[amazon_link id=”0684852586″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Author : Jack Finney
Genre : Sci-fi
Narrators : Kristoffer Tabori
Publisher : Blackstone Audio
Listening Length : 6 hrs 39 min
Source : Library
Rating : 4/5

I’ve been a fan of Jack Finney’s since reading his time-travel tale “Time and Again”. “The Invasion of the body snatchers” is a little more fantastical than Time After Time. In this book, our hero is confident, young Dr. Miles Bennell of Mill Valley, California. He is visited by old girlfriend Becky Driscoll who requests his assistance with a weird problem. Her friend Wilma has gotten it into her head that her (Wilma’s) uncle Ira, who is like a father to her, is not really Uncle Ira. She believes the man in his place, the man who looks and behaves like him, is an impostor.

Wilma, is also known to Miles (this is a small town and everyone knows everyone else) and well regarded by him. She is a mature sort of person, sound of mind and body, and quite well imbued with common sense. Miles and Becky are sure that Wilma is mistaken but she is sure in her belief. She agrees to see a psychiatrist anyway, on Miles’s advice.

Soon there are more patients streaming into see Dr. Bennell with the very same misconception – they think that a family member, or friend is not really that person. Of course all these people have no proof, and the good doctor, puzzled, sends everyone off to see his friend psychiatrist Dr. Kaufmann. Then, Miles gets called by good friend Jack Belicec offering some substance, maybe even proof of this strange hallucination.

If I’d been reading this book, I’d describe it as a solid page-turner. As a listen, this made me want to remain in the car, or go for extra long walks. Narrator Kristoffer Tabori has a a deep, gruff sounding voice (kinda like william Shatner) and he uses it to good effect here, drawing out the tension and the paranoia. Very enjoyable.