"The Forever Girl,"
by Alexander McCall Smith
(Read by Susan Lyons, Recorded Books, 9 CDs, 10 hours and 44 minutes)
It is not often that an audiobook is so boring that one wishes it be sent to an ignoble demise, but this misstep by Alexander McCall Smith is so tedious that I can hardly believe it is by the author of the highly entertaining “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series. While the depiction of British expatriate life in the Caymans is convincing, the novel’s two love stories fall flat. One depicts a married woman and a doctor. The other involves the woman’s daughter and a boy she has loved since grade school. There is a lot of anxiety and hours of internal analytical dissection, yet nothing ever happens. Thankfully, narrator Susan Lyons does a commendable job keeping up the pace and embodying the different characters. Grade: C–
