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This mystery series will fascinate those who fancy antiques, collectors and others who are obsessed with old, rare, useless or lovable objects. An antiques picker married to an agoraphobic chef, Jeff Talbot lives in a Victorian dollhouse in Seattle and uses his ex-FBI skills to solve curious homicides.

19 Years of Reviews

Amusing this particular intersection of history where the living instruments of the law (cops, detectives, Special Forces, Army MPs) meet the live ones (text messaging, Live search, cell phones, Google...). What results is something Lacan called the 'missed encounter' -- in other words, the subject is there, but somehowOld Cops Meet New Technologies: Harry Bosch & Jack Reacher, 2007

One of the good Patterson & Gross collaborations, with a new villain called "the Israeli" and another called "the electrician". The descriptions of Haifa and Patagonia could have been cut out of Wiki. Joe Mantegna does adorable Italian goombas, and respectable Chechnian, Russian and Middle Eastern hoods. Seven discsJudge and Jury::James Patterson::Joe Mantegna

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

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

There are very few perfect beginnings to a story. Beginnings which move through images at the same rate as they move through text, rolling into a plot detectibly, sensibly, unhurriedly. A boy, for example, making the rounds on his bicycle, delivering the daily papers: ...At Colonel and Mrs Easterbrook's,A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

L.A./Hollywood relived by a suicidal ex-husband ex-producer ex-Jew with a screenplay. The screenplay is fresh off the bus from New Jersey, delivered to Charlie (post suicide) by his 21 year old nephew, Lionel. It is about Disraeli but that doesn't matter. The screenplay is his property, and all Charlie needsThe Deal: A Novel of Hollywood by Peter Lefcourt read by William H. Macy

Painfully resonant, funny, wise: legacy. Whose legacy?: the immigrant's, the jew's, the orphan's, the escape artist's. Brilliantly performed by Christopher Lane with all the accents right: Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, Westchester, Polish, German and of course Santa Barbaran.Moving Day by Jonathan Stone Performed (!) by Christopher Lane

If ever there was a language of L.A., a language in which each noun, common or proper, is localized, dated, and cast in a Hollywood movie, it is the language of James M. Cain. And if Cain's L.A. had a voice, she would sound like ChristineJames M. Cain and 'Sexological Advertiser'

Read this series by Jan Karon about a diabetic Episcopalian rector in a small town in North Carolina whose fat happy female parishioners cant stop baking him pies cakes and cookies. Very very funny scenes with neglected husbands eating unthawed church sale cakes the minute their wives aren't looking, aJan Karon: The Mitford Series

An acoustical hog. There is no one as good as Griffin on the hearts and minds of the Military, and no one as bad as the histrionic, oversyncopated, overamplifed, over-the-top Dick Hill reading him. A pity. Where is the outstanding Michael Russotto? By Order of the President by W.E.B. Griffin misread by Dick Hill

I know girls who listen to Frank doing the girl-punk-slut Sylvie just to see how its done. How a girl talks when shes talking with her pussy. How to tease an ear with a tongue, at a distance. There's nobody like Frank doing pussy. Listen: "What do you like, Thorn? What doMean High Tide by James Hall read by Frank Muller

Robin Cook Marker read by George Guidall Most bestselling writers, like Hollywood waiters, are really something else. Shrinks, lawyers, opthamologists. Divorced ex-cops. Sometimes a reporter. A confused priest or two. We excuse such slippery behavior when it gives us access to technical knowledge: why kill? how do cops catch criminals? whatRobin Cook Marker read by George Guidall

It is truly comforting to hear good old Tony Roberts playing good old Stone Barrington sitting at good old Elaine's on 88th and Second, looking at the girls again, working another case. Stone is hungry. Hungrier than usual, for a rare hamburger, cooked for lawyers, not by lawyers. AndFresh Disasters by Stuart Woods read by Tony Roberts

Outstanding crime novel read by Gildart Jackson, who knows how to make the dry under-humor of the British crisp and delicious to the American ear. Gildart Jackson is the narrator of the Peter Grainger novels, and his voice will forever resonate with the organizational misanthrope DC Smith.Bodily Harm by Charlie Gallagher

Friendly, low-key, perspicacious suggestions on how to think about a marriage, how to prepare for it, and how to judge a potential marriage partner. Humorous anecdotes drive home the way to work your beliefs into your relationships. A mother who believes in original sin knows that every human being isWhom Not To Marry by Father Pat Connor Read by Robin Sachs

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Death is a Cabaret by Deborah Morgan