“Deadly Feasts” By Richard Rhodes, Simon & Schuster Audio, Two cassettes, Length: 3 hours, $18, Read by the author

This audio is deadly, all right--deadly dull. You wouldn’t think so from the first few minutes, with its graphic (and dare we say, gratuitous) account of cannibalism in New Guinea in the 1950s. As unpalatable as these passages may be, at least they keep you tuned in, which is not true of the dry statistics and static science-speak in the remainder of the audio.

Certainly his publishers must have hoped that Rhodes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” would write a book as realistic and frightening as “The Hot Zone,” by Richard Preston. Sorry, not even close. No one could argue with Rhodes’ exhaustive research as he traces mad cow disease from cannibals to modern-day slaughterhouses and supermarkets. Government cover-ups are the stuff of nightmares, but this is far too dry for the average listener. His delivery and style are merely competent, whereas this audio desperately needed a livelier reader. Too bad this was not presented in a more approachable manner, because Rhodes’ message about these seemingly unstoppable diseases really should be heard.