The Fine Art of Murder by Emily Barnes read by Carrington MacDuffie

Ex-police chief and widow returns to her home town to help her daughter recover from a divorce and gets messily involved in a murder. Mildly uninteresting.

19 Years of Reviews

Amusing this particular intersection of history where the living instruments of the law (cops, detectives, Special Forces, Army MPs) meet the live ones (text messaging, Live search, cell phones, Google...). What results is something Lacan called the 'missed encounter' -- in other words, the subject is there, but somehowOld Cops Meet New Technologies: Harry Bosch & Jack Reacher, 2007

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

At the end of this very long book, a famous publisher asks an ex-novelist to write about Wall Street during the subprime fiasco. But the novelist can only write about the novelist. No characters, no plot, no events ever get beyond the "me" of this word dealer. Annoying, pizzicato readingDear Money by M. McPhee read by Kate Reading.

Jesus Mary and Joseph in Rocksburg, Pa. Heartflipping. Smile wrenching. Honestagawd. Self-conscious, thoughtful, slightly misaligned human being, good son, and Detective Sergeant Acting Chief, Rocksburg Police, Rugs [”because some people think they can walk all over me”] Carlucci, falls in love while investigating death of sociopath baseball legend. Utter-fuckingly wonderful.BRUSHBACK by K.C. Constantine :: Lloyd James

Constructed as a series of letters to a slightly fay, newly divorced, 45 year old antiques expert, this whodunit offers criminality inset in decorating news and auction house frippery. Mrs. Sterling Glass is keeping her ex-husband's last name because "who would give up the nameStealing with Style by Emyl Jenkins read by Linda Stephens

The last of the Rabbi Small series narrated with an annoying over-aggressive punkishness by Guidall -- to intimate, perhaps, the intellectual aggression of Rabbi Small, the clever not-to-be socialized puzzle solver and prayer leader of the Conservative Jews of Barnard's Crossing Massachusetts. The characters are at least as aliveThe Day the Rabbi Resigned by Harry Kemelman read by George Guidall

Because this is a women's book you will read about a man, probably a husband, and he will be successful and fit and when he dies he will leave his wife betrayed, in debt and uninformed.Widow's Waltz by Sally Koslow

Lots of interesting characters on Blossom Street: a widow with an adopted daughter, a tough ex-punk happily married and unhappily smoking, a good son and chocolate factory owner with a growing heart problem, a charmed and charming owner of a knitting store, a gorgeous single girl getting over an ex-fianceeSummer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber read by Miss Delilah

Delicious, delightful, entertaining romance about an ambitious lawyer in Chicago and an FBI agent who meet when she agrees to help them capture a corrupt senator. Fast paced, witty dialogue, enchanting story line. Brava!Love Irresistably by Julie James narrated by Karen White

Well written and appropriately performed by a slightly whiny slightly depressed slightly menstruating Karen white.. But the plot devolves into yet another pro-birth pro baby pro teenage mother supported by divorced and widowed women novelette.Vintage by Sally Gloss read by Karen White

Forget Harley Street. The latest design in shrinks is a six foot 250 pound lesbian weight lifter who runs a pub with her bosomy girlfriend, and offers bed, morning after breakfast, and laundry service. This is what the 21st century male patient wants: a powerful, intuitive M.D. who canThe Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters read by Simon Vance

The slightly hysterical, staccato reading misses the funny lines. And Dick just doesn't sound sexy. Too bad, because this book is both funny and sexy. Indeed, the sex scenes could pass for light porn.... The CIA guy is as wholesome and loveable and American as Special K. He rents fastKiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard read by Dick Hill & ...

Sharpen your pencils, open your looseleaf, sit up, take notes. This is an impressive, intelligent, well researched white-paper-thriller about silly, soppy, environmental theories and the well-funded, well publicized, well-established bureaucracies which profit by circulating them. 'State of Fear' is the coinage of a 'Mental Ecologist' whose hysterical critique of a toxicState of Fear by Michael Crichton read by George Wilson

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

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