Reading: Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan read by Paul Hecht

Well crafted character flaws in this 21st century noir detective story with a cheating wife and an ex-circus dick.

19 Years of Reviews

A well upholstered, crisply intelligent middle aged police inspector newly widowed from her faithless, politically agile husband, is called back to work after many years. She colors her hair, tries to eat less, and reconnoitres her domestic life across and through the investigation of a murder, the enmity of theA Small Indiscretion by Denise Rudberg translated by Laura Wideberg read by Joyce Bean

When she catches some of her wealthy highschool students plagiarizing their English papers, Carly wants to fail them. Instead, the School Headmistress tells her that she is being vindictive, and that Carly must overlook the "childish lapse in judgement" and give them another chance. It is on that veryA Table by the Window by Lawana Blackwell read by Andrea Gallo

A big man, a private eye, ex-military, school of Afghanistan, minus one leg and one girlfriend, hires a relentlessly normal secretary for a week. She stays on. He gets a case. She helps. Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Couples. Kellerman's shrink narrator is full of meticulous, obsessive, data-driven characterizations of L.A. couples and couplings. Milos and Rick, for instance. Rick gets his hair trimmed every two weeks at a high priced West Hollywood salon. Milos drives every two months to La Brea and Washington where he hands hisKellerman's Gone

Good idea, poorly executed.Stone Cold by David Baldacci. Read by Ron McLarty

Two sisters convert a 19th Century whorehouse into a Bed and Breakfast for Arizona's tourists, helped by their grandmother's Ghost - the long dead madame of the House. A fun bed and breakfast fantasy. A Ghost for Maggie by Emily Carmichael read by Cristine McMurdo-Wallis

Smiley receives a letter from his ex, reads ("I want to make you an offer which no gentleman could accept. I want to come back to you. I'm staying at the Baur au Lac in Zurich till the end of the month. Let me know.") and thinks: "That was Ann. LetCall For the Dead by John Le Carre Narrated by Frank Muller(!)

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

"You know how Thais are: totally fair minded Buddhists until their personal income is threatened." For we farang, the improbability of Thailand is as good as fiction. Where else would one find a dejected pot-smoking homicide detective and his long-haired assistant, a "Kathoey transsexual who has not yet scraped together theThe Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett read by Stephen Hogan

Miss Sophie Long is a Catholic School teacher who can't parallel park, until she meets Lois, Vietnam Vet, trained sniper, mechanic, and lesbian. They live in the same neighborhood as Morgan, a size 16-18 police detective with a demented mother. At some point, to make ends meet, Sophie and LoisRetirement Plan by Martha Miller read by Bernadette Dunne

Within a minute or two we know that the female narrator is New York City tough; hard headed, unlike the pedestrian who was used to staring at his phone as usual while trying to cross the same street as usual. She calls it: "death by routine." In that clever,Colleen Hoover, Verity, read by Amy Landon and Vanessa Johannson

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...

Despite all the buzzy, instagram-thick keywords about making a living as a media blogger, cook and home renovator, the main character's Mrs Marple is just a bit too stupid, a bit too simplistic to care about or believe in. The Hidden Corpse by Debra Sennefelder

Sad, unnerving story of two sisters, untended during childhood, who are each singularly wounded by their past, their parents, their theories of who they are and what they deserve. An Emergency Room physician who has written off relationships finds her addict-sister in New Zealand after years of believing sheWhen We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal

Timothy Van Bender's beautiful, disappointed wife signed a pre-nuptial agreement which protected Timothy's inherited wealth from the contingency of her (slightly embarrassing) lower class. When she commits suicide, Timothy is left with a failing hedge fund, a not-yet redecorated house in Silicon Valley, his membership at the Menlo Circus Club,Switchback by Mathew Klein read by Chris Patton