Jennifer Crusie and Mary Kay Andrews and Cheez Whiz

fake cheese on fake crackers… shoplifted and served with warmed over leftovers. Shame on the publishers.

19 Years of Reviews

Wry, infinitely bored, softhearted ex-cop holes up in the Upper Peninsula, runs his snow plow up and down the block, and hangs out in a Scottish pub, drinking Canadian beer. Then trouble comes knocking at his door.... "You spend your whole life up here sitting in The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton read by Nick Sullivan

Mary and Neil are cousins: sort of, by adoption. They were once, possibly, in love. Neil has returned to Mason, Ohio where he is related to just about everybody, for a summer. He is helping an Aunt turn an oyster of a house into a bed and breakfast. Mary is marriedThings We Once Held Dear by Ann Tatlock

A very clever book, horribly named. Holly the perky divorced real estate agent shows Bill a very very big house after Bill's partner tells him to buy Tara for their new law office. "Think what this house says about the people who live here....!" she says. It says that they have spentPMS Outlaws::Sharyn McCrumb read by Barbara Rosenblat

Annie moves to sleepy Heron Island on Chesapeake Bay with her 8 year old daughter Taylor, who carries a broom everywhere. This is because she is one of the only pupils who survived a shooting at an elementary school in Washington D.C. Mother and daughter enjoy renovating the old fashioned houseWind Chime Cafe by Sophie Moss narrated by Hollis McCarthy

Even little old Canadian villages have murders, and artists. Jane Neal lived and painted in a big house and kept both her canvases and her home private. Except for the kitchen. To it she invited her circle of friends and fellow-artists, poor and English speaking. TheyStill Life by Louise Penny read by Ralph Cosham

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

Remarkable introduction to a remarkable detective novel. The introduction explains that Crofts was an engineer who mapped out detailed specifications for his detective fiction much the way an engineer would draw up plans for a house or a bridge. Knowing this transforms the way we read and appreciate theThe Hog's Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts with an introduction by Martin Edwards read by Gordon Griffin

Despite a perfect narrator, with a perfect Italian pronunciation of pithy Italian sayings, the mystery lacks a singularly compelling plot, indeed any plot. Disappointing because the author has a lot to say. .... Murder in Tranquility Park by J.D. Griffo

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

A serious Swede, heir of a prestigious Accounting firm, talks to his tour bus driver who must, like him, return to an unwanted fate, a little farm waiting for him to take it over: "I'm no good at going out looking for sheep that have got stuck on their backA Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy read by Rosalyn Landor

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

Nevil Shute's America: Beyond the Black Stump How do we know what we look like to others? They tell us, that's how. When Stan, sober geologist, good son and citizen of Hazel, Oregon, tells Molly that he or maybe his friend got a girl pregnant, and that the twelve year oldNevil Shutes America: Beyond the Black Stump

An insider's view of the pentagon: Three of the four military services have their headquarters within these walls... The underlying idea is that proximity will force the services to work together in neighborly harmony. And it would seem to make sense because after allMan in the Middle by Brian Haig read by L.J. Ganser

Solid, sensible text hulled out of an old, heavy earth: The farmer was a tense willowy man with a German name and a head as bald as a rock. and The farmer's wife was fine cook and a generous woman. Meals, too, are solid and heavy and bald: boiled ham,Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger read by Buck Schirner

For those of you who have been reading or not reading Koontz lately, it may not be obvious that there are two Koontzes: the early Koontz and the late Koontz. Like the early Heidegger and the late Heidegger. The distinction should open the door to hours and hours and hoursThe Door to December by Dean Koontz read by George Guidall