Actor Will Patton has had experience with the tough yet eloquent works of James Lee Burke: He has voiced Burke’s laconic Cajun detective, Dave Robicheaux, since 2005’s Crusader’s Cross, the 14th book in the series. Now, with his 24th novel, Clete (Simon & Schuster Audio, 9 hours and 20 minutes), Burke has finally produced a story told from the point of view of Dave’s protector and best friend, Clete Purcell, and Patton is along for the ride.
The story follows Clete’s meandering yet increasingly dangerous investigation into the appearance of a deadly new drug with world-altering potential. The usual criminals, lowlifes, and big-city outsiders eager to exploit Louisiana’s rich history and resources add intrigue, including a film crew in town to scout for a movie entitled Flags on the Bayou (Burke’s Civil War novel, which won the Edgar Award earlier this year).
The violent Clete has long been larger than life, his background the stuff of legend. Believing in him as a person who might actually exist, though, has been hard at times. Patton’s gruff reading brings the man back down to earth. His interpretation helps Burke reveal a vulnerable streak that makes Clete feel more real than he ever has.
A crime novel that jumps around in time can be tricky to follow via audio, but listening to Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods (Penguin Audio, 14 hours and 35 minutes) is anything but a struggle. Moore carefully labels each chapter with the date, and you do need to pay attention. But narrator Saskia Maarleveld draws in listeners with a terrific performance, persuasively embodying characters of different ages and backgrounds.
When a teenager disappears from her camp in the Adirondacks in the summer of 1975, counselors, cops, and rescuers leap into action. She isn’t just any lost camper: She’s rebellious Barbara Van Laar, daughter of the camp’s wealthy owners, and her older brother Bear vanished under similar circumstances years earlier and was never found.
The God of the Woods unspools as a crime procedural, but Moore (Long Bright River) infuses the familiar missing-girl story with an understanding of decades of wealth inequality in upstate New York. Maarleveld, who also read this year’s entertaining thriller First Lie Wins, puts you in the heads of the women at the heart of the story and makes you care deeply about the outcome.
Don’t be surprised if you feel a flutter of déjà vu while listening to Nicola Yoon’s riveting One of Our Kind (Random House Audio, 8 hours and 31 minutes). This satiric thriller feels like the child of Get Out and The Stepford Wives, with a touch of Rosemary’s Baby, all seasoned with Yoon’s devastating take on racial justice and cultural responsibility.
The story follows a Black couple, Jasmyn and King Williams, who move into an affluent Black community called Liberty with their young son. King relishes the utopian neighborhood, but Jasmyn, an attorney driven by the desire for social justice, is troubled. Why don’t her neighbors care about the oppressions she has devoted her life to fighting? And what’s going on at Liberty’s mysterious wellness center? Reader Nicole Lewis helps hammer home Yoon’s points, capturing Jasmyn’s rising unease so thoroughly it shakes your own sense of well-being.
Connie Ogle is a writer in Florida.
