Joniece Abbott-Pratt gives a dramatic performance of this flawed but interesting social issue drama. Her remarkably beautiful voice makes a sympathetic vehicle for the heroine, Deena Wood, a young, Black lawyer who has come home to Brunswick, Georgia, to nurse her wounds after a series of personal disasters. Deena's growing obsession with an old man's strange disappearance leads her to sort out a truly disgusting real-life phenomenon in which developers use trickery to displace rightful property owners and deliberately blight neighborhoods to create advantageous prices for their own plans. Combining tropes from gothic, horror, and romance novels, as well as from crime and legal thrillers, this novel could have used some editorial discipline, but the lush performances are excellent and make for a memorable listen.
Pub Date: June 18, 2024
Duration: 10 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063322233
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
For someone whose vocal palette contains so few colors, Edward Asner is a surprisingly effective narrator. His familiar, pleasant growl compels attention and bespeaks authority. He has his faults though. As an audiobook performer, he has but one personality, whatever the narrative voice of his text. One gets the impression that he enters the studio underprepared, taking his time to discover the book as he reads it. Thus it is with An Isolated Incident, a taut, suspenseful murder mystery set in Puget Sound. Other readers could better explore all the beats of this rich page-turner, but few could hold an audience as effortlessly.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Time Warner AudioBooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Kay Scarpetta takes on more than routine investigations as her job of medical examiner involves her once again in a search for an unknown killer. The story is riveting from the opening chapters, and Sheila Hart never lets the intrigue subside. However Hart doesn't use enough vocal range, and male voices sound tinny and high-pitched. The dialogues with tough yet, endearing, Lt. Pete Marino have perfect cadence, accent and speech pattern, but sound somewhat thin and insubstantial. Telephone conversations and flashbacks are set off by effective sound enhancement, a useful addition. The overall presentation is very good driven strongly by the author's contribution.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 9 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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