It’s always interesting to explore a place through its crime scenes. Like the not yet totally gentrified neighborhoods of Northwest Philadelphia, on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River. Which runs through this mystery as it runs through Pennsylvania. All along the river young women are being murdered in horrible ways. Murder is always local.
Tag: murder
Man in the Middle by Brian Haig read by L.J. Ganser
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 all the four military services perform the same basic mission, the same rudimentary purpose… And why it makes sense is precisely why it doesn’t work, we’re all vying for the same taxpayer bucks, pool of human talent, and opportunities to strut our stuff.
The Army is the oldest, the largest, the smartest, with obviously the most primo jag corps. The Marines are also fairly good guys. Primarily because they think like the army, except they’re a lot more hormonal… The Air Force, newest of the services, is like an orphan teen-ager with a fat trust fund. Prematurely arrogant and totally obsessed with all the cool shit they can buy. Nobody likes them but we all envy them. Last, our seafaring comrades, an overdressed yachting club whose main contributions to national security seems to be propping up bars and bordellos in strange and exotic ports.
Each service sees the world according to its strategic perspective… The Navy sees the globe as three-quarters water, with several largely irrelevant land masses called continents populated by quarrelsome people who somehow become scared shitless the minute an aircraft carrier rolls up off their shore.
For the airforce, the world is a really neat target range, conveniently dotted with cities and towns to stop stuff on, so long as it doesn’t interfere with happy hour…
And so the cynical, sharp, acerbic, acidic wit of the Jag officer investigating the suicide/murder of an officer….
A joint staff manned by officers drawn from the four services, are supposed to shelve their loyalties and their career aspirations, to direct the services to work together cooperatively, rationally and efficiently. This is like hiring the marriage counselor who’s fucking your wife to fix your marriage.
The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver read by Anne Twomey
Do you believe the people who write the back page summaries of bestselling audio CDs actually listen to the CDs? I don’t. The girl left alive after the cult murder of her family has very little to do with this Deaver novel, which is about a female FBI special agent trained in the science of kinesics (sic?) Special Agent Kathryn Dance can tell whether her suspects are telling the truth by reading their bodies. Her children, too. But that doesn’t count. What counts is finding Daniel Pell, a magnetic, persuasive, good looking murderer who gathered around himself a group of depleted submissive females and included them in the scenes of his sex and his crimes.
Long Time No See:: Re-hearing Susan Isaacs read by Cristine Mcmurdo-Wallis
Who in God’s name could murder a woman who puts doilies on the bottom of guest-room wastepaper baskets? In this decade of the Mother, of Mommihood, of stretchy, skin tight maternity dresses, of preternaturally calm Nannies, Long Time No See is perhaps the precursor of a series of mysteries dedicated to killable mothers.
Alone. Another Abridged Morality Play by Lisa Gardner
Alone. Another Abridged Morality Play by Lisa Gardner
Sometimes one wonders whether books get written by stringing together the top keywords in Google. Sex-cops-beautiful wife-abused child-murder-guns-rich family-domestic violence-sharpshooter-alcoholic father-politics-doctors-baseball. (Never forget baseball.) Calculate the page rank, and you get: Good cop gets bad girl. Bad girl has good excuse. Good cop has bad night. Recalculate. Not a best seller yet? Add: bad mother-money-child abuse- sex-psychopath-incest-genetic disease-criminal investigator-kidnapping. (Don’t forget kidnapping). Here you go: Cop with alcoholic father shoots rich husband with gun and fucks wily wife-whore whose impossibly sick child plays baseball. Recalculate. Bestseller. Ho, hum.
Posted on Mar 22, 05 | 10:32 am |
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews read by Bernadette Dunne
Geek gaming firm with mascots (wounded buzzard, psychopathic dog) sets up shop in small Western town but needs a Wendy to clean up and organize the Peter Pans. Enter Californian Meg Lanslow to clean up their books – and before she finds out whats going on everybody’s least favorite programmer is murdered…. Is it the shrink with a radio show who gives advice to lovesick husbands? Is it the nasty capitalist landlord? Is it one of the temps? Funny, witty and perfectly read by the singular voice of Bernadette Dunne.
Long Time No See by Susan Isaacs read by Cristine Mcmurdo-Wallis
Aristotle says that there are three sexes: men, women, and short women.
This book is about that third sex: short, married, murderous women with
happy helpful husbands and perky breasts. The kind who play tennis in the
morning and spend the afternoon decorating the guest bathroom. The
kind who think that wife #3 means she gets 3 furs. These women may be found in
“… Shelter Magazines – the ones that feature homes of couples so rich you know they don’t sleep together.”
But something goes very wrong in the life of one member of this sheltered sex. Something not very motherly, not very wifely, and the handsome, widowed 50 year old Elizabeth who happens to be in love with a cop, finds out what it is. In short, a fun, amusing murder in the suburbs.