Bad Luck and Trouble [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED]

Bad Luck and Trouble [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED] Author: Child, Lee Hill, Dick (Narrator) Hill, Dick ISBN: 0-7393-5726-3

Category: Mystery & Detective - General

Audio CD RH Audio

 Ex-military cop Jack Reacher is the perfect antihero--tough as nails, but with a brain and a conscience to match. He's able to see what most miss and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Each book in Lee Child's smart, addictive series (The New York Times has referred to it as "pure escapist gold") follows the wandering warrior on a new adventure, making it easy to start with any book, including his latest gem, Bad Luck and Trouble. However, be forewarned...once you meet Jack Reacher, you'll be hooked, so be prepared to stock up on the series.

City of Fire [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED]

City of Fire [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] Author: Ellis, Robert Raudman, Renée (Narrator) Raudman, Renee ISBN: 1-4233-3687-9

Category: American Mystery & Suspense Fiction

Audio CD Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged

 Through the literal and metaphorical fog of a forest fire that rages through much of Ellis's tense third thriller (after Access to Power and The Dead Room), LAPD detective Lena Gamble investigates a string of gruesome murders, the first of a pregnant woman, while trying to follow the convoluted thinking of "Romeo," as the serial killer has been dubbed. The search becomes more complicated and personal when the body of the best friend of Gamble's dead brother, David, is found, apparently another Romeo victim. Through Gamble's nicely framed reminiscences by her pool, we learn of David's unsolved death by gunshot, five years earlier. There's clearly some connection, but Gamble can't tie Romeo to David, a sensitive soul and a rock musician of some renown. The pieces of the case fall into place a little too neatly, and there may be a few too many words on L.A. driving, but the story is tight, the characters alive and the Rambo-like assault at the end refreshingly uncharacteristic of female protagonists.

The King of Lies

The King of Lies Author: Hart, John Chandler, David (Narrator) ISBN: 1-4193-9612-9

Category: Mystery & Detective - General

Audio CD Recorded Books

These days most novels are performed, not narrated. The skillful actors who have made audiobooks their art form take on multiple voices--male and female, old and young. Chandler's careful reading is generally disappointing. His lack of vocal range is all too obvious. Lawyer and murder suspect "Work" Pickens sounds exactly like his female nemesis, Detective Mills. Work's wife, Barbara, could be his brother. Oddly, the homeless Max, a minor player in this thriller, has the most distinctive voice. Another problem is that Chandler's performance is devoid of the lovely North Carolina lilt, which is an essential component of this novel, much as John Grisham's South looms large in his characters' psyches.  On a more positive note, Chandler reads Hart's delicious similes and clever phrasing with slow elegance.

Whitewash [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED]

Whitewash [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] Author: Kava, Alex Foster, Sandra Burr and Mel (Narrator) Foster, Mel ISBN: 1-4233-0646-5

Category: Thrillers

Audio CD Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged

 Bestseller Kava takes a break from her Maggie O'Dell FBI profiler series (A Necessary Evil, etc.) with a fine topical thriller involving terrorism, government coverups and toxic waste. Sabrina Galloway, a young Chicago professor, becomes a hands-on scientist in Florida with EcoEnergy, a company that specializes in TCP--a process that converts refuse and other waste material into oil. EcoEnergy's CEO is angling for a $140 million military government contract, but after Sabrina's boss mysteriously disappears and Sabrina discovers a reactor processing something it shouldn't, her life becomes as endangered as Florida's waterways. She hits the road in a '47 Studebaker with Miss Sadie, a gutsy 81-year-old African-American neighbor, to find help, while Middle Eastern terrorists plot a nasty surprise for an upcoming energy summit. Engaging supporting characters include Leon, a funky hit man losing his touch but not his heart, and covert operative Natalie Richards, "a black Emma Peel." Kava lightens the seriousness with some deft touches of humor. Genre fans weary of serial-killer fare will find this a refreshing read.

