Stone Cold by David Baldacci. Read by Ron McLarty

Good idea, poorly executed.

19 Years of Reviews

Deliciously understated English murder mysteries against a background of Hereford cows and curmudgeonly coppers. Here's a taste: Bastard, bastard, bloody stupid game! He beat the turf with his five iron and considered dispatching it after his golf ball into the undergrowth. Then he trudged on morosely, feeling the blood pounding inJ.M. Gregson: The Inspector Lambert Series

In some possible Doris Day movie about a perky blonde secretary and a rich executive bachelor there is a perpetual secretarial pool typing out Nora Roberts novels in time to Sinatra or Liszt. There is no Nora Roberts. There is a pool of Nora Roberts, a herd of Nora Roberts,The Nora Roberts Pool

Robin Cook gives us another SMART & NUTS type physician, a dysfunctional, adulterous, snivelling subjectivity with a license to practice concierge medicine in Boston. Some seven chapters into the book we realize that it is still George Guidall reading. Good narrators, like good waiters, disappear, imperceptibly.CRISIS by Robin Cook::George Guidall

When a computer salesman comes home she greets him with a smile which denies the need to talk about the bill, all the bills, for things he wants to deny her. Later, in the bath, she shoots him. His name is Dennis Poole. He is the kind of man whoNightlife by Thomas Perry read by Shelley Frasier

He still thought wistfully of what he might have become... a Carrie Hawes, or a Paul or a Richard, but more than any of those, the name he most cherished -- and he had never revealed this to a soul -- was Lefty, Lefty Hawes. Was there a criminal anywhere in the worldLet's Hear It For the Deaf Man by Ed McBain read by Jonathan Marosz

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

It is wrong to suppose that language is about communication. James Hall does not communicate. He sniffs a piece of the invisible, picks it up with his mouth and lays it on our doorstep. What we call language is sometimes a body, sometimes a carcass, sometimes a feather, sometimes aFrank Muller reads James Hall:: Red Sky at Night

A sister who witnessed her brother's murder goes back to her home town after 10 years to find the killer. As usual with Sharon Sala, the main character is layered, magnetic, surrounded by friends and neighbors each of whom reflect her differently... There are also the usual divisions ofBetrayed by Sharon Sala

There's nothing like a kitchen-fuck, standing up against an old refrigerator, the ketchup bottle and the jar of mayo rolling around inside, the bag of peaches falling off the top.... There's nothing like two cops, fucking. But its a signature love scene, painterly, pointilistic, confessional. Mushrooming metaphors. And very veryDarkness Peering by Alice Blanchard read by Alyssa Bresnahan

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

More than a little over the top, Clara Hutt is dropping her 2 boys off this morning wearing her pajama bottoms (again) and wondering (again) why all the other mothers can arrive at school with perfectly starched blouses and expertly applied makiage. Not now, Darling, I'm Paaaarking," andIndia Knight's My Life on a Plate read by Jill Tanner

Good mystery full of thoroughly unlovable characters. Homeless hearthless ones: kitchenless characters. Unemployed clerk comes back to poor Florida town to find half-dead aunt. She putts about in the Florida panhandle asking questions and discovering bad neighbors and bad morals. Riptide by Michaela Thompson

Women are trained to make excuses for bad behavior. Here are some for Stuart Woods' latest fictions: 1. Since James Bond, we all know that there are no married heroes of crime novels. Stone Barrington can't survive as Stone: cool, urban, sexual gourmand, in married bliss. The minute Stone married ArringtonSon of Stone: Drek II

Your average everyday Mohammedan maniac, trained by your friendly neighbourhood terrorist, puts on a baseball cap,whistles 'Freebird' and disintegrates the 14th street bridge, the Dallas-Ft Worth Airport, and suburban D.C. before his Tourist Visa even expires. Welcome to America, stay as long as you want, come back anytime.The Enemy Within by Larry Bond read by Michael Russotto

5. Be careful with puns, innuendo and double meanings. Search engines, spiders and robots have no sense of humor. Keep this in mind when trying to attract their attention. So states SEO "tip" number 5 of Berkshire Hathaway's BusinessWire.com, a neat new on-line press release engine, as clean as Google'sFor whom?