The Spire, by Richard North Patterson

This audiobook was obtained from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library web site. It was 11 hours and 3 minutes long, and was narrated by Holter Graham.

Mark Darrow was a star quarterback at his high school, but going nowhere, when he is offered a scholarship by the Provost at a local college that probably plays at division 3. It's a great opportunity for this orphan who lives with the family of his best friend, Steve Tillman. Mark accepts on the grounds that a place can be found for his Steve, and the Provost, ex-military Lionel Farr.

At the end of Mark's time at Caldwell College, he stumbles across the body of a young black woman, a student he knew fairly well, who was strangled at left at the foot of The Spire, a major landmark at the college. He is quickly cleared, but his friend, Steve, was the last person seen with her. He is arrested, tried and convicted.

Sixteen years later, Mark is a very successful attorney, and very recently widowed. The Provost calls him to come back and be the college President after the past President was investigated for embezzlement. Mark agrees, but he quickly finds himself at odds with a board that has its mind made up about how to pursue the investigation. And he just cannot let go of the unlikely conviction of Steve Tillman for murder.

Although it's hard to get past a 38 year old college President, the character is superbly written. And although figuring out the villain was not overly challenging, it was still a good story apart from that. I give it 3 stars.

The Hunted, by Brian Haig

This audiobook was 18 hours and 13 minutes long, and was obtained from Overdrive Audio through the Alachua County Public Library. It was narrated by Scott Brick.

A better than average story with below average heroes and above average villains, this novel about a young Russian billionaire has enough bright spots to keep you engaged, but could have been a lot shorter.

Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, capitalism is beginning to get a foothold, and young Alex Konevitch has made a fortune in arbitrage and banking. He has used his substantial fortune to back Boris Yeltsin, thus helping the fall of communism in a big way. Angry, vindictive KGB officers want to know who has been helping Yeltsin, and when they discover what Alex has done, they begin to use their connections and ruthlessness to ruin him.

After being kidnapped, tortured, and forced to sign over his holdings to a former KGB general, Alex and his wife, Elena, escape and spend months being hunted from Europe to the US, and then persecuted by the FBI, whose politically opportunistic director wants to trade them to Russia for a favorable working relationship.

There is a line between the plausible and the laughable, and this story crossed it just enough times to make it a disappointment. Still, some of it is really good, so that salvages 2 and 1/2 stars for it.

Bones, by Jonathan Kellerman

This audio book was 12 hours long, in Windows Media format, and was read by John Rubenstein.

This is the 23rd novel based on the Psychologist, Alex Delaware. He is joined by his regular sidekick, Detective Milo Sturgis, to solve some murders where the bodies are turning up in a protected marsh land, without one of their hands.

This is a typical Kellerman murder mystery that gives you a lot of shifty people to consider while trying to solve the crime. Newcomers to this series will find it interesting that Sturgis is gay, but working against type. He's an overweight, cigar smoking curmudgeon that hates exercise and bad guys. Alex is kinda straight, living with a hottie who makes musical instruments for rock stars, and is squeamish with firearms.

This one is worth 3 stars.

The Associate, by John Grisham

An idealistic Yale law student named Kyle McEvoy has a very promising future ahead of him if it weren't for his troubling past. While at Duquense University he was at a frat party where a girl claims she was raped. The case was thrown out, but new evidence has surfaced. Apparently, one of the frat brothers set his cell phone camera on a counter where it could capture the action, and that video is now in the hands of some very dangerous people who need a young lawyer in place at a prestigious law firm that is handling a lawsuit that involves sensitive defense contracts. Kyle had planned on doing good deeds for some non-profits when he got out of school, but now he has to spy for these bad guys or risk ruin and jail.

It's pretty predictable and the ending is not very satisfying, but it is fast moving and interesting. I liked it enough to finish it, but I wasn't all that happy at the end. I give it 2 stars.

No Country For Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy

This audiobook was obtained for free from NetLibrary.com through the Alachua County Library. It was 7 hours and 28 minutes long and was narrated by Tom Stechshulte.

This book takes place in the 80s. Llewelyn Moss is a 36 year-old Viet-Nam War veteran who is out hunting along the Tex-Mex border. He happens upon a bullet-riddled car with a dying man, along with a stash of heroin and a lot of cash. Someone is coming for this soon, and Moss decides to take the cash and run.

