|
Audio memoirs and mysteries
REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD
By Faye Kellerman Simon & Schuster Audio, $25 ISBN 0671577603
More Elmore
By Elmore Leonard BDD Audio, $25.95 ISBN 0553527517
The legal eagle has landed
By Tim Green Time Warner Audiobooks, $24.95 ISBN 1586210238
Dick does it again
By Dick Francis Brilliance Audio, $29.95 ISBN 1587880636 Putnam Berkley Audio, $17.95 ISBN 0399146776
Sukey Howard reports on spoken word audio each month.
|
Support your 
Faye Kellerman's newest, Stalker, is billed as A Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Novel, but it's really more of a Cindy Decker novel. Cindy, Peter's smart, pretty, 25-year-old daughter, has followed Daddy's footsteps, much to his distress, and joined the LAPD. Now, in her first year as a cop, she's enduring the slings and arrows shot at rookies—especially college grads with well-known dads—and doing an admirable job. Suddenly, that ordinary hazing takes a nasty turn, as someone starts sending her not-so-subtle messages to lay off the car-jacking/murder case she's unofficially working on or face the dangerous consequences. Peter and Rina are there, but Kellerman's focus is definitely on the daughter and that's fine—she's a great addition to an already excellent series. Reader Jay O. Sanders, always a pro, keeps the tension mounting.
If you were expecting Chili Palmer, think again, this new Elmore Leonard caper has an entirely new set of characters. But fear not, the crew in Pagan Babies is as off-beat, mean street and Leonardesque as could be hoped for, and they follow a plot that only the shamelessly crooked could perambulate. We've got Father Terry Dunn—well, the "Father" part may need a little clarification—late of Rwanda and the horrors of the recent massacres, now in Detroit to score some cash, a couple of his old cronies, a savvy, sassy young woman who's just been sprung from Sawgrass Correctional, some Mafiosi wannabes and some card-carrying Capos. Leonard sets this oddball bunch in motion, adds his crackling dialogue, deftly rendered by Steve Buscemi, and poses some real questions about loyalty, trust and betrayal.
The cast of characters in Tim Green's new legal thriller, The Letter of the Law, ably performed by Keith Szarabajka, is a little more conventional but a little more lethal, too. Eric Lipton, a super-smart, super-suave, nationally known law professor, has been accused of the grisly murder and mutilation of a young law student. Casey Jordan, a beautiful, brilliant, top-notch defense attorney who likes high profile, big-buck clients, is asked to represent him. If anyone can manipulate a jury and stay within the letter of the law, it's Casey . . . but it's possible that she's being manipulated herself. Sergeant Bo Bolinger, on the case from the beginning, isn't as easy to manage, nor is the murdered girl's grief-stricken, justice-obsessed father. My verdict: a compelling, adrenaline-pumping audio that will keep you glued to the edge of your seat (unless you're on the Stairmaster).
A new, race-paced Dick Francis mystery is always a safe bet for bestsellerdom. Shattered, available in a seven-hour unabridged version read by Fiacre Douglas, and in a three hour abridgement read by Martin Jarvis, proves yet again that Francis knows his turf and knows how to turn out a winner.