Peterack

A Great Novel

Revisado: 01-20-24

More Mickey Spillane fun, thanks to Max Allan Collins. Dig Two Graves is a quick and enjoyable read. Fleshed out by Collins, based an idea of using the Spillane/Collins “Dead Street” concept as a Mike Hammer Novel.

Mike heads to a retirement community that holds many former antagonists who are under the witness protection program. Following a lead he learns of a heist where many connected to it are quickly being defeated eliminated. With Velda and others, Mike Hammer is on the case.

The narrator is wonderful. His baritone street savvy voice adds positively to the listening experience.

This short read is satisfying on many levels. Collins excellently reflects the period (1960’s) through various references that add to the creating the right mood through setting. Never having read a bad Spillane/Collins Hammer novel, dare I say this is my favorite? As always, pick these books up in any order, the author helps the reader to know what needs to be known so that said reader can sit back, read, and enjoy the ride.

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Great All Around Novel

Revisado: 09-15-23

A young widow is surprised to find a home and property (the St. Mary’s Bluff of the title) left to her by her husband who had been working on it, without her knowledge when he died.
The mystery of the house and why he was keeping it up and had not told her of its existence is just the first mystery of many in this well written, exciting story.
Using the background- history and current locations, and the way of life in St. Mary’s County, Maryland the author provides a page-turner which is satisfying on many levels - parts thriller, mystery and romance.
The narrator is perfect. She fits the “voice” of the main character well and offers clear audible choices of the supporting ones without getting in the way of the listener’s experience.
I was enjoying this book so much that I bought the audible version so that I could continue listening while driving!

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A Classic

Revisado: 03-26-23

Though not my favorite Marlowe novel, this one still packs a punch and contains memorable characters and dialogue. Though Scott Brick is a,stellar narrator I feel he does not capture the private eye. Written with dialogue that is both musing and humorous, Brick comes at it hard and tough too often which does not fit the character as well.

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Great Series, Entry and Author

Revisado: 12-29-22

The Preacher, a former Episcopal priest and soldier and now a poker player continues his adventures. In this stellar second installment he is pulled into investigating what happened when a private poker game he is in is attacked. When the victim is holding the “dead man’s hand in playing cards (the Aces and Eights in the title) and those same pasteboards appear at other crime scenes, The Preacher is pulled into action.
Frankly, the story and plot are enough, but I so love the author’s writing. Hearing it read by the capable narrator makes me wish that both this book was longer as well as the only three volume series.
One could pick up this second entry, not having read the first and be in sync with the story, however the first book is worth the read as well.

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Recording Fixed!

Revisado: 12-11-22

The book is good and entertaining. Think Agatha Christie with a dash of wokeness. This equals a modern fun mystery that will keep the listener guessing. My previous review only had a problem with the recording itself, but they have added back the two chapters that they inadvertently left out.

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A Lovely Leap into a Fictional Life

Revisado: 10-25-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

A Week as Andrea Benstock is an interesting read. Written by prolific mystery author, Lawrence Block, this re-print affixes his name to his work, originally attributed to a pseudonym Jill Emerson, this novel is an interesting literary read. The reader follows the life of a young woman, Andrea, through seven chapters interestingly presented as various snapshots from her life. s a young woman and more romance. Each chapter not only represents a subsequent day of the week (beginning with Sunday), but also takes place one year later. Thus, the reader gest to know the young adult protagonist as she narrates her thoughts throughout various stages of one’s life where change impacts the rhythm and relationships we all navigate. Marriage, birth, and more are plot devices that help to frame the story.
The work was not one that is normally in my “to read” pile, but the author does a wonderful job, through the aforementioned story-telling device, to immerse the reader into the life of another, and I was captivated from the beginning. The author was assisted, in this audio addition, by the narration of Barbara Nevins Taylor. A narrator can often make or break a story, and it is the former here. The voice “connected” to the protagonist and was both listenable and engaging. I am delighted that I got to hear this audiobook for free, with the encouragement that I would leave, as I do here, an honest review of my listening experience.

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A Delightful Book on Mysteries.

Revisado: 09-12-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

The Crime of Our Lives presents a series of essays by Lawrence Block about his life, his friendships and mystery novels, their authors and even a literary agent.

Though I was not sure what I would discover in this audiobook I found within a delightful listen. Block, an author of many novels first talks about his life and how he discovered the genre. Subsequent chapters are essays that were previously published in forwards to an author’s work or a magazine article.

Because his core story does not change the audio reader will hear some repetition but that does not get in the way. The stories within about authors are wonderful. Block delivers information with relaxed humor which made me feel as if I was sitting with a friend who was telling me about what he loves.

Another plus to hearing this work is that I, who consider myself well read in the genre, is that it opened a door to authors whose writings I have not yet discovered.

The narrator of this audiobook, Richard M. Neer, reads the book effortlessly, making my ear believe I was hearing the author with his relaxed conversational style.

In summary, I absolutely loved The Crime of Our Lives. My guess is that If you enjoy Lawrence Block, or just like mystery stories or want to know more about what goes on in the lives of writers, than you will also enjoy this fine book!

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Not As Good As It Should Be

Revisado: 07-02-21

thankfully, I had the opportunity to read the radio scripts for this program when they were published. I encourage you if you like this program, or want to like it, find those scripts and read them.

Though the cast on this does their best comedy actors doing Groucho and Chico I do admirable work, the writing leaves something to be desired. They take the original scripts and flush them out to be longer shows. With that flashing comes everything from music and comedy from Marx brothers movies too tired old ideas that were run into the ground years ago.

Unfortunately the cast is not made up of only the two Marx brothers, and I found some of the recurring cast members voices to be quite irritating particularly the lady as she plays either the secretary or the Margaret Dumont character.

At some point, around the fourth or fifth episode I had to surrender and say “no more!“

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Fun and Action Filled Tale

Revisado: 05-22-21 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Monkey Wrench is a fun thrilling tale. The story centers on a recovering thief who is helping to look for money left over from a heist, presumably from another book in the series which I did not read. The good news is that this book contains enough plot details, past and present, to keep a reader/listeners interest. From the get-go the story moved and was a figurative page turner for me.
The narration was spot on. Mr. Holland got the character’s voices and attitudes which added to the enjoyment of this listen.

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Horrid Rewrite of History

Revisado: 05-06-21

Once I head the line (which went something like ) “and yet she persisted,” I knew from that “woke” code that what was a tedious yet well written retelling of events that led to Agatha Christie going into hiding, that there was an agenda. And their was.

For those who know nothing about this episode in the author’s life you get the set up here. Husband begins to alienate affections from Christie. Later it is revealed that there is another woman.

Erased from this story is the better half. What happened during that lost period? The best revelation can be read between the lines of Kathleen Tynan’s “Agatha,” a book that was quickly fictionalized and ending altered to either avoid lawsuits with the Christie estate or that publishers determined the author was too beloved to reveal the truth (the film puts the ending back on what most likely the intent of Christie was).

Instead in modern wokeness none of the negative towards Christie is revealed - severe depression over her mother’s death, attempt at either suicide or murder - the fact that she followed her husband’s lover,stalking her, is never mentioned in this book.

It was a long trek for no payoff. 90% of the book repeats history. 10% makes the rest up to summarize “men bad, women good.”

Some will probably love this narrative feeding tripe. Not I,said someone who lives in realists.

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