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THE RACKETEER by John Grisham

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    It's not great literature but it is certainly entertaining. Originally published in October of 2012 John Grisham and I have an on again, off again relationship (as reader and writer, I have not had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman in person). I grew tired of his legal thrillers and of late I have been occasionally listening to his regular novels like A Painted House or Bleachers .  This is my first legal thriller of Grisham's that I have read in more than five years, but even Grisham admits in the author's note that as a thriller it's fairly long on story and not so deep on the minutiae of the courthouse. All that is true, but it is a compelling read - a real page turner that I blasted through at a very fast pace for me (I tend to doggedly plod through books rather than blast through them). The story starts out simply enough. A small town black lawyer named Malcolm Bannister gets caught up in a real estate scheme thought up by a Washington, D.C. insi

HARD PLACE (short story) (kindle) by Ernie Lindsey

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Published in 2013 as an e-book short story. Approximate length: 46 pages. Alan Parker is a professional killer who works for an employer called The Company. His wife also works for The Company but she is currently in the last stages of an unsuccessful fight with cancer. It is not really clear if The Company is a government entity or not, but any way you slice it The Company has lots and lots of resources, including an impressive list of hired assassins. Parker (nicknamed "Boom") is one of the very best, but a series of mistakes made his last hit a failure and The Company rarely forgives failure. Photo by Niels Noordhoek So, "Boom" Parker knows that he cannot mess up his new assignment. He has been sent to kill a female scientist that is working on a bio-fuel that threatens the big oil companies. But, this case starts out badly (it looks like someone has already killed his target or, at least, botched an attempt on her) and as he looks for her he finds

IT'S SUPERMAN (audiobook) by Tom De Haven

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   How Hard Is It to Nail Down Superman's Personality? Published by GraphicAudio in March of 2014 Adapted from the novel It's Superman by Tom De Haven Multicast performance Duration; Approximately 7 hours Let me be clear from the beginning about two things: 1) I am a Superman fan 2) I do not mind re-makes or re-interpretations so long as they are done respectfully of the source material. However, this book does not do that, with the exception of Lex Luthor. This re-imagined world of Superman is set in the 1930s, which I liked as a choice because that's when Superman was created. Most of the first part of the book deals with a struggling Lois Lane living with a a freelance photographer named Willi Berg in an apartment in New York City (the book dispenses with the Metropolis conceit). Lois is much more worldly than I have ever seen her, but I was fine with that.  Willi Berg witnesses Lex Luthor, a New York City politician, in the middle of a crime and disco

A FISTFUL of COLLARS (Chet and Bernie #5) by Spencer Quinn

Chet and Bernie Break into the Movies! Published in 2012 by Atria Books. I have four mystery writers that I regularly follow: Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, C.J. Box and Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie series.   The premise of the series  is simple. They are buddy books featuring Chet and Bernie, crime-fighting partners much like Holmes and Watson or Spenser and Hawk. Except for one important point - Chet is Bernie's dog.  The story is told from the point of view of Chet, a trained police dog that never quite graduated from the academy to a "leaping" incident that "involved blood."  Chet understands enough about human society so that the story doesn't bog down but he has that easily distractable live-in-the-moment quality that all dog lovers recognize. In A Fistful of Collars Chet and Bernie are hired by the mayor (a politician that Bernie hates for a variety of reasons) to safeguard the city's interests while a major Hollywood film is mad

THE SEA of TROLLS (Sea of Trolls Trilogy #1) (audiobook) by Nancy Farmer

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Published in 2004 by Recorded Books Performed by Gerard Doyle Duration: 13 hours, 51 minutes Unabridged Brilliantly read by Gerard Doyle, The Sea of Trolls is essentially the story of a young boy living in 793 England who is kidnapped by Vikings, taken back to their home and eventually returns home. But, this story is so much more than that. Jack is an adolescent that lives in an English coastal village with his parents and younger sister. This world is Christian with a hefty bit of pagan practices thrown in. This is not a comfortable mix. Jack is invited to be the apprentice for the local bard. Bards are more than mere story-telling musicians - they can weave magic by being in touch with something called the Life Force. Their music can enhance and focus their magic. Jack's mother exhibited such tendencies as well but she was never formally trained. While in the midst of his training, Jack's teacher is magically attacked by a half-troll Viking queen (married to

DOCTOR WHO: DESTINY of the DOCTOR #3: VENGEANCE of the STONES (audiobook) by Andrew Smith

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The Third Doctor Published in 2013 by AudioGo (Blackstone/BBC) Read by Richard Franklin and Trevor Littledale Duration: 1 hour As a part of the 50th Anniversary celebration of Doctor Who, the BBC released a series of audiobooks called Destiny of the Doctor . Each of the Doctors has a 1 hour audiobook story. In Vengeance of the Stones  the Doctor and UNIT are called in to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a RAF fighter jet from the skies above Scotland. While the Doctor is poking around he encounters Lt. Mike Yates for the first time (who becomes Captain Mike Yates and a companion in the television series).  The Doctor soon discovers that the disappearance of the jet is the work of an alien species that has a ancient grudge against humanity and that they are the reason for the prevalence of so many recumbent stone circles in this area.  A recumbent stone circle in Scotland. Photo by Bill McKelvie Also, he discovers that these aliens are more than willin