Hollywood Station by Joseph Wambaugh > recordedbookreview.com

What happens to a hard cop in a hard city in an era below good and evil.

19 Years of Reviews

The smart daughter of a beautiful mother comes back to her "godforsaken sheep-happy hillbilly town" to handle her mother's fourth or fifth divorce, and finds herself staging the annual Debutante Ball. "Don't the pilgrims make skin cream?," her mother asks her before mentioning how hard she has worked on maintainingThe Ex-Debutante by Linda Frances Lee read by Susan Bennett

Wonderful, well developed characters modeled on silly, overchewed, Oprah-certified victim-types. The victim of an alcoholic, depressive, schadenfreude-mother, the victim of a childhood kidnapping by a pedophile, the victim of an unforgiving corrections system, the victim of overwhelming emotions, overwhelming fears, overwhelming doubts, of poor parents, poor teachers, poor morals, poorThe Neighbor by Lisa Gardner

Every hyphenated family is unhappy in its own way. And so the Wyatt-Yarmouth family is unhappy not only because its son has died in a small town in British Columbia where a sweet, incompetent, merry constable is trying to keep the peace. There is also a venomousWinter of Secrets by Vicki Delany 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.The Fine Art of Murder by Emily Barnes read by Carrington MacDuffie

The voice is everything. Instead of the typical pomposity of a haughty OBE accent, spouting that mixture of bad faith, betrayal, and malice so characteristic of the displaced British upper class, we have a whisper, a tempered, middle brow tone telling a tale about a slightly fat slightly alcoholic NottinghamROUGH TREATMENT by JOHN HARVEY::JOHN WILKINSON

Some divorced women move to New Hampshire and open bookstores. Tricia is a picky, possessive, mulish melancholic who stumbles into murder and mayhem in the most pastoral and unexciting of New England towns, re-invented as "Booktown" for its a sweet new row of shops, including the Haven't Got a ClueSentenced to Death by Lorna Barrett read by Cassandra Campbell

Well crafted words read by a dulled, depressed and depressing voice. Read it instead.Paint it Black by Janet Fitch read by Jennifer Jason Leigh

Welcome to Temptation by J. Crusie read by Aasne Vigesaa(!) Sophie and Amy Dempsy are listening to Dusty Springfield on the car radio, Amy filming the "Welcome to Tempatation" road sign from behind her pink rhinestone sunglasses and Sophie not paying attention. When they crash, how does Sophie get them outWelcome to Temptation by J. Crusie read by Aasne Vigesaa(!)

An adulterous wife, a cracked small town doctor, a crooked partner, and a handful of gun-nuts, rednecks and vets are trapped inside this book like 5 men and 4 cowboy hats in a trailor. Third Degree by Greg Iles read by David Collacci

What begins as a story about a girly James Dean with two wicked sisters and a drunk mother becomes a story about a CPW apartment building and its history, its doorman, its neighbors. Tina Finn is outrageous and outraged, at everyone with a bank account or a stable identity, at herTwelve Rooms With A View by Theresa Rebeck read by Marguerite Gavin

Mike Lawson is very very good. He is even better read by Joe Barrett. De Marco is a 'bagman' with a law degree, who even passed the Virginia Bar but never practiced law, whose happy aunt or godmother got him a job working for the fat, charming, lecherous, Speaker of theHouse Justice by Mike Lawson read by Joe Barrett

This is a charming very digestable story about one sister told by another. The sister in the spotlight is a freckled lovable morning news show host, with a perpetual trousseau of people who dress her, praise her, and advertise her friendship. A black limo brings herRise and Shine by Anna Quindlen read by Carol Monda

How is it that Anna Jacobs always swaddles you into a world that feels cozy and safe and hopeful? Here is another story about a working woman who wants to retire but puts it off until she is at the edge of the world and has to fight her way backChanging Lara by Anna Jacobs

Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me hard boils the story from the start: London as the small bad city with its own 87th precinct: Brant, who cuts a bit off the top of every drug bust, makes himself loved by women, plays laid back surfer dude copCalibre by Ken Bruen read by Gerard Doyle

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..... Then of course he bumps into a woman who canThe Amateur: A Novel of Revenge by Robert Littell read by Scott Brick