Most mass-market audio books are boiled down to a length of three to six hours. Rather than tamper with the author's language, editors make an effort to select passages so that the narrative remains clear. What is left out, however, is a good deal of the historical atmosphere, as well as many details of the laborious murder investigation. As a result, catching this serial killer seems as easy as a jog around Central Park. Nonfiction books generally fare better.
Most narrators are well chosen, easy on the ear and fully engaged in their work.
Sometimes too engaged. The problem with moonlighting actors is that they can't help, well, acting. In reading Disclosure, Michael Crichton's best seller about a man who sues his female boss for sex harassment, John Lithgow hams it up with overripe accents - the protagonist's Hispanic lawyer seems to come from somewhere outside Transylvania. But on the other hand, Brad Pitt delivers Cormac McCarthy's hardscrabble prose in The Crossing with a twangy stoicism that perfectly reflects the novel's tone. Authors who read their own work are generally less polished but often more effective than actors.