The Door Between

This piece of "New York noir," written and set during mystery fiction's Golden Age, was a turning point in the Ellery Queen canon. Actor Blain Fairman reads the novel, about the murder of a reclusive author with a dark past in Japan, with a light edginess that brings alive the era and the sense of adventure. Fairman gives his voice a wry, tinny quality that fits well with the author's style. The one weakness in his reading is the awful Irish accent given to the character Terry Ring--apparently on the basis of one line that suggests that "Terry" is an Irish name. Accents aside, the story and reading are a delight. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine