SILENT NIGHT AUDIO EDITION

For those of us still missing the late Robert B. Parker and his iconic Spenser detective series here’s a Christmas present.  Helen Brann, Parker’s longtime friend and agent has finished what was evidently his last manuscript.  We understand it was to be billed as a Spenser holiday novel.  Due to their long and close association Brann seems to have an unerring eye for how Parker would have wanted to complete the story.  So, enjoy!

It’s Christmas time in Boston and Spenser has visions of a holiday dinner in his head when he receives a surprise visitor - Slide, an 11-year-old (“going on thirty”) street kid.  The boy asks Spenser’s help for Jackie Alvarez, Slide’s mentor.  Once homeless Slide found refuge at Street Business where Jackie is the director.  This is an unlicensed shelter that takes in many like Slide and hopes to find jobs for them.   Obviously, although the shelter receives support from Jackie’s wealthy brother, it can be a hand-to-mouth operation.  Now, Jackie is receiving threats and believes someone is trying to close down Street Business.  Who can say no to a kid at Christmas?  Certainly not Spenser.

He calls on his pal, Hawk, to get to the bottom of the threats and soon finds it’s a deadlier situation than he had realized.  A pitiless drug lord is at the bottom of it all and not only is the shelter at stake but lives as well.

Of course, Silent Night is read by the eminent Joe Mantegna who (to my knowledge) has read all of the Spenser series.  He has become the voice of Spenser and a terrific one it is.  He’s an accomplished Tony-Award winning actor who now stars in the popular Tv series Criminal Minds.  Once again he delivers a flawless narration.

- Gail Cooke

The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano; Read by Simon Vance

There are just a few voice performers’ names on audio editions that will sell me on the book -  Simon Vance is surely one of them.  He has been dubbed ”Best Voice” so often the award should be retired.  He has narrated for some 26 years and his beautiful English voice continues to capture listeners.  It has been said of his readings, ““His voices are so natural and fit so well with their characters that the listener is completely transported into the story.”   That is certainly true of Roberto Bolano’s riveting The Third Reich.

    The narrator of our story, Udo Berger, a German war games champion, is on vacation with his girlfriend, Ingeborg.  They meet another German couple, Charly and Hanna, along with a number of local folk. the Wolf, the Lamb, and El Quernado who show them the darker side of this vacation resort.  Sometimes to Ingeborg’s consternation Udo chooses to stay in his room updating, correcting his game, a replay of World War II.  Third Reich is the name of the game and Udo consistently plays the part of Germany.

    One night Charly vanishes, absolutely disappears.  While in time Ingeborg and Hanna return to Germany Udo will not leave.  He remains in his hotel room where he is soon involved in a game of Third Reich with El Quernado.  Games have winners and losers, do they not?

    Complex, sometimes perplexing, always astounding The Third Reich is unforgettable.

Death Comes To Pemberley Audio Edition

    With a dulcet mannerly voice Rosalyn Landor is the perfect actress to bring the writing of Jane Austen and P. D. James to life.  Many will remember her for her television appearances in Rumpole of the Bailey and Sherlock Holmes in which she also so memorably captured the British sound.  Her voice control is superb as she segues easily in conversations between Elizabeth and Jane - listeners have no doubt which sister is speaking.  This is an extraordinary listening experience - do believe Jane Austen herself would approve.

    The story begins some time after the ending of Pride and Prejudice - long enough for Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet to become engaged, marry, have two children and seemingly have settled happily into life at Darcy’s magnificent estate, Pemberley.  The year is 1803, the eve of the grand Lady Anne’s ball, and the Bingley’s have come.

    Elizabeth is, of course, delighted to see her beloved sister, Jane, and the two are happily looking after final preparations for the ball when an unexpected visitor arrives - a carriage careens up the driveway carrying a woman who is screaming hysterically - none other than Lydia Bennet Wickham.  She married a handsome rogue who was well paid to make a respectable woman of her.  Now, her husband is soon discovered deep in the woodland, covered with blood,  bending over the dead body of his dear friend, Captain Denny.  Quite obviously, Denny has been viciously murdered (although we’re treated to explanations from  local medical experts), and Wickham is charged with the crime.

    There are many hidden secrets at Pemberley, including the life of Darcy’s grandfather who built a cottage for himself in the woodland where he lived and died accompanied only by his faithful dog.  Now, the only residents of the woodland are the Bidwell’s, a family headed by a man who has served Pemberley with pride  for many years.

    I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Rosalyn Landor’s narration.

    - Gail Cooke

Brave Irene by Willaim Steig; Read by Meryl Streep

    Who could possibly resist this combination: Book by William Steig; narration by Meryl Streep?  No one, I assure you between the ages of 3 and 103.  It is sheer delight.

    As many know, Steig was an outstanding artist who not only drew for The New Yorker for a number of years but also wrote children’s books that garnered a galaxy of honors.  Need we say who Meryl Streep is?  Well, just in case: she’s one terrific actress who has won two Academy Awards and holds the record for the most nominations.  Hearing her segue instantaneously from the voice of a superb narrator to a vicious wind is reason alone to cherish this audio.

    Irene is as the title suggests a courageous little girl; her story is one of love and bravery.  Her mother is Irene Bobbin, a dressmaker, who has just finished a ball gown for the duchess to wear that evening.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t feel well at the moment to young Irene volunteers to get the ball gown to the palace in time for the big event.  Little does she know all of the obstacles that will stand in her way as well as a brutal wind determined to stop her.

    Youngsters will find a worthy heroine in Irene and adults will smile with pleasure.

    Highly recommended.

    - Gail Cooke

Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam; Read by Tavia Gilbert

    An accomplished first novel deserves an accomplished reading, which is precisely what Lamb receives from Earphones Award winner Tavia Gilbert.  An experienced actor and producer Gilbert brings her estimable skills to the fore in this gripping,  highly original story.

    David Lamb seems an unlikely fellow to become involved with an underage girl, but life and provocative stories do have twists and turns.  Things haven’t been going too well for David - his wife left him, his father died, and his work life seems to be on hold at nadir level.  He comes across 11-year-old Tommie outside a strip mall.  She’s unpopular, ill at ease, “a pale little freckled pig with eyelashes.”  He talks Tommie into his car on the pretext of a pretend kidnaping which will frighten her friends.  However, he simply drives her home.

    It’s not over with that.  David continues to see her, drive her to school, and become her friend.  This eventually leads to a trip from where they are in Chicago to Colorado and an abandoned house belonging to David.  They stay there while Tommie’s mother has no earthly idea where she is.  Neighbors will be neighbors and those in Colorado become curious about the goings-on in this once deserted house as listeners wonder what is coming next.  Is David friend or foe?

    Enjoy!

    - Gail Cooke

Ed King by David Guterson Audio Edition

    With the winning of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Snow Falling On Cedars David Guterson was recognized as a literary giant.  That recognition is underscored with Ed King, a highly imaginative, intriguing exploration of the effects of the choices we make and the directions in which fate takes us.

    The scene is 1962 Seattle, long before the technology boom, when Walter Cousins, a rather mild actuary, hires Diane Burroughs a British exchange student as an au pair for his children while his wife is hospitalized for a mental breakdown.  He sees Diane as plucky, eager, full of life; he does not see that she is a sociopath.

    Before long she and Walter are sleeping together and she becomes pregnant. Diane flees with the baby as soon as she can.  Walter spends years sending her child support little knowing that she had deposited the child on a doorstep.   After the infant is found and turned over to an agency he is adopted by a reformed Jewish couple, Alice and Dan King, who choose not to tell Ed, as he is named, that he was adopted.  Later, unexpectedly, the couple will have another son.

    As Ed grows into his teens he takes up with an undesirable crowd, and is involved in a fatal road accident.  He quickly exits the scene, feels a bit of guilt for a bit, then forgets.  After graduating from high school where he enjoyed a brief affair with an older teacher, he becomes a computer whiz in college.  His younger brother, Simon, becomes adept at computer gaming.  (At this point the listener has an inkling of where the story is going.....almost.)

    During these years Diane has reinvented herself several times, taking advantage of others and being scammed herself.  Ed’s company grows to dwarf Amazon as well as Google, and he meets Diane at an exhibition.  In 2017 as he experiments with artificial intelligence Ed begins to see things about himself that he had never imagined.

    A teacher of performance and writing Arthur Morey delivers an outstanding reading of this compelling story.  Enjoy!

    - Gail Cooke

Mike Hammer In "Encore For Murder"

    Finding the plot for an unfinished novel in the late Mickey Spillane’s files Max Allan Collins took keyboard in hand and fashioned a noir story replete with all the Spillane trademarks: snappy patter, plot twists and gangster comeuppance.
Collins worked with Spillane on several occasions and was chosen by Spillane to complete a number of his unfinished works.  More than an excellent pick!

    Encore For Murder finds Hammer playing bodyguard to a former flame, Rita Vance, who is about to make a comeback on Broadway.  Yes, we did say old flame but those embers are rekindled Rita is the recipient of numerous death threats and hit men are, you know, trying to hit on Hammer.

    However, before the curtain goes up on Rita’s big night she disappears, and has to be found fast.  The trail takes Hammer a long way from the Big Apple’s bright lights as he tries to solve a perplexing mystery, save Rita and himself.

    After seeing Stacy Keach on television as Mike Hammer, it was clear there couldn’t be another.  His narration of this story along with a full cast is topnotch entertainment.  Doubt if you’ll find a better performance anywhere, so enjoy!

    - Gail Cooke

The Detachment by Barry Eisler Read By the Author

    It’S always a treat to hear a book read by the author.  This is especially true of The Detachment written and narrated by Barry Eisler.  His voice is deep, strong, clear, and the Japanese words and phrases roll easily from his tongue.  Having read and enjoyed all of the John Rain adventures I realized that I thought I knew exactly what he looked like, why, I’d know him anywhere but I didn’t have a clue about his voice.  Searching my memory I couldn’t recall that his voice had ever been described.  Now I know.  Was I disappointed that this adventure was not performed by a trained actor?  Not a whit!  I’ve heard the story told by the real John Rain.

    Now, I do have one complaint about a John Rain thriller, which is that everything else in life goes on hold after hearing the opening sentence.  Consider this from The Detachment, and you’ll see why food and sleep were of little importance from then on: “I hadn’t killed anyone in almost four years.  But all good things come to an end, eventually.”

    If anyone had told me a hired assassin would be one of my favorite fictional characters that comment would have been dismissed as rubbish.  But this half-Japanese, half-American fellow has completely captivated me.  There seems no cruelty in him, simply strength despite the trail of bodies he has left behind.  He possesses a sense of honor and, yes, compassion.  Rain has been called “the most charismatic assassin since James Bond” - I find none of Bond’s polish or debonair qualities but Rain is every bit as intriguing.

    With his latest adventure we are privy to more of Rain’s thoughts, which gives us greater insights into the man while adding to his mystique.  Most fictional assassins I fear; John Rain I trust.  Why?  It can only be the magic of Eisler’s pen.

    The Detachment pits Rain against the most frightening enemy imaginable, the Oligarchy, unseen, individually unknown, and often seeming to be a step ahead of him.  Thus, he teams with three others, including his unforgettable pal, former Marine sniper Dox.  In addition, there is Larison, a man with a quicker than a blink temper and a secret he means to keep, plus Ben Treven whose loyalties are conflicted.  Each has killed before and each has a different reason for being involved in trying to avert a coup in America. This quartet has to pit their wits and strengths against the forces of the CIA, presidential hit men, and perhaps each other.

    Just when I think there couldn’t possibly be a more exciting, impossible-to-put-down Rain story there is and it’s The Detachment.  Don’t miss it!

    - Gail Cooke

An Angel For Christmas by Heather Graham Performed by Christina Traister

Splendidly read by Christina Traister for Brilliance Audio.

Christmas has never brought out the best in the MacDougal family. Still, year after year, they gather together in the Blue Ridge Mountains to try to make the season merry and bright. But this year is an especially strained one, with Shayne's impending divorce, Morwenna's slavish devotion to work and Bobby's reluctance to face what life has to offer. They've never felt less like a family.
Then, in the midst of a snowy sibling shouting match, a mysterious stranger appears. He could be a criminal, a madman—or something far more unexpected. Despite their fears and the growing danger in the dark woods around them, the MacDougals take a leap of faith. But when another stranger arrives on the mountainside, they don't know which of them to believe. One of these men can't be trusted. And one is about to bring Christmas into their hearts.

White Heat by M. J. McGrath; Read by Kate Reading

    A multi-award winning narrator (Audie, Earphones), Kate reading is also an actor of note in the Washington, D.C. area.  While White Heat is surely a frightening story, Reading’s taut, carefully delivered narration adds additional chills.

    Edie Kiglatuk is a half white, half Intuit former polar bear hunter.  She’s a struggling alcoholic who seems to be losing the battle, she had “already drunk away her hunting career and was well on the way to drinking away her life.”  Edie lives in the small Arctic settlement of Autisaq where she works as a guide.  Her last client, really late last client, tourist Felix Wagner, was killed while on their shooting expedition.

    She has been at sword’s points for sometime with the local elders who now want to forget the death, file it away as a hunting accident.  She’s not comfortable with this, sensing there is something more, much more.  What she does not know is that her search for the truth will take her far away from her home village and out onto the frozen wastes of the tundra.

    In McGrath’s hands the unforgiving landscape and sub zero temperatures are as much a part of the story as Edie and a crew of disparate characters.  So, keep a blanket at the ready and enjoy this one-of-a-kind thriller.

    - Gail Cooke

Coming Up For Air Audio Edition

Actress, singer, puppeteer, teacher, narrator Janet Metzger brings all of those talents to bear as she delivers a warm, touching, highly listenable reading of this story.  For five years the voice of CNN Headline news, her voice is distinct and quite believable as she assumes the personas of Henry’s characters.

    Ever felt your life was at a crossroads, you felt confused, wondering if you had made some wrong choices, perhaps one irreparable one?  Meet 48-year-old Ellie Calvin, an artist, mother to college age daughter, Lil, and married to Rusty.  Has been married to Rusty for 20 years and that union is dissolving around her.

    She tells us, “Standing in a white dress in front of family and friends, vowing to love forever the handsome man in front of me, is on the top of my wonderful list.  Then years later, standing in the receiving line at my mother’s funeral and pulling away from that same man’s touch because I knew I didn’t  - couldn’t - love him anymore is more than awful.  It’s tragic.”

    She is surprised to see her former boyfriend, Hutch, at the funeral.  He is involved in a documentary concerning her mother, Lillian, a woman who was little known to Ellie.  He asks for Ellie’s help in finishing this, and she agrees although she’s a bit disturbed by feelings that began to surface when she saw him again.

    She’s surprised to learn that Lillian had been a part of the civil rights movement in Alabama in the 60's.  She is even more surprised to find a hidden diary that reveals a great deal about Lillian.  After reading a portion of it she decides to go to the Alabama coast, to a beach house owned by her mother’s best friend, Birdie, and try to discover what really happened one summer in 1961.

    Once there Hutch arrives to help her with the research.  The question for both of them is can they work together without reviving what both believed was a  lost love?

    - Gail Cooke

Your Voice In My Head By Emma Forrest

    Mental illness is always sad.  Somehow it can seem even more tragic when the sufferer is a gifted young person as in the case of writer Emma Forrest who details her battle with this debilitating illness in her memoir Your Voice In My Head.  She spares neither details nor people, least of all herself in relating her experiences with depression and obsession.

    At the age of 22 Forrest’s future held great promise.  She was the child of a caring family, and was soon to have her first novel published.  She moved to Manhattan to continue writing where she was lonely and bulemic.   For all of her intelligence and promise it isn’t long before Forrest embarks on a destructive path -   binging, purging, casual, harmful sexual relationships.  So harmful that “sex didn’t register unless it hurt,” and she finds herself in a hospital emergency ward.

    Following that she sought the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. R., who does manage to help her although it is a battle for several years as she continues to form hurtful relationships and attempts suicide.  Nonetheless, once her life seems to be turned around, she learns that Dr. R. Has died quite suddenly.  She is alone again, abandoned.

    Next she tackles screen writing and moves from New York to Beverly Hills where she embarks upon an affair with a famous actor (this would probably be about 2008 - 2009).  He swears to love her and to want to have babies with her; she believes him and even picks out a name if the child is a girl - Pearl.)  Before long he dumps her for no apparent reason.  Although she doesn’t name the actor in her memoir Google does - Colin Farrell.  What lethal parents they would have made.

    Listeners are left to believe that Forrest continues to struggle.  There is naught that one can do save to wish her well.  Your Voice In My Head is a fearlessly candid memoir, not an easy listen but surely an absorbing one.

    - Gail Cooke

Portrait Of A Spy Audio Edition

    With literally hundreds of audiobook narrations to his credit and enough awards to fill many mantels, Simon Vance is an acclaimed voice performer.  Formerly a newsman for the BBC, his voice is rich, resonant, strong, wonderfully  suited to bring Silva’s affecting protagonist to life.  Portrait Of A Spy is pure listening pleasure.

    We’ve read that Gabriel Allon has been hailed as the most compelling creation since “Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond.”  So true - a premier art restorer and an international operative bent on seeing justice done Allon is a fascinating character, a blend of intellectual acuity and fearlessness.
      
