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a massive constrictor. The book gets its name from the part<br />
of the nuclear plant that cools the radioactive material used<br />
to produce energy.<br />
Mel Foster’s reading was unobtrusive and professional,<br />
as one would expect from this veteran.<br />
THE BROKEN WINDOW by Jeffery Deaver<br />
(Audioworks Unabridged, $49.95). Read by Dennis<br />
Boutsikaris. Ratings: Book: A- Reader: A Lincoln<br />
Rhyme gets a frantic call from his cousin's wife informing<br />
him that Arthur Rhyme has been arrested for homicide -and<br />
that the evidence appears to be very convincing.<br />
Reluctantly he agrees to help out and before too long he<br />
begins to suspect that something fishy is going on. He<br />
knows his cousin is not stupid, yet a lot of evidence is left for<br />
the police to collect. It would have been a very simple<br />
matter to destroy this evidence. Add to that the bewildered<br />
Arthur who claims he didn't even know the victim. Is he<br />
being framed? Before long, Lincoln is on the trail of a very<br />
clever criminal, who somehow taps into megacomputers<br />
that mine data so that he knows a substantial amount of<br />
information about his victims and the people he frames for<br />
his crimes.<br />
This series of cds saved me from utter boredom on<br />
a long automobile trip from California to Utah. Even my<br />
17-year-old son got hooked on the story and the time<br />
passed quite quickly for us. There was only one part that<br />
lagged and that was when Deaver went to great lengths to<br />
explain the ins and outs of data mining. A shorter<br />
explanation would have sufficed and the pacing suffered<br />
through that part of the narrative.<br />
The reader was very professional in his narration<br />
and I could find no fault in it.<br />
QUIVER by Peter Leonard (Macmillan Audio,<br />
Unabridged, $29.95). Read by Scott Sowers. Ratings:<br />
Book: B+ Reader: A- Kate McCall's husband has been<br />
killed in a hunting accident by their teen-aged son Luke. As<br />
Kate struggles with her son's erractic behavior, she encounter<br />
a former lover Jack, whose life has gone in an entirely<br />
different direction since they split up. Fresh out of prison<br />
he's looking for a meal ticket and he thinks he's found on<br />
in the very wealthy Kate.<br />
Jack went to prison for a robbery and his partners<br />
in crime are waiting for his release to get their share.<br />
Trouble is he hid it in the ceiling of a motel, which was<br />
demolished before he got out of prison. They pressure him<br />
for money anyway and want him to get it out of Kate, which<br />
leads to all sorts of complications with a cast of characters<br />
right out of an Elmore Leonard tale.<br />
I found it hard to relate to any of the characters so<br />
the book, though well written, didn't resonate with me as<br />
much as I would like.<br />
The reader did a fine job, though, and should be<br />
commended for his work.<br />
There were a couple of audio books I got into but<br />
just couldn't finish. The abridged version of Nevada Barr's<br />
WINTER STUDY not only failed to capture my interest,<br />
but some parts just didn't make sense to me. I found myself<br />
<strong>Deadly</strong> <strong>Pleasures</strong><br />
63<br />
scanning the book to see if I could figure out what was<br />
going on (a sure sign an audio book is in trouble.) I gave<br />
up after three discs. I've heard good things about the book<br />
itself so I have to conclude that the abridgement wasn't<br />
done very well. I wondered why I wasn't sent the<br />
unabridged version (which I almost always get and the<br />
other day I figured it out when I noticed in a book store that<br />
the unabridged version is done by another company. How<br />
odd.<br />
The other audio book I had trouble with was Ace<br />
Atkins' WICKED CITY. The story seemed to take<br />
forever to get going and I had a lot of trouble distinguishing<br />
between characters -- to me several of voices sounded<br />
very much alike to me, which surprised me because the<br />
reader was the very talented Dick Hill.<br />
The Critics Award 2008<br />
Sponsored by<br />
The Strand Magazine<br />
Best Novel<br />
WHAT THE DEAD KNOW by Laura Lippman<br />
– Winner<br />
Down River by John Hart<br />
The Shotgun Rule by Charlie Huston<br />
The Strangler by William Landay<br />
The Watchman by Robert Crais<br />
Best First Novel<br />
THE BLADE ITSELF by Marcus Sakey –<br />
Winner<br />
In the Woods by Tana French<br />
The Mark by Jason Pinter<br />
Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell<br />
When One Man Dies by Dave White<br />
Voted on by a panel of very well-known mystery<br />
critics: Larry Gandle, Oline Cogdill, Dick Lochte,<br />
Hallie Ephron, David Montgomery, Sarah<br />
Weinman, David Anderson and Andrew Gulli.
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