Imagine being called to an oil rig in the North Atlantic to diagnose a mysterious illness, only to discover that no one there is drilling for oil. This is the mystery that Dr. Peter Crane attempts to solve in DEEP STORM by Lincoln Child. It's a high concept cross-genre science fiction novel from Douglas Preston's usual co-author, sometimes writing suspense novels on his own. The oil rig is actually a cover for a top secret project, ostensibly to discover Atlantis, two miles below the seabed. There is a signal being heard from below, which may be causing the illness, but it's definitely not Atlantis that they will discover. It's far more dangerous than that. Narrated by Scott Brick, who has the skill to make each revelation believably new and real to the listener, the audio book is what I call "a CD changer" (audio equivalent to the page-turner), with an intriguing plot that propels listeners to a twist finish. My advice? They should make this one a movie, and get Brick to play Crane. (Random House Audio; 7.5 hours abridged)
Finally, there is TWINKIE, DECONSTRUCTED. Author Steve Ettlinger is aided by the personable voice of actor Mark Lund in this ear-opening road trip through the ingredient label of the iconic snack cake. Who knew that it would take six hours to describe how all these ingredients are mined, processed, and packaged? Due to Homeland Security, access to some of the chemical plants that create these additives is limited, but the author has done his research, and so takes the listener on a mind-boggling tour of where emulsifiers like polysorbate 60 come from, how they are manufactured, and what other uses the common ingredients of processed baked goods have in products as diverse as paint or herbicides. Does it scare you to learn that it is more likely, when you bite into a creamy filling, that you're eating a former petroleum byproduct than you are eggs? Surprisingly, the author doesn't worry much about it. It is not his purpose to denigrate the food industry for focusing on taste, appearance, and shelf life as the Holy Trinity of profit. Rather, he cites FDA approval and industry cooperation in neglecting to name names "out of courtesy." So the book is not an exposé so much as a layout of the complex and sometimes secretive processes by which dyes, fillers, emulsifiers, and preservatives are produced in huge vats, and then subjected to high heat, acids, atomizations, extrusions, and a hundred other transformations before being added to foods that are cleverly packaged, shipped - and may wait in storage for months before being consumed. Crack an egg and try to do that. (Listen & Live Audio; 6 hours unabridged)
Jonathan Lowe is a novelist and audio book reviewer living in Tucson. A longtime judge in the Audie Awards, he has won writing awards from Audiofile, the SC Arts Commission, and Writer's Digest. Audio of his novels The Awakening Storm and Fame Island are available for download at Blackstone Audiobooks.
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