    Gabriel, using the name Giovanni Rossi, is the talk of the Cornish village of Gunwalloe.  He and his wife, Chiara, occupy a cottage with a twelve-month lease paid in advance “with all the paperwork handled discreetly by an obscure lawyer in Hamburg.”  Whoever he is, whatever he does all the villagers agree he has made Gunwalloe a much more interesting place.  If they only knew.

    When Gabriel takes his wife for what is intended to be a leisurely brief holiday in London he is walking toward Covent Garden when he sees a man he believes is a suicide bomber.  There have been two previous bombings in Paris and Copenhagen, therefor he is on alert.  But just as he aims his weapon he’s knocked down so that all he could see “...was body parts and blood.  It was Baghdad on the Thames.”

     Sick at heart that he was unable to stop the carnage Gabriel returns to Cornwall only to be called back into service by the chief of Israel’s secret intelligence.  There’s no doubt that the Covent Garden bombing was the third in a series and, in all probability orchestrated by Rashid al-Husseini, a cleric in Yemen who was born in America and was so convincing re his loyalty to the States that he once worked for the CIA.  Rashid learned a great deal during that period and used that knowledge against America, soon preaching “..that the only way to deal with the West is to destroy it.”
    
    It is Gabriel’s task to stop Rashid before there are any more deaths, and accomplish this while keeping his operation secret from everyone including the President.

    A former journalist and television producer, Silva has crafted a novel so real, so timely that this reader soon began to feel a bit like she was reading a stunning newspaper account rather than fiction.  Silva builds tension with architectural skill while the action jettisons from upscale auction houses to Washington power to the Saudi desert.

    Pairing the skills of bestselling author Silva and superb voice performer Vance results in an edition of Portrait Of A Spy that is extraordinary in every sense of the word.

    - Gail Cooke

There Never Was A Werewolf Like Jake!

    Ever wonder what the voice of a werewolf sounds like?  Probably pretty much like the voice of Robin Sachs - menacing, husky, clear, and oh, so cultivated.  It’s a voice befitting Jake, a 200-year-old werewolf with a racing libido and beset by aching loneliness as he’s the last living werewolf.  Or,  as he puts it, “All wolf and no gang.”

    Duncan has created a crafty often comedic original take on the werewolf tossing all of our preconceptions aside and giving us Jacob Marlowe, aka Jake, who scarfs down a hedge fund manager, and is weary after all these years of “dragging himself through the motions...”  He’s thinking about ending it all - however there’s someone who wants to do it for him.

    Eric Grainer, chief werewolf hunter for WOCOP, World Organization for the Control of Occult Phenomena, wants to even the score - Jake ate Grainer’s father.   Deciding to wait until the next full moon for revenge Grainer gives Jake about thirty days to live.  Our worn werewolf could care less until something totally unexpected happens.

    Duncan spikes his already spicy narrative with Jake’s thoughts on life, death, good, evil, and even a comment on one result of Obama’s election victory.     
    Treat yourself and give a listen to THE LAST WEREWOLF as read by Robin Sachs.

    - Gail Cooke

The End Of Everything and The End Of Innocence

          With a narration perfectly reflecting the voice of a 13-year-old girl’s versatile actress Emily Bauer captures her audience.  In the portions in which a young girl’s voice is heard Bauer ably conveys childishness, curiosity, self-satisfaction, fear, and eventually emerging coming-of-age.

Lizzie Hood and her next door neighbor, Evie Verver, are the best of friends.  Inseparable, they share everything from clothing to field-hockey sticks to secrets.  Theirs is a friendship both are sure will last forever....until shortly before their 8th grade graduation Evie disappears.

Of course, everyone is frantic to locate the missing child and since Lizzie was her best friend she becomes the focus of attention; it seems the questions might never end.  Was Evie unhappy?  Would she get into a car with a stranger?

As the mystery unfolds we’re privy to a close look at the Ververs, outwardly a happy family but beneath the surface there are tensions.  We see Dusty, Evie’s older sister, and the tangled relationship between mother, father and their two daughters from Lizzie’s point of view.  Midwestern suburbia, it seems, is not at all what it appeared to be.

Lizzie is haunted by dreams of her friend and soon begins investigating on her own.  Her discoveries not only shake her belief in who Evie really was but  bring her to a burgeoning awareness of the world in which she lives.

Award winning author Abbott (the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan  Poe Award) has crafted another stunning tale that will keep listeners enthralled from the first words to the last line.

Enjoy.

- Gail Cooke

Sterling Reading of Iron House By John Hart

    Following two stunning narrations of John Hart’s work (Down River, Last Child) by performance artist Scott Sowers we once again have the pleasure of hearing this perfect pairing of voice and prose with IRON HOUSE.  

    It has been said that “Southern writer John Hart’s work has a lyrical quality that Scott Sowers narrates with growling weariness....”  Further the author noted that “Together they enable the book to transcend genre fiction and become something exceptional.”  Once again something exceptional is enjoyed as we hear Sowers begin this tale in the soft Southern drawl he captures to a T.

    Michael and his brother, Julian, both suffered a grueling, abusive childhood in a North Carolina orphanage.  Their lives are to take quite different paths.  Michael escaped Iron House and reached New York City where eventually “the most powerful crime boss in recent memory, “ Otto Kaitlin, takes him under his wing.  Michael is an apt pupil and becomes a feared killer as well as a surrogate son to Kaitlin.

    Along the way Michael meets and falls in love with Elena, a true innocent.  He wants to start a new life with her.  Not as easy as it may sound.  When Kaitlin dies his son by birth, Stevan, sets out to destroy Michael.  Stevan kidnaps Elena and even finds  Julian who is now living with his adoptive parents.

    Hart has woven a story of high suspense rich with his  signature graceful prose.  Sowers gives it award-winning voice.

    - Gail Cooke

A Death In Summer Audio Edition

As many know,  Booker Award - winning novelist John Banville sometimes writes crime based novels under the name Benjamin Black.   John Keating performs under his own name, and his reading of A DEATH IN SUMMER is a winner.

Keating is a natural to bring Dublin based Quirke to life as he has often performed with the Irish Repertory Theater and the Irish Arts Center. He is well remembered for his narration of Black’s The Lemur as Publishers Weekly noted with this comment, “John Keating is simply marvelous here.  His strong Irish accent does wonders when combined with Black’s prose, creating a dark, brooding, and occasionally funny atmosphere that will surely draw listeners into the tale.”

No doubt about also being drawn into this tale, the fourth featuring pathologist Dr. Garrett Quirke who can’t resist not only discovering the cause of death when another body is delivered to the morgue but if the death isn’t due to natural causes he simply has to find out who-dun-it.  This he does handily with the help of his old friend Detective Inspector Hackett.

As Quirke’s daughter says, he should have been a detective - even when the deceased is a big time newspaper man, Richard Jewell,  (Diamond Dick to his enemies) who departs this life via a shotgun blast to  his head.  It’s a bit puzzling that Dick’s lovely French wife, Francoise, doesn’t seem overcome by the loss of her husband, while Jewell’s sister, Dannie, all but takes to her bed to grieve.  It’s a surprise to Quirke to learn that Dannie seeks solace from David Sinclair, Quirke’s assistant in the pathology lab.  Quite a surprise as Sinclair has been dating Quirke’s daughter, Phoebe.

Factor into all of this a major heat wave melting the city and the emergence of secrets concerning Jewell’s empire.  Quirke loves to solve crimes but he’s not too sure about putting his own life on the line to do so.  A severed finger attached to his front door doesn’t bode well for him

Black’s prose is delicious and A DEATH IN SUMMER is beautifully written, rich with atmosphere and apt observations.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

You Belong To Me by Karen Rose Blackstone Audio

    If there’s any doubt that Karen Rose is tops when it comes to creating spine-tinglers blended with exciting romance, give a listen to YOU BELONG TO ME read by able voice performer Marguerite Gavin.

    Once again Rose’s popular protagonist Baltimore medical examiner Lucy Trask is put to the test and almost to death.  In the morning it looks like a day like any other day as Lucy jogs through a park behind her apartment - short lived calm.  She discovers what she guesses is the body of her former school teacher, Jerry Pugh, draped over a chess table.  It’s a little hard to tell if it really is Pugh because as we’ve come to expect from Rose this is a more than gruesome murder - the face is horribly mutilated, the heart cut out, and the number ‘1' burned on his back.  Did someone want Lucy to find this horrific scene?

