Former Olympic skating star Ellen Cusack is pondering a new beginning for her career when she starts receiving hate mail from someone calling himself the Ice Man. Soon after, the phone begins ringing in the middle of the night -- at first the caller hangs up when Ellen answers, but then he begins to talk to her. The stranger promises Ellen that he will change her life. When gardeners dig up the body of an unidentifiable young woman in Ellen's garden, panic sets in. And then a videotape arrives in the mail, a tape of a little girl in a blue dress who looks exactly like Ellen.
At her agent's insistence, she hires Peter Golding, a private investigator with a penchant for getting a little too involved with his clients. Who is after her, and why?
Schirner has the kind of voice and diction that makes listening easy. In Lynch's thriller about the search for a serial celebrity stalker who is terrorizing a champion ice dancer, there are a lot of twists in character and plot. As each leg of the story unravels, one begins to suspect almost every character of evil-doing--including the hero and heroine. Schirner's clear, distinctive phrasing makes one listen with anticipation. Even as he skates from character to character, there's a quality to Schirner's voice that keeps one attentive. For technical ability, Schirner's narration gets a 9.5. His artistic score is 10. A.L.H. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
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Onetime Olympic skater Ellen Cusack is being stalked by a mystery man. Her agent persuades her to hire Pete Golding, an overzealous P.I., who eventually uncovers the stalker (maybe), the identity of a long dead body unearthed in Ellen's yard, and chicanery at a local fertility clinic. There are enough plot twists to keep one listening, and Schirner does well with some characters. However, the narrative parts are read in a monotone, making Golding's inner thoughts unexciting and his feelings for Ellen unconvincing. Ellen herself remains out of focus, with a barely detectable Russian accent and conflicted feelings. In the end, this stilted reading shows an absence of warmth. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
Patrick Lynch is a pseudonym for Philip Sington and Gary Humphreys, whose previous novels, Carriers and Omega were both national bestsellers. Carriers was made into a TV movie and Omega has been optioned by Universal. The authors divide their time between London and the South of France.
