****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : AUDIOCASSETTES

“The Mystery of Edwin Drood” by Charles Dickens. Read by Paul Scofield and abridged on two cassettes by Jeremy Sunderland and John Soltys. Dove. “Drood” may be the most teasing mystery in all of literature. Dickens wrote 22 chapters and died, leaving the book incomplete. It is not only a whodunit, but a whodunwhat. Is young Edwin Drood missing or dead, and, if the latter, was it his junkie uncle, and if so, why? Many completions have been attempted over the years. A recent one added 21 new chapters. The cassette, like the book, simply stops in its tracks and is, like the book, frustrating but fascinating in its setting-up of knotty relationships in a provincial cathedral town. There are those--I’m one--who would listen pleasurably to Scofield reading stock tables. He is a joy here, with or without a finish. Information: (800) 843-8404. *** 1/2