cover image The Kind One

The Kind One

Tom Epperson, , read by Scott Brick. . Blackstone, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-4332-5985-2

Scott Brick brings the perfect tone to Epperson's noir tale of mobsters, molls and murder in 1930s Los Angeles. “Two Gun” Danny Layton is literally a man without a past: an amnesic and reluctant gangster, he can't figure out how he came to work for psychotic crime boss Bud “The Kind One” Seitz—or how he fell in love with Bud's girl, Darla. Brick brings a subdued sense of melancholy to his portrayal of Layton, capturing the amnesiac's conflict between what he thinks he knows and what he feels. Weaving world-weariness into each character's voice, he brilliantly recreates the shadowy glamour of Depression-era Los Angeles. A Five Star hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 1) . (Feb.)