Sounds of Suspense

Audiobooks Reviewed

- Dick Lochte

Max Brooks

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

Read by a full cast including Judy Greer, Nathan Fillion, Mira Furlon, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Webber and Kate Mulgrew Random House Audio, 10.2 hours, unabridged, $24.50

Anyone familiar with Brooks’ popular World War Z, in which heroic citizens (including Brad Pitt in the cinema version) battled an ever-increasing international zombie army, should not be surprised by the author’s new thriller premise involving a cluster of eco-woke back-to-nature colonists, isolated by an eruption of Mt. Rainier, forced to combat a cadre of shrewd, savage, splenetic and starving sasquatch. For those who had no difficulty buying into Brooks’ vampires, his blood-thirsty bigfoots (bigfeet?) should pose no credibility concerns. The format of the story unfolds Citizen Kane-like, with Brooks gathering the “facts” surrounding the slaughter. For this audio version, he portrays himself, as do a couple of public radio favorites, Kai Ryssdal of NPR Marketplace fame, and, perhaps more surprising,