Twenties Girl, by Lee Child (Read by Rosalyn Landor)
Laura Lington is persistent -- if not especially successful -- especially when it comes to business and romance. Perhaps that's the reason Great Aunt Sadie chooses her to undertake a very important mission. Sitting at the pitifully impersonal funeral of her great aunt, Laura's musings about the absence of flowers and mourners for her 103-year-old relative are interrupted by a shrill, "Where's my necklace?"
Realizing that she's the only one to hear the voice she looks around for the source and spies an ethereal, youthful Sadie in 1920s garb. Although initially reluctant, she agrees to help Sadie find a special necklace that disappeared before her death. Using wit, charm and more than a little chutzpah, Laura interrupts the funeral, delays the burial and convinces her family that she's lost her mind. They attribute her irrational behavior to her recent romantic and business failures, so they accept her demands and she and Sadie's ghost are off to find the necklace.
In a departure from the very popular "Shopaholic" series, Sophie Kinsella creates a character whose motivation is to help someone else, not merely to keep herself out of difficulties. But like shopaholic Rebecca, Laura is inventive, persistent, determined, imaginative and charming. In the course of looking for the necklace she learns a great deal from the opinionated Sadie about love, fashion, dancing, values, friendship and self-esteem. She also unearths family secrets as the mystery and intrigue surrounding the necklace are revealed.
Rosalyn Landor's narration gives believability
not only to the irrepressible Laura, but to feisty ghost
Sadie and a large cast of male and female friends, relatives
and business associates of all ages and social rankings.
Thanks to her skillful presentation, the sadness and
humor in this lighthearted story dovetail seamlessly
for a very satisfying experience. Listeners looking
for further adventures of Kinsella's heroines will not
be disappointed in Twenties Girl. Once again
the "That Girl meets Lucy" main
character charms and beguiles from the first page to
the last.
Ruth
Mormon
8/14/09