    It’s not long before Lucy becomes aware that this isn’t a single killing because another occurs with the victim’s body also branded.  Is she a target, too?  For help she turns to handsome Detective J. D. Fitzpatrick (aren’t the detectives always handsome?).  Of course, this is where the romance comes in.  As Fitzpatrick investigates and questions Lucy we become aware that there is a lot she’s not telling, a part of her past that she wants to keep hidden.

    Keep all the house lights on when you listen to this one - Rose has crafted a chilling story that causes goose bumps to have goose bumps.

    - Gail Cooke

A Tense, Suspenseful Tale - The Crook Factory

    Ever notice how many really great reads have been stories fashioned from one small grain of truth?  Here’s one more by award-winning author Dan Simmons and wonderfully performed by classically trained actor Patrick Lawlor.  

    In this case, the small grain of truth is that during World War II when Ernest Hemingway was living in Cuba he asked our government’s permission to operate a spy ring out of his house.  Interesting?  Yes.  But explosive in the hands of Simmons who takes that fact and imagines that Hemingway has gathered a bunch of inexperienced but zealous fellows to form a spy ring, which he calls the “Crook Factory.”

    Amateur attempts at espionage can be dangerous so Simmons further posits that in the summer of 1942 J. Edgar Hoover sends FBI agent Joe Lucas to Cuba to report on Hemingway’s anti-submarine patrol.  Lucas and Hemingway - what a combination!  It’s not long before the pair discover a vital piece of intelligence, and the action heats up as Lucas must guard against counter terrorism groups and the trouble that Hemingway brews.

    Alternative history?  Speculative fiction?  Yes.  And richly imagined.  Simmons has brilliantly captured the tenor of Cuba in the ‘40s and created a tense, suspenseful tale.  THE CROOK FACTORY is can’t-stop-listening-to pleasure.

    Ever notice how many really great reads have been stories fashioned from one small grain of truth?  Here’s one more by award-winning author Dan Simmons and wonderfully performed by classically trained actor Patrick Lawlor.  

    In this case, the small grain of truth is that during World War II when Ernest Hemingway was living in Cuba he asked our government’s permission to operate a spy ring out of his house.  Interesting?  Yes.  But explosive in the hands of Simmons who takes that fact and imagines that Hemingway has gathered a bunch of inexperienced but zealous fellows to form a spy ring, which he calls the “Crook Factory.”

    Amateur attempts at espionage can be dangerous so Simmons further posits that in the summer of 1942 J. Edgar Hoover sends FBI agent Joe Lucas to Cuba to report on Hemingway’s anti-submarine patrol.  Lucas and Hemingway - what a combination!  It’s not long before the pair discover a vital piece of intelligence, and the action heats up as Lucas must guard against counter terrorism groups and the trouble that Hemingway brews.

    Alternative history?  Speculative fiction?  Yes.  And richly imagined.  Simmons has brilliantly captured the tenor of Cuba in the ‘40s and created a tense, suspenseful tale.  THE CROOK FACTORY is can’t-stop-listening-to pleasure.

Folly Beach = Pure Listening Pleasure

    The winner of what appears to be every award for narration extant (Earphones Award, AudioFile Best Voices, Publisher’s Weekly Best Audio), Robin Miles began reading audio books at American Foundation for the Blind Talking Books Studio Some 15 years ago.  Since that time she has chalked up 130 titles to her credit.  Her stage, television, and screen work is also impressive.  Noted for her “chameleon-like ability to recreate accents and speech patterns from all over the globe,” she attributes this to growing up in a New Jersey neighborhood that exposed her to a plethora of cultures and accents.  Whatever the case, her voice performances are not only praiseworthy but provide top of the line listening pleasure as I found with FOLLY BEACH.

    Few can describe Carolina’s Lowcountry with as much joie de vivre as Dorothea Benton Frank who was born and raised on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina.  Blend in with those lush, atmospheric descriptions a witty, uplifting story of beginning again and you have FOLLY BEACH.

    In this sequel to Plantation Caroline Wimbley Levine (Cate) returns to her childhood home.   She is penniless, homeless, and without any idea of what to do.  Her none too faithful husband died and left her not a penny; the contents of what was once her home have been repossessed.

    There’s a bit of a story within a story here re a play about DuBose and Dorothy Heyward (Porgy and Bess).  It is said that the Heywards spent some of the happiest times of their lives at Folly Beach, the question is will there be any happy times ahead for Cate?

    Much of Frank’s tale is related in dialogue between Cate and others, especially her feisty aunt.  Hearing this as performed by Robin Miles is total enjoyment!