Now there is a very bad man hunting for the money and the man who took it. This sets Moss on the run and his wife to hide with relatives. But it's no good. There is a trail that has been left unwittingly. It is either kill or be killed.

Most of this book is fast-moving and riveting. Unfortunately, the wheels come off at the end and the ending is most unsatisfactory. I hear the movie is just like it. It's only 2 stars.

The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke

This audiobook was obtained from NetLibrary.com, through the Alachua County Library. It was 13 hours and 2 minutes long, and was narrated by Will Patton.

This is my second post-Katrina New Orleans crime novel in the past two weeks. In this story, four young black looters are using a stolen motorboat to get to the abandoned homes of the wealthy, and run into a bit of bad luck. And that's to put it mildly. First, they score a big load of cash, cocaine, and a hand gun from a home that is owned by one of New Orleans' most feared and vindictive crime boss. Second, they decide to steal a gas can from a garage so they can refuel their boat. The garage happens to belong to a man whose daughter was raped by two of the men. A shot rings out in the dark, and one is killed and another paralyzed.

New Iberia Sheriff's Department Detective Dave Robicheaux is mobilized to help in New Orleans, and he is tasked with investigating this crime in a sea of wrongdoing. The crime boss, Sidney Kovick, is also mobilizing his people to find the people who sacked his house and urinated in the spice drawer.

This is one of the better Dave Robicheaux novels in a long time. I had thought it might be time to retire Dave, but I was wrong. I get a little weary of his frequent political asides, but Dave is a flawed man, so one more is not so noticeable if you let yourself get absorbed by the story. And this one is easy to fall into. This one gets 4 stars.

Last Known Victim. by Erica Spindler

This audiobook was obtained for free from Overdrive Audio, through the Alachua County Public Library. It was 11 hours and 51 minutes long, and was narrated by Susan Ericksen.

I thought I was discovering a new author, but as I was searching for the cover art, I discovered that she has 12 titles in print, and that there are 8 books that are no longer in print. It goes to show you that you can develop a fan base while much of your market still does not know you exist.

This book is about Patti O'Shay, a police captain in New Orleans, who lost her husband, another police officer, during the upheaval of Hurricane Katrina. There is some evidence linking his death to an at-large serial killer the press has labeled "The Handyman" because he collects his female victims' hands. Suck a collection is discovered when a stinking refrigerator is found, after Katrina, with some decomposing trophies.

The Handyman has survived, however. And he is stalking an exotic dancer who distrusts the police so much that she tells them enough lies to screw up the investigation, and to make herself a possible suspect.

At times, it seemed like this book was just too busy. The love lives of the characters were not interesting enough to rate the distraction it created. However, the characters are well written and complex enough to be believable. It's a 3 star book.

Easy Prey, by John Sandford

This audiobook was a free download from NetLibrary.com, was 12 hours and 37 minutes long, and was narrated by Richard Ferrone.

I am not reading these in order, just as I find them. This is the 11th in the Prey series about detective Lucas Davenport. He is investigating the deaths of two women who were at the same party. One is a local hotel hostess who had her neck broken and was stuffed in a closet. But they didn't find her until after they had found a strangled, and world famous, supermodel.

The order of these discoveries is meaningful because it is also the root of the investigation's misdirection. It is focused on the high-profile victim, and who would want to kill her.

This is a typical good story and good characters from an author who consistently delivers. And Richard Ferrone is the perfect narrator for the Davenport stories.

As a dedicated Davenport fan, I take note of the appearance of certain characters. In this one, Lucas is still on a break from his former lover, Weather Karkinnan. In later books, they will be married. This one was good but not outstanding at 3 stars.

Shadow Account, by Stephen Frey

This audiobook was gotten from the Alachua County Public Library, was on 10 CDs and was read by Ken Kliban.

Connor Ashby is a young investment banker, lounging in his apartment with his hot girlfriend when he checks his email. It appears to have been sent to him by mistake. It's from someone named "Rusty" who is panicking and telling his boss that their book-cooking plot is about to be uncovered. As he is contemplating the origin of this missive, hot girlfriend asks him to go out and get her something. When he comes back, his apartment has been trashed, the girl is dead, and there is an armed man with bad aim still inside. Connor escapes with only a minor wound, but when he gets back with the police, the apartment is in good order, the girlfriend is gone, and now it's about to get complicated.

This promising start loses its way when it becomes tangled with yet another complicated story that is populated with less interesting characters. This book was needlessly complex and the story too improbable. It's like the mad scientist who is leaving the hero to die as soon as the rats chew through the cheese-encrusted rope that holds back the net full of hungry fiddler crabs that are lusting for human flesh. There has to be a simpler way to get things done.

I give it 2 stars for at least keeping me from moving on to the next book.

Hidden Prey, by John Sanford

This audiobook was obtained from Netlibrary.com for free, was narrated by Rick Ferrone, and was 12 hours and 41 minutes long, including an author interview at the end.

Lucas Davenport, tough as nails detective, is trying to solve two murders that seem totally unconnected. This is number 15 in John Sanford's "Prey" series, and it is one of the better ones. You can always count on good characters and good writing, but this one has that special element of an intriguing idea: a leftover Soviet spy cell that has been in place since before WW2 has never been exposed and has never given up on the Revolution.

Spying has been a sort of family business. But in Minnesota, their specialty has not been cloak and dagger; it's been more like the underground railroad. They helped extract operatives through the Canadian border. But the 92 year-old patriarch has been grooming his grandson for the business by teaching him the darker arts. And the kid is getting good at it.

Lucas Davenport has evolved from the earlier books, that featured deranged serial killers and a regular change in love interests. Lucas is now married to a longtime lover, and he seems fairly domesticated.

This gets 4 stars. It's good to see Sanford back. I will always check his books out.

Straight Into Darkness, by Faye Kellerman

This audiobook came from the Alachua County Library, was on 12 CDs, and was narrated by Paul Michael.

Axel Berg is a Munich policeman during the mid 1920s. He is investigating a series of brutal murders in the midst of tumultuous time. Hitler is on the rise, Jews are expendable, and they make excellent suspects. The trouble is that Berg is a conscientious policeman who wants to catch the actual killer. He also has a hard time fitting in with the anti-semitic mania. He is not a lover of the Jews, but neither can he be bothered looking for reasons to persecute them. He is a WW1 veteran, of Danish origins, fond of "subversive" art and music, and cheats on his wife. He is not lovable, but in contrast to the lunacy around him, he is heroic.

Excellent characters in a solid story during intriguing times, this one just slips into 4 star territory.

The Blue Hour, by T. Jefferson Parker

This book came from the Alachua County Library and took up 9 compact discs.

I have liked most of Parker's other books, which is why I picked up this one. Unfortunately, I really didn't like it.

Maybe I am sick of serial killers. Maybe it's hard to keep this genre fresh. Or maybe the characters just never got any traction with me.

For starters, there is Tim Hess, a cop who has come out of retirement, even though he is taking chemotherapy. He is teamed up with an ambitious, hard case hottie named Meci Rayborn, who is half his age. Can you see it coming?

A series of gruesome murders are taking place, except there are no bodies. The killer drains them, embalms them, and saves them somewhere, leaving their purses behind. One of their suspects is Romanian born Matamoros Colesceau, who has undergone chemical castration. He is due to be released, and his chemicals withdrawn. The whole neighborhood now knows who he is, and he is under siege by cameras and angry neighbors who are counting the days until he is relocated.

Tim is just not engaging enough. Merci is just annoying. Colesceau is simply pathetic. I was glad to take frequent breaks from this book. That's why it gets 1 star.

Thieves' Paradise, by Eric Jerome Dickey

This book also comes from the Alachua County Public Library, was on 12 CDs, 12 hours and 30 minutes long, and narrated by Bill Andrew Quinn. I plucked this one off the shelf because I recognized the author's name, and I knew I had never read him.

At 25 years old, Dante Brown has no family, no job, and plenty of baggage. He did a long stretch in juvenile hall as a teenager after he pulled a gun on his abusive father, who was also a police officer. Both parents are now dead, and his luck has been more down than up. While waiting for a new employer to call him, Dante falls back on the safety net offered by Scamz, a slick con-man who provides short term employment for the entire black community at one time or another. At least it seems that way in this story.

I found this story rather disturbing because it looks like every black person with a legitimate job only serves as an undercover asset for Scamz: stealing credit card information, acting as a courier for stolen plastic, assisting in real-estate swindles. And every woman is a snake. They are either trying to tag some innocent dupe to be the daddy of someone else's child, stepping out on the dupe, or doing anything for money. If I had written this, I could expect to see my face on Fox News right next to Reverend Al's talking head.

If this is just an "authentic novel about black culture", it's a serious downer. I find it hard to believe that every African-American is on retainer for an ad hoc firm of grifters. I don't know anyone like this. Or maybe I do and I just don't know it.

A very sad story well-written, for which I cannot forgive its infectious negativity. It gets 2 ambivalent stars.

Conviction, by Richard North Patterson

This unabridged audiobook was obtained from the Alachua County Library, was on 14 CDs, originally published in 2005, and narrated by Patricia Kalember.

I've enjoyed most of Richard North Patterson's books, but they have been getting preachier. So, if you are a death penalty opponent and you don't like to have your convictions questioned at any point in your literature, this one is for you.

Rennell Price is on death row, along with his brother, for a sex crime and murder of a 9 year-old girl. Rennell has been on death row for 15 years, and ever since the day he was picked up by the police, he has asserted that he, "didn't do that little girl". Unfortunately, Rennell is borderline retarded, had a totally useless attorney, and with only a month before he is to be executed, he gets a new attorney with a functioning brain.

Of course there is reasonable doubt, and no evidence actually tying him to the crime. But if it takes a harmonic convergence of ineptitude, prosecutor meanness, and bad law, from the bottom all the way to the Supreme Court, all you have to do is write it to make it happen.

The characters are well-written and engaging, but that is the least I expect from Mr. Patterson. But if my eyes get repetitive motion injuries from rolling throughout the story, something is definitely wrong here. On the count of propagandizing with intent to outrage, I find the defendant guilty. The mitigating factor of good prose makes me go easy on him: 2 stars.

Gone, by Jonathan Kellerman

I got this book on tape from the library. It's on 7 tapes and is 11 hours and 46 minutes long, and read by John Rubenstein.

Gone is the 23rd novel that features Dr. Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who periodically does some work for the police. This work usually involves helping a police detective solve grisly serial murders. The detective that gets paired with Delaware is Milo Sturgis, a rumpled, dumpy, cynical cop who is an outsider at his department because he is gay and out of the closet. He is also the best written character in these books. Sturgis is all business, with his sexuality only being a part of his personal landscape.

In this story, a series of disappearances is linked to an acting workshop led by ditzy heiress. She has two brothers. one of whom is the "responsible one" who handles the family estate, while the other is borderline retarded. The family's rental properties are cleaned by another man who has a history of being a peeping tom, and everyone who lives near him keeps their kids away from him.

Kellerman's strength is his characters. The stories are hit and miss. This one is typical of his work, so it is fairly predictable. If all his characters were as well done as Sturgis, it would be easier to forgive him. Alex Delaware serves a necessary purpose, but he has never caught on with me. The women in his life are superfluous. He has been apart from his usual love interest, Robin, who is a fairly two-dimensional hottie. I was disappointed to see that she was back, and that she has had custody of Alex's dog, Spike. I mean, what kind of man lets a woman dump him AND take his dog??

John Rubenstein's narration and the pleasure of Milo Sturgis' company are all that save this from being a real dud. But it still gets only 2 stars.

Pegasus Descending, by James Lee Burke

I got this book from the library on compact disc, so I cannot tell you offhand how may hours long it was. It came on 11 discs and was read by Will Patton.

I know we just did a JLB novel recently, but people line up to get them at the library, so I have to be opportunistic. This one was released just last year, and it is yet another Dave Robicheaux novel. Dave is an on again off again Iberia County Sheriff's Detective, as well as an on again off again dry alcoholic. He is on his third or fourth wife, Molly, an ex-nun with leftist political tendencies.

Dave is once again doing battle with the dirtbags of privilege as he is investigating the death of a homeless man, the apparent suicide of a young girl, and a group of grifters who are trying to take down a local gangster as an act of revenge for a murder committed long ago. Yes, resurfacing evil from a bygone era is a recurring theme in these books. And since this is Louisiana we're talking about, the swamps are full of hastily sunken evil.

As usual, there is the poetic descriptions of the creepy southern crime scenes and romantic poverty, juxtaposed with trash-talking bad guys and cops with flexible consciences. Burke writes about promiscuous and vulgar people as well as anyone. He is a good story teller. But what is troubling is that I have started to do the math on Dave Robicheaux. If Dave was 20 years old in 1958, he is now 69, getting into brutal bar fights, taking beatings, and does not need to take a pill 30 minutes before intercourse. Dave is a baby-boomer fantasy. It's time that he retires, and puts down his three-legged pet raccoon, Tripod. Maybe in some future Dave Robicheaux novel, Dave will be solving cases in his nursing home, but I doubt it.

This was a 3 star book, but the series is beginning to stretch credulity.

Crusaders Cross, by James Lee Burke

This book was 10 hours and 43 minutes long, was read by Will Patton, and is the fourteenth novel based on Louisiana cop/ex-cop Dave Robicheaux.

James Lee Burke is one of my guilty pleasures. His books are not for people with delicate sensibilities. They are bloody and profane and take place in a place that was, in my opinion, the bleeding sore of Western Civilization before Hurricane Katrina attempted to flush it away. It is a credit to Burke's power as a writer that he is able to romanticize the world of alcoholic lawman Dave Robicheaux in such a way that transforms him into some kind of Southern warrior-poet who battles the living gargoyles of a Gothic-Noir netherworld.

Burke's novels are not content to live in the present, and this one is no different. It begins as a trip down a trash-strewn memory lane to a time when Dave and his half-brother, Jimmie, lose track of time on a sandbar, and are stranded there when the tide comes in and they are surrounded by sharks as the water gets deeper. A girl in a boat comes out and rescues them, and Jimmie falls for the girl, unaware that she has a pimp and has no life of her own.

Jimmie tries to help her get out of "the life" and falls just minutes short of rescuing her before her pimp leaves town with her with vengeance on his mind. That was in 1958, and Jimmie has spent the rest of his life keeping hope alive that she was not killed for her attempt to escape the business.

Many years later, the girl in the boat resurfaces as part of a tangled mess that is getting cleaned up the old-fashioned way: killing off the participants. Dave has recently been restored to his position on the Iberia County Sheriff's Detective squad to help find a serial killer among the low-lifes he knows so well.

The writing is much better than the plot in this one. And that happens a lot when you've milked a character dry. And there are still 3 Dave Robicheaux novels after this one. It's worth 3 stars, especially if you've never read Burke before.

Deal on Ice, by Les Standiford

This book was published in 1998, was 9 hours and 57 minutes long, and was narrated by Ron McLarty.

Miami Building contractor John Deal gets caught up in a televangelists plot to take over a media outlet when his friend, who owns an eclectic bookstore, is killed by hired assassins.

This is even dumber than it sounds. Since this is one of a series of John Deal mysteries, I am now relieved of tracking this author and his work. One star.

Burglars Can't Be Choosers, by Lawrence Block

This book was 6 hours and 34 minutes long, and was narrated by Rick Ferrone.

I eagerly snapped up this one from NetLibrary because I recognized this as the first book in the series about the bookish burglar, Bernie Rhonebarr. I have read some of the other books in this series, and found them to be entertaining with likable characters. They were light fare, written well.

I was pretty disappointed. Not only was this one a bit raunchier than the others, but the solution to the crime was pretty implausible and unsatisfying. This came out originally in 1977, so maybe the Disco Era was having a bad influence on everyone, even crime writers.

Others may like this more than I did, largely because I had higher expectations. I give it 1 star, but you may give it 2.

Violation, by Darian North

This book was written in 1999, was 10 hours and 16 minutes long, and was narrated by Ed Sala.

A cautionary tale about chat rooms and the power of clever people to manipulate others in the online world. However, this story fails to get inside your head in a holistic way. It attempts to jumpstart that process periodically by trying to shock you, but it keeps sliding back into the same droning story about people who just aren't real enough.

A woman who was raped and suffered a brain injury 14 years earlier is now raising a son in another part of the country with the son she conceived on the night she was raped. She has been hiding this from her son, who knows his mom is lying to him about his father.

Their landlord is a retired LAPD detective who is idolized by the boy, and he tries to help the woman find her son after the kid runs away with the help of a man the boy met online. However, the woman and the landlord discover this separately, so mom thinks the ex-cop is the culprit. It's a cross country chase, which would have been a better story if the characters were better written. I give it 2 stars.