Lockdown

Narrator Pilar Witherspoon's deliberate delivery matches the carefully laid out plot of this stand-alone thriller. The background stories of individual characters are woven into a minute-by-minute account of a California middle-school career day gone horribly wrong. Drawing on her good sense of timing, Witherspoon boosts the tension as the day's frustrations begin to wear down the students, teachers, staff, and parents, all of whom seem to be harboring secrets. Listeners may sometimes find it difficult to distinguish among the characters, and periodic breath sounds mar the narration. Also, the plot focuses on school violence, which may be a trigger factor for some. Nonetheless, Witherspoon's performance is expressive, her Latino accent is convincing, and she refrains from signaling the conclusion too soon. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine