Author: Stephen King
Reader: Raul Esparza
Available on Audible.com
Special feature: Author’s Afterword read by Stephen King
Short Review: A beautiful autumn day in the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine is interrupted by a clear impenetrable dome which cuts it off from the outside world. Our story carries us along to meet a broad cast of local characters. Great reader and a captivating (but long) story.
Break No Bones: A Novel (Temperance Brennan Novels) Available on Audible.com Author: Kathy Reichs Reader: Dorothee Berryman Short Review: A very average mystery delivered by a very average reader. I liked a lot of the characters, but it was really only my curiosity to know how the author would tie up the mystery that kept [...]
Rag and Bone Shop Author: Robert Cormier Reader: Scott Shina Short Review: Cormier’s final novel, published posthumously, read by the talented Scott Shina. It’s disturbing, and upsetting, and good despite its flaws. Long Review: The title alone would have made me listen to this audiobook. I am an obsessive W.B. Yeats fan, and the title [...]
Author: Charlaine Harris
Reader: Johanna Parker
Short Review: Well read first installment of the Southern Vampire Mysteries series (better known now as the books that inspired HBO’s TrueBlood series). Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic waitress in a world in which vampires have “come out of the coffin”, and her world is getting more dangerous with each passing the day.
Skinny Dip Author: Carl Hiaasen Reader: Stephen Hoye Short Review: An engaging, funny, environmental crime novel set in the Florida Everglades. Hiaasen is a gem, and Hoye is good but doesn’t shine quite as brightly. Long Review: As the book opens, Hiaasen has us witness an attempted murder at sea. The beautiful young Joey Perrone [...]
The Graveyard Book Author: Neil Gaiman Reader: Neil Gaiman Short Review: Neil Gaiman reads his Newbery Medal winning book beautifully. His nod to Kipling’s The Jungle Book is just scary enough, intriguing, inventive, well-written, enchanting . . . it’s downright wonderful. I loved Bod, Silas, Scarlett, Liza, Miss Lupescu, and the rest of the graveyard’s [...]
The Likeness Author: Tana French Reader: Heather O’Neill Short Review: Tana French’s strong second novel read beautifully by Heather O’Neill. In this sequel to In the Woods, we follow Cassie Maddox in a strange undercover murder investigation. Cassie gets back on her feet and then gets knocked right back off balance imitating her deceased doppelganger [...]
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel Author: Michael Chabon Reader: Peter Riegert Extra features: The audiobook includes an interview with Michael Chabon about his inspiration for the book, his favorite books and genres, and his writing process. Short Review: Chabon’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning alternate history of a world without Israel but with a temporary [...]
Thud! (A Discworld Novel) Author: Terry Pratchett Reader: Stephen Briggs Short Review: This fun, funny, and often thoughtful story follows Sam Vimes as he investigates the murder of dwarven leader Grag Hamcrusher. Vimes is a father and husband, an unwilling member of the nobility, Commander of the watch, and a good old copper. He is [...]
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Mystic River Author: Dennis Lehane Reader: Scott Brick Short Review: A well-read, strong mystery with one major flaw. Long Review: I’ve been sitting on this review for ages, because I like almost everything about this book except for the thing I absolutely hate about it. And of course, I can’t explain what I dislike about [...]