutality will attract and repel, but few will have a problem with Dalton.
• Lush Life. Richard Price. Read by Bobby Cannavale. Macmillan. Unabridged.
Cannavale tries a more modest approach than Dalton, simply reading Price's fine novel. Often he tosses in an accent or two appropriate to characters from New York's Lower East Side, but he's more concerned with providing a brisk, focused narration, even if it means having the sound of a page turning in the background.
Cannavale's approach works well with this police procedural about a fatal shooting and how it affects the lives of all touched by it. His urgency is especially effective as the detectives' few leads begin to dry up, and the time since the crime grows. Think Ed McBain with Paul Auster's gift for characterization.
John Griffin reviewed these books for The San Antonio Express-News.
