AUDIOCASSETTE REVIEW : Forsyth Is an Earful in ‘The Negotiator’

*** 1/2 The Negotiator by Frederick Forsyth. Read by Anthony Zerbe. Bantam (two cassettes, abridged).

Like some other book publishers, Bantam is now releasing audio versions simultaneously with hard-cover print editions. Forsyth’s thriller about the kidnaping in Oxford of an American President’s son is a current best seller, reconfirming the author’s mastery of suspenseful high-level skullduggery. The kidnaping is part of a fat-cat plot to kill an arms-reduction treaty, discredit Gorbachev, put the (fictional) American President out of office--the time is near-future--and give the U.S. command of Saudi oil prices. As in “Day of the Jackal,” Forsyth uses masses of detail to lend his conspiratorial goings-on credible weight. The details survive a ruthless curtailing of a long text into three hours, although the oil subplot is largely scrapped. Zerbe’s reading is vivid, forceful, just about perfect. The musical “stings” Bantam adds are fine, although they provide more gloss than atmosphere.