The 34th Degree


Narrator Robert Fass gives a service- able performance in this audio version of Greanias's thriller. Sam Deker, the time- traveling hero from The Promised War, is once again swept back in time. This time, thanks to the Pentagon's latest technological breakthrough, he is sent back to 1943 and finds himself in German-occupied Greece before the Allied invasion. Now Deker must discover the fate of an ancient biblical manuscript, the Maranatha, the pages of which may hold the key to the destiny of the world. Fass does a competent job with this convoluted tale of WWII skullduggery, and indeed is at his best narrating the author's descriptive passages. However, he falters in his por- trayals of the multinational (British, Greek, German) cast of characters. It would have better served the audiobook if Fass had forgone any attempt at accents and simply provided a straightforward, no-frills reading. An Atria hardcover. (July)