Forget the tax on sugar. Tax bad dialogue, dreadful characterizations, idiotic psychological profiles. To wit: When he was a child the twitch had made him the target of merciless teasing and bullying. It had made him burn with hatred. And thatThe Defector by Daniel Silva read by Phil Gigante

The skinny long legged girl with patch pockets shimmies down the fire escape to meet him, and hovers just a little bit above the ground, hanging, swinging above Castle street, in his dream, and forty years ago. After the dream,Butchers Hill by Laura Lippman ready by Deborah Hazlett

Some Hard-Boiled Characters of 20th C (by the Members of Rara-Avis, compliled by Joe Dante and Mark Blumenthal, 2002) (numerical order does not denote value) Philip Marlowe (from the series by Raymond Chandler) Sam Spade (from the novel, The MalteseHard Boiled

Dick Francis died in his home on the Cayman Islands. He was 89. A successful steeplechase jockey, Francis turned to writing after he retired from racing in 1957. He penned 42 novels, many of which featured racing as a theme. HisDick Francis 1921-2010

A dirge so distant from the whiny unpleasantness of the latest slag of female fiction, it might as well be written by a different sex... a mother sex, a sister sex, a mourning sex, an Irish sex.The Gathering by Anna Enright read by Fiona Shaw

"Let's start the day with a reminder of our boundaries, Henry." Indeed. But some boundaries are more forgettable than others... Consider, for example, the boundaries between Scarpetta and Marino... Posted By: admin () Date: 10/21/2004 5:11 pm Trace by Patricia Cornwell read by Kate Reading

A hotel room. Vegas. A whore, with a gun at her forehead and a cock in her mouth. They told her downstairs that the guy was important, a banker. And that's what she tells her friend when she gets home.Lawrence Block, The Specialists, read by Fred Sullivan

Imagine Frank Muller doing   CZ Sakall, the jowly, bespectacled, hysterical Hungarian who cannot stop wiping his spectacles, shaking his head and concocting scenarios of doom ... "today... its going to happen today..." etc. The stammering, anxious NYC diamond dealer callsTHE GAME OF THIRTY by WILLIAM KOTZWINKLE ::FRANK MULLER:

Jake is the kind of guy that tells his girlfriend to stop using some pheromonal perfume by Clinique because it "messes with his head". But apart from perfume, he is singularly unfussed. He is streetwise, he is attentive, andPower Play by Joseph Finder read by Dennis Boutsikaris

This looks like a book, but its an ad for the guy who's going to talk at your next off-site. Welcome to the Motivational Operating System and it's "sets of assumptions and protocols about how the world works thatDrive by Daniel Pink

Although less terrible than usual, Brick can't do funny. And this book can be funny. The ram rod straight CIA trainer; the queer, ruthless, demented Director of Operations; the stubborn, nerdish, accidentally lucky pseudo-operative determined to avenge his murdered girlfriend.....The Amateur: A Novel of Revenge by Robert Littell read by Scott Brick

Why isn't this a Doris Day movie? Perhaps because Rock Hudson would never have accumulated old washing machines and bowling balls in the garage; and Doris Day's anger never lasted longer than a bubble bath. Otherwise, Doris Day could haveSearching for Paradise in Parker, PA by Kris Radish read by Barbara McCullough

The relentless decomposition of the Oznard family has left Andrew in the position of so many young Englishmen, who had, for the first time in centuries, to feed themselves. Young Andrew had thus determined from an early age that heThe Tailor of Panama read by John Le Carre read by Le Carre

Does a low pitched male voice lend authenticity to a bodice ripper? A rich Houston real estate agent calls on her ex-lover to help protect their daughter from a violent maniac. Tough Customer by Sandra Brown read by Victor Slezak

Imagine a big black woman, Myrna from Montreal, who decides to drive South, but feels peckish after an hour and a half and so stops and bumps into a one-vache town, a fairy-tale town: Three Pines had what she craved. ItA Fatal Grace by Louise Penny read by Ralph Cosham