The Good Guy [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED]

The Good Guy [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED] Author: Koontz, Dean Ferrone, Richard (Narrator) ISBN: 0-7393-3293-7

Category: Koontz, Dean R. (Dean Ray) - Prose & Criticism

Audio CD RH Audio

 Bestseller Koontz (The Husband) delivers a thriller so compelling many readers will race through the book in one sitting. In the Hitchcockian opening, which resembles that of the cult noir film Red Rock West (1992), Timothy Carrier, a quiet stone mason having a beer in a California bar, meets a stranger who mistakes him for a hit man. The stranger slips Tim a manila envelope containing $10,000 in cash and a photo of the intended victim, Linda Paquette, a writer in Laguna Beach, then leaves. A moment later, Krait, the real killer, shows up and assumes Tim is his client. Tim manages to distract Krait from immediately carrying out the hit by saying he's had a change of heart and offering Krait the $10,000 he just received. This ploy gives the stone mason enough time to warn Linda before they begin a frantic flight for their lives. While it may be a stretch that the first man wouldn't do a better job of confirming Tim's identity, the novel's breathless pacing, clever twists and adroit characterizations all add up to superior entertainment.

The Road

The Road Author: McCarthy, Cormac Stechschulte, Tom (Narrator) ISBN: 1-4281-1278-2

Category: Literary

Audio CD Recorded Books

 Best known for his Border Trilogy, hailed in the San Francisco Chronicle as "an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century," Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including the bestselling No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, The Road is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we've read this year,

Spare Change

Spare Change Author: Parker, Robert B. Burton, Kate (Narrator) Burton, Kate ISBN: 0-7393-1871-3

Category: Parker, Robert B. - Prose & Criticism

Audio CD Random House Audio

At the start of Parker's engaging sixth Sunny Randall novel (after Blue Screen), the cop-turned-PI helps her father track down a Boston serial killer whose depredations begin again after a 20-year hiatus. The "spare change" killer executes victims with a single shot to the head, leaving three coins near the body. Sunny's dad, Phil, headed the old task force formed to catch the killer, who wrote Phil taunting letters as the killings piled up. A new killing and a fresh letter to Phil have him and Sunny serving as consultant and assistant respectively to a new task force. Gutsy Sunny takes the lead in identifying the most likely suspect, and then in playing him dangerously to get hard evidence. Parker's signature bantering byplay and some borrowings of characters from other series (notably Susan Silverman from the Spenser novels) will delight fans. The outcome is never in doubt, but Parker hits most of the right notes, and there's still ingenuity to his cat-and-mouse.

Invisible Prey [AUDIOBOOK]

Invisible Prey [AUDIOBOOK] Author: Sandford, John Ferrone, Richard ISBN: 0-14-314206-2

Category: Fiction

Audio CD Penguin Audio

Bestseller Sandford opts for a contemplative procedural rather than a high-octane nail-biter for his 17th novel to feature Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport (after 2005's Broken Prey). The brave and intelligent Davenport, one of contemporary crime fiction's more congenial sleuths, is working a politically sensitive case--state senator Burt Kline is on the edge of being arrested for having sex with a minor--when he's called in to investigate the beating death of wealthy widow Constance Bucher and her maid. Bucher lived in a mansion stuffed with antiques, though it's unclear if robbery was the motive for the murders. Several run-of-the-mill suspects are dealt with before the reader learns the identity of the two killers, who continue to murder a string of folks all variously connected to the Bucher slaying. Eventually, the Bucher and Kline cases come together in an unexpected way. Interesting and unusual supporting characters, good and bad guys alike, enhance an intriguing puzzle.

Peony in Love: A Novel [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK]

Peony in Love: A Novel [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] Author: See, Lisa Long, Jodi (Narrator) ISBN: 0-7393-4404-8

Category: Popular American Fiction

Audio CD RH Audio

 Set in 17th-century China, See's fifth novel is a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a family saga and a work of musical and social history. As Peony, the 15-year-old daughter of the wealthy Chen family, approaches an arranged marriage, she commits an unthinkable breach of etiquette when she accidentally comes upon a man who has entered the family garden. Unusually for a girl of her time, Peony has been educated and revels in studying The Peony Pavilion, a real opera published in 1598, as the repercussions of the meeting unfold. The novel's plot mirrors that of the opera, and eternal themes abound: an intelligent girl chafing against the restrictions of expected behavior; fiction's educative powers; the rocky path of love between lovers and in families. It figures into the plot that generations of young Chinese women, known as the lovesick maidens, became obsessed with The Peony Pavilion, and, in a Werther-like passion, many starved themselves to death. See (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, etc.) offers meticulous depiction of women's roles in Qing and Ming dynasty China (including horrifying foot-binding scenes) and vivid descriptions of daily Qing life, festivals and rituals. Peony's vibrant voice, perfectly pitched between the novel's historical and passionate depths, carries her story beautifully--in life and afterlife.