Publisher, Recorded Books (February 2011)

NOTE: RETAIL EDITIONS are packaged in attractive, compact cardboard, jewel-case or DVD shrink-wrapped cases, with full-color art.

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New York Times best-selling author Joanne Fluke will leave listeners hungry for more with this, her best recipe for murder yet. Devil’s Food Cake Murder finds the residents of Lake Eden, Minnesota, buzzing with activity. Perhaps busiest of all is Hannah Swensen, proprietor of The Cookie Jar, who is experimenting with a devil’s food cake recipe. But no matter how hectic times may be, Hannah can always find time to help a friend—particularly a dead one.

About the Performer: For almost three decades, Suzanne Toren has performed on and Off-Broadway and in regional theaters. Born and raised in New York, she trained there in the British style under the principal instructor from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Suzanne established a dramatic reputation by appearing in a wide range of productions. She has been in classics, plays by Neil Simon, Shakespearean dramas, works by Arthur Miller, and pieces by new playwrights.

Her years on stage have included many memorable productions. On Broadway, she has appeared in John Gabriel Borkman and Goodbye Fidel. Her favorite role was in Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge staged at the Philadelphia Drama Guild. She also loves the witty works of Moliére and the complex roles in Shakespeare, but has a special fondness for new scripts, finding them challenging yet gratifying because they are often works in progress. In addition to her stage appearances, Suzanne also enjoys teaching at the New Actors Workshop, which was founded by noted director Mike Nichols. There, she leads a class in stage movement.

When Claudia Howard, studio manager for Recorded Books, needed a narrator to read All But My Life, Gerda Weissmann Klein’s moving account of the Holocaust, narrator Barbara Rosenblat recommended Suzanne for the assignment. Immediately impressed with the warmth and power of her performance, Claudia has since cast Suzanne for a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction projects. Suzanne enjoys discovering something special in each work. Horse Heaven, for example, introduced her to Pulitzer Prize-winning Jane Smiley’s understated humor and attention to detail. “She describes the fleeting feelings that we can’t always put in words,” says Suzanne. When she narrated Wind, by Jan DeBlieu, Suzanne was fascinated by the cycles of wind and their effects on history. “I had never thought about how the rhythms of natural forces have shaped civilization,” Suzanne comments on the award-winning work of nonfiction.

When narrating Le Divorce, a companion to Le Mariage, Diane Johnson’s comedy of manners set in provincial France, Suzanne brought a unique talent to the production. She holds a master’s degree in French, speaks the language fluently, and lived in France for a time when she was in college. “These two books are very funny and very perceptive; they offer astute observations of being an American abroad and of the mistakes one can make by not realizing the differences in cultures,” according to Suzanne.

From biography to social comedy, from memoir to mystery, Suzanne Toren makes each book an unforgettable listening experience.