Investigative journalist Carter Ross is always in search of a story that isn’t BBI (boring but important), and the death of two young brothers in a suspicious house fire in Newark, NJ turns out to be anything but boring. Single-mother Akilah Harris’ anguish over the loss of her boys is genuine, but everything else about her story quickly unravels as Ross and his intrepid team of colleagues at the Eagle-Examiner discover that the fire is connected to the sensational disappearance and murder of city councilman Wendell “Windy” Byers, Jr. Brad Parks, a former Washington Post reporter, uses the recent economic downturn, mortgage scams, and decline of print journalism as a backdrop to this modern mystery.

Narrator Macleod Andrews is the Rich Little of voices, and with a large cast of characters and rapid-fire dialogue to interpret, his vocal skills get a full workout. Andrews’ reading of Carter Ross is both conversational and a tad condescending, which perfectly fits the veteran, street-smart reporter. But where Andrews really flies is interpreting the secondary characters, including the newspaper’s gruff, vowel-challenged editor, the various urban dialects of the African-American characters, and gay intern Tommy Hernandez, who, at first, sounds a little too much like Hank Azaria’s Agodar in The Birdcage before Andrews reins him in to create a savvy character who adds levity to the twisty, violent story.

Andrews also impressively excels with the various female characters, especially Ross’ sidekick, Lauren “Sweet Thang” McMillan. The way Andrews raises his voice an octave to deliver Sweet Thang’s spacey monologues is worth the price of admission alone. While Sweet Thang might come across as an airhead, her ability to interact and empathize with everyone from thugs to grieving widows helps find the clues linking Akilah to Windy Byers, proving there’s a true reporter behind the non-sequiturs. Andrews’ singular voice contains multitudes and his take on Parks’ entertaining thriller will have you intrigued, laughing, and on the edge of your seat to the very end. —Collin Kelley