The House on the Strand

Michael Maloney's tense reading, punctuated by musical interludes, at first gives this production the feel of a soap opera. But his intensity energizes this bleak, chilly novel of a man unhappy in his own life and obsessed with the past, which he can visit, or view, through an experimental time-travel drug. In a novel filled with unsympathetic characters, Maloney makes protagonist Dick seem more sympathetic than he would otherwise be. He indicates various characters skillfully through small shifts of voice; his American accent for Dick's wife is flawless. No one could make this novel fun; Maloney makes it involving. A printed insert on the story's background is helpful but contains many spoilers. W.M. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine