The Measure > recordedbookreview.com

There should be and will be a measure of a good writer, which is the number of words it takes for the reader to be INSIDE the story. Up, up and away. Peter Robinson: 10. Kristin Hannah/Hannah Kristin: 25. Ernest Hemingway: 4.

19 Years of Reviews

The perfect voice for a down and out in London and Iraq crime novel, with an entry quote by Orwell. Always a good sign, Orwell. Imagine a classic sting by a pretty girl and her boyfriend: girl alone at bar gets hit by her bruiser boyfriend. Retired police detective comesThe Wreckage by Michael Robotham read by Sean Barrett

Incongruous, unlovable, post-Vietnam: a weatherman and a reporter make the Minnesota TV newsroom hummm. Dixie Quinn locks into the weather and doesn't let go. Rick Beanblossom, burn-victim, works behind the scenes, behind his mask. Their curious, uneven characterizations are ambushed midway by a grim, hopeless plot. Quotes: "Y'all take care now" (The weatherman's lastThe Weatherman by Stephen Thayer read by George Guidall

The Ninilta Native Association is run by Aunties - fierce old women who knit and protect native women and define the small life of the large territory called The Park. One of the Aunties belongs to Kate Shugak and functions, among other things, as a creditor. We give you time, Katya.A Deeper Sleep by Dana Stabenow read by Bernadette Dunne

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 that hatred had driven him to succeed. Victor Orlov wanted toThe Defector by Daniel Silva read by Phil Gigante

Geek gaming firm with mascots (wounded buzzard, psychopathic dog) sets up shop in small Western town but needs a Wendy to clean up and organize the Peter Pans. Enter Californian Meg Lanslow to clean up their books - and before she finds out whats going on everybody's least favoriteCrouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews read by Bernadette Dunne

Another alcoholic ex-cop running a bar? Yes! This time in Fort Myers, living every cop's retirement dream: living on a houseboat, dating a Cuban woman and solving murders on the side. It's good. From the very first paragraph Jack feels like a detective, sounds like a detective, and makes it clear thatThe Dollar-A-Year Detective by William Wells

A bouquet of accidents pop up at the beginning of the story: a cab crash in Manhattan, a car crash in Darien, Connecticut, an overdose in Mitford...For the rest of this story, the notion of accident is under erasure. What after all is an accident? Is the housing crisis anThe Accident by Linwood Barclay read by Peter Berkrot

The absentee father-veterinarian comes back not knowing that his ex-love is raising his daughters. He finds out, meets his girls, plays daddy, screws the right sister, and wants to run away, again.Sugar Springs by Kim Law read by Natalie Ross

Another case for Molly (Moonshine) Smith, Trafalgar constable, blonde, widow and skier. When Cathy Lindsay, housewife and teacher is shot in the back while walking her dog Spot, the town can't figure it out. We are introduced to the dead woman's fat unfaithful husband, her delinquent son, her gossipy colleagues, but mostlyA Cold White Sun by Vicki Delany read by Carrington Macduffie

A distressing picture of the unhappy situation of the losing class within a classless society. Grace is a 37 year old female loser within this losing class. She lives at the edge of a self-consciously wealthy Palm Beach ghetto of sectional wealth. She has a teenage bitch-daughter with a whine.Mourning Glory by Warren Adler::

"John has left me his town. Although now that his town didn't have the children in it.." The demented but funny* ex-wife of a husband who should have come with instructions on how to load the dishwasher invites our sympathy because: 1. the ex-person has custody of the children 2. she isCleaning Nabokov's House by Leslie Daniels read by Bernadette Dunne

Has anyone else noticed a spectacular and embarrassing silliness among the old guard of East Coast scribblers? As though they were trying to write comic books, and couldn't figure out how to convert text into images? Gone are the wry, dry, street talk, the inside cracks of persons, cities, institutions.Capture by Robert Tanenbaum read by Charles Leggett

Wed Sep 15, 2004 Leave the Grave Green by Deborah Crumb. Narrated by Christopher Kay. Clipper Audio. c2001. Bland, unexciting, English pudding: a boy-inspector, his prissy girl partner, a murder and a family. The plot is overboiled, the storytelling unremarkable. But there are some fascinating droplets toward the end: the respectableLeave the Grave Green by Deborah Crumb. Narrated by Christopher Kay.

A town is the scene of what people do, become and have. Stabenow describes happy slow small towns with unusual people who are ever so slightly insane. Who might shoot people over candy bars, or murder them in quaint hotel rooms or share fried bread with a wolf. There are townsWhisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow read by Marguerite Gavin

A ruthlessly intelligent localization of the seven deadly sins, California style. Savages by Don Winslow read by Michael Kramer