As Sure As the Dawn

Richard Ferrone is one of those accomplished and generous actors who disappears into the work, treating every text as if it were the one in the world he has dedicated his art to doing justice to. He can modulate from the light, feminine voice of Rizpah, the Christian convert, to the furious rant of Atretes, the German gladiator, as deftly as if he were playing riffs on a keyboard. Melodrama holds no fears for Francine Rivers as her young couple escapes from Domitian's Rome to get home to Atretes's Germania, where they must win hearts and minds for Christ from the young and beautiful pagan witch, Anomia. Ferrone's gravel voice conveys tension, fear, or suspense as if it were both narrative device and musical score. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine