The Overlook: A Novel

The Overlook: A Novel Author: Connelly, Michael Cariou, Len (Narrator) ISBN: 1-60024-000-3

Category: Mystery And Suspense Fiction

Audio CD Hachette Audio

 Reviewers were somewhat abrupt about perennial bestseller Connelly's 13th Harry Bosch novel: a quick read, almost half the length of Connelly's previous novels, said one; a tasty hors d'oeuvre quipped another. How smart and fortunate for listeners that Hachette Audio has turned to veteran Connelly reader Len Cariou for some added weight. Cariou catches all the strength and sadness behind Bosch's minimal dialogue and is also perfect as Harry's LAPD colleagues, female and male. He is especially good at bringing to frightening life the real villains: the federal investigators, headed by a former Bosch lover, FBI agent Rachel Walling. The Feds are trying to take over the case of a body found on an overlook near Mulholland Drive--a doctor who turns out to have had access to radioactive materials stored at hospitals throughout L.A. All praise to Hachette for getting Cariou to help us through it. The production boasts original music by Frank Morgan.

The Navigator

The Navigator Author: Cussler, Clive Kemprecos, Paul Kemprecos, Paul ISBN: 0-14-314202-X

Category: Cussler, Clive - Prose & Criticism

Audio CD Penguin Audio

Fans of action-hero Kurt Austin of the National Underwater and Maritime Agency expect imaginative plotting, but it never comes down the chute in this seventh NUMA Files novel from bestseller Cussler and Shamus-winner Kemprecos (after Polar Shift). Austin and his team are hunting icebergs when they chance upon a pirate raid aimed at stealing a priceless Phoenician antiquity launched by a stereotypical megalomaniacal villain, Viktor Baltazar, who believes he's a descendant of King Solomon. Baltazar and Austin joust continually (once, literally!) over the antique, which may be connected to the lost ark of the covenant, Thomas Jefferson and the suspicious death of Meriwether Lewis.

The Sleeping Doll: A Novel [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED]

The Sleeping Doll: A Novel [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED] Author: Deaver, Jeffery Twomey, Anne (Narrator) Twomey, Anne ISBN: 0-7435-6612-2

Category: General

Audio CD Simon & Schuster Audio

 Kathryn Dance, an investigator with the California Bureau of Investigation, returns from Deaver's The Cold Moon (where she was a secondary) in this post–prison break pulse-pounder. Dance is the lead cop handling the escape of psychopathic killer Daniel Pell, dubbed "Son of Manson" by the press for his "family" of young runaways and his most horrendous crime, the murders of computer engineer William Croyton, Croyton's wife and two of their three children. The only child left alive, nine-year-old Theresa, is known as the Sleeping Doll. Pell, charismatic and diabolically intelligent, continually eludes capture, but Dance, a specialist in interrogation and kinesics (or body language), is never more than a few suspenseful minutes behind. Dance is nicely detailed, and procedural scenes where she uses somatic cues to ferret out liars are fascinating. The book sags in its long middle, but toward the end Deaver digs into his bottomless bag of unexpected twists and turns, keeping readers wide-eyed with surprise, and leaving them looking forward to more of the perspicacious Dance.

Lean Mean Thirteen

Lean Mean Thirteen Author: Evanovich, Janet King, Lorelei (Narrator) ISBN: 1-4272-0118-8

Category: American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +

Audio CD Audio Renaissance

 In her rollicking 13th Stephanie Plum adventure (after Twelve Sharp), bestseller Evanovich is in top, quirky form. Plucky, bumbling New Jersey bounty hunter Plum is reunited with her two-timing lawyer ex-husband, Dickie Orr, while doing a favor for the mysterious, sexy Ranger. But when Dickie disappears from his house leaving behind only bloodstains and bullet holes, Plum becomes the prime suspect in his alleged murder. Determined to clear her name, Plum and her on-again off-again Trenton cop boyfriend, the irresistible Joe Morelli, uncover Dickie's ties to a shady group of men involved in everything from money laundering to drug running. And when Dickie's jilted business partners decide Stephanie holds the key to the $40 million they believe Dickie stole from them, she's in for a wild ride. With the author's usual cast of eccentric side characters--everything from a taxidermist with a penchant for bombs to a grave-robbing tax man--Evanovich proves once again that Stephanie Plum and her entourage are here to stay.

Second Chance [AUDIOBOOK]

Second Chance [AUDIOBOOK] Author: Green, Jane Landor, Rosalyn Landor, Rosalyn ISBN: 0-14-314217-8

Category: Fiction

Audio CD Penguin Audio

 Bestseller Green (Swapping Lives, The Other Woman) injects a topical note into an otherwise paint-by-numbers work. After a terrorist attack on an Amtrak train kills 39-year-old Tom, his death serves as the catalyst for changes in the lives of four estranged schoolmates he left behind in England. Reuniting at Tom's memorial service are Holly, a former free spirit uncomfortably forced into becoming a suburban matron by her workaholic, social-climbing husband; Olivia, a lonely director of an animal shelter; Paul, a writer whose blissful marriage with his fashionable wife is marred by their inability to conceive; and Saffron, a recovering alcoholic actress secretly involved with a married Hollywood megastar. Tom's death reignites their friendship, causes them to reevaluate their lives and sends them marching toward a concluding warm fuzzy. Green's writing is competent, though her characters feel more like embodiments of their problems than actual people. There are few surprises, but the fairy tale ending should appease Green's many fans.

