Privileged Lives by Edward Stewart narrated by Christian Rummel

An unusual and captivating account of a Manhattan social scene rapt by cocaine, bondage, dying gays and too much money. Vince Cardozo as the NYPD detective lieutenant who is pretty enough and straight enough to correct wrongs and fall in love at the same time…

19 Years of Reviews

Grass soup is exactly what it sounds like. It's a recipe for food of last resort that my father has apparently squirrelled away somewhere. I have never actually seen this recipe but it was referred to fairly often when I was a child. Should everything else turn to shit, weDavid Rakoff, Don't Get Too Comfortable

The crisp precise language of the story irons out an implicit California-Palo Alto class structure, in addition to a real plot! A hairy doctor found dead in a $400 hotel room... a husband.Circle of Wives by Alice Laplant

There's nothing like a kitchen-fuck, standing up against an old refrigerator, the ketchup bottle and the jar of mayo rolling around inside, the bag of peaches falling off the top.... There's nothing like two cops, fucking. But its a signature love scene, painterly, pointilistic, confessional. Mushrooming metaphors. And very veryDarkness Peering by Alice Blanchard read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Gamash celebrates his marriage at a bed and breakfast with beds so high you need a little step stool to climb into them and bumps into a family murder. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny read by Ralph Cosham

Here's the recipe: a youngish, pretty-ish, orphaned wife in or near Manhattan; a deceptive, felonious, or sleepwalking husband; a repressed or forgotten family scene, and wealth. Large, plush estates in tony suburbs, classic co-ops on exclusive avenues, perfectly cut clothes and lawns, professionally designed apartments, luxurious offices, alwaysMary Higgins Clark...

"It was no longer about the money, it was that innocent people had died." This insincere, formulaic, unremarkable thought is thought yet again by Hilary the victim in the 68th Chapter of this disappointing 'thriller'. Another poor and pretty mother, another psychopath, another Asperbergers child. Who cares?Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross read by Tavia Gilbert

Do you really want to hear a book about a woman who lies to her husband as a part of her job? About a wife who makes herself lovable by pretending not to know where Luxembourg is, and then insisting that it doesn't exist, and then bitching about its size?The ExPats by Chris Pavone read by Mozhan Marno

The real lover is, as always, God.... Unerring, abundant, furiously hopeful story about the possibility of loving a woman to whom one is wed. No religiosity, just a well told well detailed tale of Irish Catholic erotic marital life. Greeley is as always superb.A Christmas Wedding by Andrew Greeley read by Jonathan Marosz

CLEVER, hip, femme-politik story about lovably lost fbi anti-type and girl mountain climber fight Systemic corruption. Swell characterization; plot just short of really believable. Kyle is getting better all the time.Free Fall by Kyle Mills read by Michael Kramer

Reacher heard the rack of the slide twenty feet behind him. He heard it very clearly. It was exactly the kind of sound he had trained himself never to miss. To his ears, it was a complete, complex split second symphony and every component registered precisely. The scrape of alloyBad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child read by Dick Hill

For years the facile, monarch-note like introductory blurbs of audiobooks have been aimed at delayed airline passengers looking forward to a two or three hour seat in a jet on hot tarmac. As nonlocalizably uninformative as the pilot, but more or less referential. The introduction to Robin Cook's CriticalCritical by Robin Cook read by George Guidall

Firm writing, good characters, heavy social issues, but no story. Meet Ruth. A divorced mother who teaches sex education at a public high school is more or less forced to teach abstinence according to a rosy if delusional Christian fundamentalist agenda. Meet Tim: divorced, saved and reformed byThe Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta read by Campbell Scott

Gwenda gets off the boat at Plymouth, hires a car, looks for village to live in. And finds one: a perfectly charming cottage with aga, a kitchen garden and flowered wallpaper. Gwenda moves in with her rosewood, her mahogany, her papermache, her chintz and all the fabrics ofSleeping Murder by Agatha Christie read by Rosemary Leach

Fury in the doctors office: odd thinking and odder emotions find their way into clinical space. The Emergency Room doctor as addict, as alcoholic, as James Dean, or James Bond. Genetically modified foods unregulated by the Department of Agriculture served with grandmotherly love by a local eatery are at the basisOath of Office by Michael Palmer read by Robert Petkoff

Marge's first homicide begins with an Israeli real estate agent and an empty house. .. Yalom, "whose name means diamond" calls the L.A. police to tell them that her sister has disappeared. There are clothes in the closet, three cars in the three car garage, but no people. Decker, convertedFaye Kellerman's Sanctuary read by Mitch Greenberg