Sukey's Favorite

Elizabeth & Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens
By Jane Dunn
Random House AudioBooks, $29.95
6.5 hours abridged, CD, ISBN 073930982X

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Royal rivals Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots have long intrigued writers, historians and moviemakers. But strangely there's never been a dual biography of their irrevocably intertwined lives. Jane Dunn rectifies that omission in Elizabeth & Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens, her brilliant, wonderfully researched assessment of these very different rulers and their dynamic, ever-changing relationship, read here in buttery British tones by Isla Blair. Now we hear their words, and we can see these two extraordinary women, who never met in person, as real people, freed from the myths that surround them. The princely, pragmatic Elizabeth—who sacrificed the personal to marry England and her subjects—could be witty, salty and incredibly canny. Mary—enchanting, flirtatious, led by her passions—had a fatal lack of discretion and disastrously poor judgment in politics and partners. In the end, Mary had to lose her headstrong head for the crown to sit firmly on Elizabeth's.

Postcards from over the edge

REVIEWS BY SUKEY HOWARD

Yes—wild, wisecracking, ever-addicted, never-quite-made-it-as-a-silver-screen-siren Suzanne Vale is back in The Best Awful, Carrie Fisher's latest insider take on the underside of life in the Hollywood fishbowl. Last heard from in Postcards from the Edge, Suzanne has since acquired and lost a suave, successful, caring husband (who forgot to tell her he was gay) with whom she had Honey, a bright, beautiful daughter, now six years old. Honey, the apple of her eye, should keep Suzanne on the straight and narrow, or at least on her meds, but those bipolar ice caps on her screwed-up psyche keep slipping and sliding, finally sending her over the edge. Funny, frank, a poignant punch line to a life that should be more than a joke, this isn't exactly an anatomy of mental illness, but Fisher does make Suzanne's manic mood swings imaginable and moving. The author reads, giving her dialogue the zing it deserves.


Without a clue

The pros say that after 36 hours the trail of a missing person gets cold. But when the missing person is your husband—a Minneapolis police officer on his way to Quantico for FBI training—who has disappeared without a clue, and you're an experienced missing-persons investigator, you head down that cold trail, hoping against hope to beat the odds. That's what Sarah Pribek, a smart, steady-nerved detective in the Hennepin County Sheriff's office, does in Jodi Compton's intricately plotted debut dazzler, The 37th Hour, deftly read by Bernadette Quigley. This is serious crime fiction, with multilayered flashbacks that flesh out complex characters whose confounded emotions ring true. There are no clichés, no heart-pounding chases, but there is true suspense. Let's hope we'll hear more from this new kid on the crime scene.


Success demands paranoia

That's what the preternaturally nasty CEO of Wyatt Telecom beat into his employees. And what else does success demand in the multi-mega-buck high stakes of corporate competition? Adam Cassidy, a young man who hates his low-level job at Wyatt and uses his time and talents to manipulate the system rather than rise in it, is about to find out in Paranoia, Joseph Finder's fast-paced, tension-laced doozie of a corporate thriller-diller. Forced into the tricky, treacherous, topsy-turvy world of corporate espionage where nothing is as it seems and no one should be trusted, Adam discovers what evil lurks in the hearts of high-tech titans and begins to find out who he really is. Scott Brick reads, infusing Adam's narrative with the right combo of cool, growing anxiety, anger and dismay.


Audios may be available in formats other than the ones reviewed here.

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