A Thousand Splendid Suns: A Novel [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED]

A Thousand Splendid Suns: A Novel [AUDIOBOOK] [UNABRIDGED] Author: Hosseini, Khaled Leoni, Atossa (Narrator) ISBN: 0-7435-5445-0

Category: General

Audio CD Simon & Schuster Audio

 It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope.

Devil Who Tamed Her, The [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED]

Devil Who Tamed Her, The [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] Author: Lindsey, Johanna Merlington, Laural (Narrator) Merlington, Laural ISBN: 1-4233-2779-9

Category: Lindsey, Johanna - Prose & Criticism

Audio CD Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged

 Ophelia Reid is an incomparable beauty with a reputation for starting rumors and spreading them. Having purposely wrecked her engagement to Duncan MacTavish, a future marquis, which her social-climbing father arranged, Ophelia wants to return to London's marriage mart and make her own choice of a wealthy husband. But on her journey home, something unexpected happens... The heir to a dukedom, Raphael Locke, Viscount Lynnfield is - in spite of his disinterest in marriage - the most sought-after young lord in England. He instantly disliked Ophelia when she caused a scandal to avoid marriage to his friend MacTavish, but having comforted her in a tearful moment, he begins to wonder if she's not all bad. So when MacTavish claims that Ophelia will never be anything but a spiteful beauty, Rafe bets his best friend that he can turn her into a kind-hearted lady who will one day make a good match, just not with him. With her parents' blessing, Rafe commandeers Ophelia's coach and whisks her - chaperoned, of course - to his remote estate in the countryside. There, as he tries to show his furious, sharp-tongued "guest" the error of her ways, he discovers the surprising reasons for her bad behavior. Soon his daily lessons with Ophelia take effect and he finds himself irresistibly attracted to her. When Rafe champions the new and improved Ophelia's re-entry to London society, marriage proposals pour in. Only then does Rafe start to wonder whether he hasn't gone and fallen in love with Ophelia himself.

Robert Ludlum's

Robert Ludlum's Author: Lustbader, Eric Van Davidson, Jeremy (Narrator) Davidson, Jeremy ISBN: 1-59483-918-2

Category: General

Audio CD Hachette Audio

 In Lustbader's workmanlike second novel to continue the saga of Robert Ludlum's amnesiac assassin and spy (after 2004's The Bourne Legacy), Jason Bourne joins the war on terror. Troubled by visions of a woman dying in his arms, Bourne seeks psychiatric help, unaware that the doctor is an imposter who has tampered with the rogue agent's already messy and incomplete memories. That mental sabotage is part of a diabolical plan by Islamic terrorists to strike at Washington, D.C., led by Karim, a human chameleon who has fooled the CIA--and Bourne--into believing that he's actually deputy CIA director Martin Lindros. Aided by an attractive fellow agent who manages to overcome her distrust of Bourne, he races the clock to uncover the traitor within the intelligence community.

Dedication [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED]

Dedication [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] Author: McLaughlin, Nicola Kraus and Emma West, Ashley (Narrator) Kraus, Nicola Kraus, Nicola West, Ashley ISBN: 1-4233-4023-X

Category: Fiction

Audio CD Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged

 The team behind The Nanny Diaries and Citizen Girl returns with another breezy chick lit portrayal of a woman wronged and, eventually, empowered. When Kate Hollis's childhood chum Laura calls from their Vermont hometown and announces the arrival of Jake Sharpe, a mega rock star and Kate's high school sweetheart, Kate jumps on a plane from Charleston, S.C. (where she's a sustainable development consultant) and makes for idyllic Croton Falls. Through it's been 13 years, Kate still has a primal need to confront not only the boy who abandoned her before the senior prom, but the musical pirate who used her personal life as fodder for his most celebrated songs and cheated his high school bandmates out of deserved recognition and royalties. Chapters switch back and forth between the present and the pivotal middle and high school years where Kate (then Katie) and Jake did the first-love thing: readers get to see Jake's growing he's-just-not-that-into-you-ness and how (surprise!) their Zima-fueled love (it was the '90s) was idealized. While one spends much of the book wanting to shout at Kate to give it up, go back to Charleston and get on with it, McLaughlin and Kraus do get the nagging need for closure in even the shallowest relationships comically right. 

Play Dead

Play Dead Author: Rosenfelt, David Gardner, Grover (Narrator) Gardner, Grover ISBN: 1-59316-097-6

Category: Mystery & Detective - General

Audio CD Listen & Live Audio

. Edgar-finalist Rosenfelt's riveting sixth legal thriller (after 2006's Dead Center) brings independently wealthy Paterson, N.J., lawyer Andy Carpenter to the defense of a very special domestic violence victim, Yogi, a golden retriever alleged to have bitten its owner. Andy uses the court system to spring Yogi from an animal shelter's death row and adopt him, adding the dog to a small family that includes longtime pet golden Tara. But when the gang goes for a walk that leads to a joyful reunion between Yogi and a woman named Karen Evans, Andy learns Yogi is actually Reggie, presumed dead five years earlier after the conviction of Karen's brother, U.S. Customs Inspector Richard Evans, for the murder of his fiancée, Stacy Harriman. Suspecting Richard's innocence, Andy tackles the case like a dog on a chew toy, undeterred by an intricate web of deception involving a possible government coverup. No shaggy dog story, this puppy's alive with reliable Rosenfelt wit and heart.