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A Soft Place to Fall by Barbara Bretton read by Wendy Tremont King

Jealous, child-bearing women live and love.

Better Homes & Corpses by Kathleen Bridge read by Vanessa Daniels

A decorator who wants to sell antiques on Long Island finds a dead body will doing an inventory for a wealthy woman. Not really about decorating and not really a mystery.

The Second Chance Cafe by Alison Kent read by Natalie Ross

Hope Springs: A foster child lovingly raised in an old Victorian house comes back, buys the old house, and opens up a Bakery Cafe where she can sell her special brownies.

Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross read by Tavia Gilbert

“It was no longer about the money, it was that innocent people had died.” This insincere, formulaic, unremarkable thought is thought yet again by Hilary the victim in the 68th Chapter of this disappointing ‘thriller’. Another poor and pretty mother, another psychopath, another Asperbergers child. Who cares?

Tidewater Inn by Colleen Coble read by Devon O’Day

Libby, an archeological historian who works on historic preservation is informed that she has inherited a run down inn in a beach town where her father lived. “Why isn’t this place in the historical register?” she asks the Sheriff, who is helping her find her kidnapped friend. The kidnapping makes a semi romantic semi coming-into-money story into a (bad) mystery. Asking “What would Jesus do?” turns a (bad) romantic mystery into (bad) Christian fiction. Good narrator, though.

Lisa Gardner, Touch & Go

Lisa Gardner is a genius at thesis statements. My favorite is: “a family is a system” (Hide). Or maybe: “A computer is a portal, you know, an entry point into your home.” (The Neighbor)

This book’s thesis statement is: “Pain has a flavor.” And like all good thesis statements, it tells you what the book is about.

And like all of Gardner’s books, Touch & Go bubbles and boils and troubles in all the right ways. Yeppers, this is a thriller. But does it have to give such an ugly picture of the family, of fatherhood, of wealth? Must you listen to another 5 hours of human beings torturing, humiliating, or degrading other human beings. This isn’t the evening news.

If you find yourself skipping one track, then another, and another, just turn off the audio. Isn’t that better?

19 Years of Reviews

Imagine three divorced fairy godmothers wearing red hats feeding you yellow cake, laying out your new life, and getting you ready for the charity ball by teaching you how to play bridge. There you have it. The almost penniless newly divorced matron with good manners sets up a home decoratingRed Hat Society's Queens of Woodlawn Avenue by Regina Hale Sutherland read by Staci Snell

This was supposed to be about four retired couples, cops and wives, living in Florida and solving crimes (not cases). But Spillane turned it into a study of memory. Imagine a blinded amnesiacal lover secreted away inside a community of retired cops in New Jersey, and rediscovered by her oldDead Street by Mickey Spillane read by Richard Ferrone

Do you really want to spend a half an hour of your time listening to a blow by blow account of how Diane, an Elm Creek Quilter, who never remembers to charge her cell phone, gets stuck in a snow storm with only 8% of her battery left to make...A Quilter's Holiday by Jennifer Chiaverini read by Christina Moore

Whatever else Ruth Rendell does or does not do, she demonstrates what might, could, would or should be said while helping the police in their inquiry. The mystery lies not so much in who did it but in who lies about doing it: who said that he didn'tBabes in the Woods by Ruth Rendell narrated by Nigel Anthony

And it occurred to him that the most important thing about Rode was that he had no friends. Smiley was reminded of Buchner's fairy tale about the child left alone on the Earth, who finding no one to talk to went to the moon because it smiled atA Murder of Quality by John Le Carre read by Keith Lloyd

The relentless decomposition of the Oznard family has left Andrew in the position of so many young Englishmen, who had, for the first time in centuries, to feed themselves. Young Andrew had thus determined from an early age that he was for England and more specifically, that England was forThe Tailor of Panama read by John Le Carre read by Le Carre

As good as reading a short history of the rise and rise of the garden variety jihadist. A retired SAS agent is mending the roof of his medieval barn when he is summoned to a final counter-terrorist mission. The medieval political system also needs mending. So begins a storyThe Afghan::Frederick Forsyth read by Robert Powell

There is something annoying, something unsettling, something demoralizing about a story in which all the women are either murder victims, embittered but useless mothers, faithful, ineffectual wives, or sexually charged students with dancers' bodies. Annoying, too, is witnessing an entire small town turn against an innocent man and his brainyThe Bone House by Brian Freeman read by Joe Barrett

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

Mod cop saves child in a killer fire, and slowly, doggedly, sniffs out the arsonist ..... Posted By: admin () Date: 11/10/2004 4:02 pm 3rd Degree by James Patterson and Andrew Gross read by Carolyn McCormick

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

"It was no longer about the money, it was that innocent people had died." This insincere, formulaic, unremarkable thought is thought yet again by Hilary the victim in the 68th Chapter of this disappointing 'thriller'. Another poor and pretty mother, another psychopath, another Asperbergers child. Who cares?Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross read by Tavia Gilbert

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

CJ Critt's sweet, well enunciated, sing song voice turns even a murder mystery into a fairy tale. Once upon a time, Judge Knott (pronounced Judge not!) found a book of manners, probably given to newly engaged 19th century women preparing for wedding, marriage and domestic life. Each chapter begins withRituals of the Season::Margaret Maron::CJ Critt

Schumpeter once wrote that the Stock market is a poor substitute for the holy grail. In other words, capitalism is more or less incapable of producing belief in itself. And yet, there are people who do believe in it. Ziad Abdelnour is one of them. ForMeet the Giants: An Interview with Ziad Abdelnour