The Caves of Peregord by Martin Walker read by John Lee

Who was it that decided that moving back and forth between time periods is consistent with the suspension of disbelief, or that a temporal spread is an adequate basis for a plot?

A reader, emerging from the swamp of Chapter Two — where an exiled ‘Keeper of the Beasts’ falls in love with the virgin daughter of a ‘Keeper of the Horses….’ believes nothing. Oh, please. The bulls of Lascaux don’t need to be stipulated by way of stipulating a primordial artist with his own cave, balls, tribe, and palette of coloured dung.

19 Years of Reviews

Again, we have Washington with its burials and its laudations betrayals become elegy -- where the ones praising the dead are also their executioners. A Roman tradition carried brightly on by moral gamesmen, whose empires are supported by three rhetorical questions: Is it ethical for men in power, men entrusted byA House Divided by Mike Lawson read by Joe Barrett

It is not obvious that there are soldiers missing in action from the war in Iraq. It is said that the Arabs do not take prisoners, do not leave Americans alive. So the horror of a category of men archived by the subjunctive, neither real nor unreal, neither past norThe Confirmation :: Thomas Powers read by George Guidall

Fiction that doubles as a helpful manual for out of work women, full of unemployment management tips and personality re-development exercises. Noreen, for example, is asked to say something about herself without reference to her job. She cannot. She can, however, use the fancy sneakers which she purchasedThe Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook read by Kimberly Dakin

A girl detective who can speak a thousand languages, with her own personal Saint, New York City's District Attorney as her father, and an ex Viet-Cong guerrilla as a nanny -- only Robert Tanenbaum (and the City itself) could conjure up the sad, inscrutable Lucy Karp. As always when weRobert Tanenbaum Malice read by Mel Foster

Charming English tale about a newly divorced English mother with ungrateful children and a lying, wretched, smarmy ex-husband. She talks to her neighbor about renting her lovely old house, and finds a job selling pretty cottages for a land developer... Sweet tale about moving on.Moving On by Anna Jacobs read by Penelope Freeman

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 mysteriesLong Time No See:: Re-hearing Susan Isaacs read by Cristine Mcmurdo-Wallis

There is always a boy and a dog (....and a psychopath) After all, you're inside the mind of Dean Koontz , and its the loneliest night in the world, and you've just seen the saddest thing on earth, and there are monsters in the backyard, and youONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN by DEAN KOONTZ read by ANNE TWOMEY

Short, spoiled and operatic is the 14 year old Persian Jewess who charms Gabe, the poor little rich foundling now living with Peter and Rena Decker. Gabe is a little lovable, a little weird, and very horny. But he is also a musical prodigy, with the lean blonde wits ofGun Games by Faye Kellerman read by Mitchell Greenberg

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

Wed Sep 08, 2004 After P. Cornwell it is impossible or almost impossible to fob off a respectable forensic report, fake a fictional autopsy, or counterfeit the routine day to day life of an imaginary female coroner. If you want to be taken seriously, that is. The rather silly scene thatBlindsided by Karen Slaughter

The crisp precise language of the story irons out an implicit California-Palo Alto class structure, in addition to a real plot! A hairy doctor found dead in a $400 hotel room... a husband.Circle of Wives by Alice Laplant

A few Jewish words referring to a few ritual baked goods eaten by a few Jews does not a Jewish novel make. Nor does a description of a modestly clad woman with her hair tied back by a long scarf. If the Peter Decker novels wielded some specific charm byBlindman's Bluff by Faye Kellerman read by Mitch Greenburg

No, this is not a book about a new pope. It is about a Roman Catholic arson investigator-ette. Of course, she's blonde. And she has a huge, overprotective, overloving and overlovable family who teach us right and wrong and manners, like old Italian recipes that work. Joyce Bean reads Nora Roberts: Blue Smoke

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

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