Books Review: The Vampire Knitting Club series by Nancy Warren

The Vampire Knitting Club series
by Nancy Warren (Hoopla Audiobooks only)

Lucy Swift has inherited her beloved grandmother’s knitting shop in Oxford, England. As a child she would travel from the US to spend her summers there as her parents are world-famous archaeologists and spent their time at various digs around the world. Now trying to get the shop in order, she learns that Grandma is now a vampire! And she lives in the basement with a group of vampires who come out at night to knit in her shop.

This is a fun, cozy mystery series set in contemporary England. You meet the other town folk as well who move in and out of the stories. The library offers all 14 books in this series (the latest came out in 2022), as well as the prequel short story and one short story written for a holiday anthology. In the first three books you are mostly introduced to the vamps who are from various time periods in England and there is a mystery in every book. The vampires range from a snarky teen who only wears black to a 500-year-old landed, educated gentleman to a former silent screen star. I thought the series especially picked up at book four. A member of the library’s Just Desserts mystery book group had suggested this series to the group so I gave this a try and thoroughly enjoy the characters and stories. Sarah Zimmerman is the narrator and does an excellent job of voicing each character.

The library offers this series only on Hoopla audio. I recommend you search for “vampire knitting club boxed set.” You’ll get three books per set and will be able to listen to the first nine books in the series while using only three of your four monthly Hoopla downloads. After that, search by title. There is also an off-shoot series, Vampire Knitting Club: Cornwall.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Aunt Dimity by Nancy Atherton.)

 

( official Nancy Warren web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: Taxes and TARDIS by N.R. Walker

Taxes and TARDIS
by N.R. Walker (Hoopla Audio)

Brent Kelly is a self-employed San Antonio electrician who takes his tax info in to his accountant every year in a shoebox. But this year she is out for a prolonged illness and he’s now assigned to Logan.

 

Logan Willis, a soft-spoken guy originally from Britain, is your typical geek – black glasses, socially awkward, completely mystified by sports, but also a big Dr. Who fan. He’d initially thought the previous accountant had been exaggerating about the shoebox.

 

This would make a good Hallmark romance. A low-angst story – with one big misunderstanding – that you know will work out by the end. You watch the two figure it all out over Dr. Who, Torchwood, pizza, and pool, meet some of their friends, watch Brent rescue Logan’s sister when the electricity at her bookstore has an issue, and the epilogue is perfect.

 

Nick Russo, the narrator, does a fine job with both Brent’s soft Texas accent and Logan’s British speech. An easy, sweet romance at only 3-hours/9-min.

 

( official N.R. Walker web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mothr and Daughter Talk About Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd

Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk About Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding)
by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd (Compact Disc 791.43 Der)

Award-winning mother-and-daughter actresses Diane Ladd and Laura Dern collaborate for this unusual autobiographical conversation. When Diane’s doctor gives her a life-threatening diagnosis of lung damage due to exposure to pesticides, one of his recommendations for an activity which could improve her condition is for her to to take walks to force her to breathe more deeply and expand her damaged lungs.

 

Daughter Laura Dern (from Diane’s brief marriage to fellow actor Bruce Dern), eager to get her mother exercising, proposes an arrangement — they will both take walks in Diane’s Santa Monica neighborhood and instead of focusing on Diane’s difficulties they will swap stories, share memories, and ask each other the kinds of questions that loved ones should get the answers to before it’s too late. Dern recorded their conversations during these walks, and although this audiobook is not the original audio (the two actresses recreate these conversations for this recording), you can still feel both the love and occasional friction between the two women.

 

While I really did enjoy this audiobook (the print edition also has multiple photo inclusions), this recording did, admittedly, feel a little “staged”. None-the-less, it was fascinating to gain some additional insight into some of the life events that shaped such significant performers — both have been divorced and lived as single mothers, both had similar insecurities, both have inhabited groundbreaking stage and/or screen roles, and both have developed into strong, independent women.

 

If you’re at all interested in either Diane Ladd or Laura Dern, enjoy reading about life growing up in the South, are fascinated by the world of stage or film/tv production, or are fascinated by the inner workings of mother/daughter relationships, you’ll enjoy this one.

 

( official Diane Ladd web site ) | ( official Laura Dern feed on Instagram )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

The Woman in the Library

by Sulari Gentill, audiobook narrated by Katherine Littrell (CD Gentill)

 

Based on the “jacket blurb” description, I thought The Woman in the Library was going to be a “locked room” mystery — four strangers — Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, Whit Metters, Marigold Anastas and Cain McLeod — are sitting in the central Boston Public Library’s reading room, when a scream rings out elsewhere in the building. Security asks that the foursome remain where they are while the building is searching, and the four strangers share an extended conversation that turns into friendship…except that one of them is a murderer. I presumed that this was going to be a mystery in which all of the action took place in the library, and the tricky, unfolding story would reveal how one of them managed to commit a murder in the library, with the ultimate goal of revealing who the guilty party is.

 

The “blurb” didn’t lie, but my presumption about the book was incorrect. It is, indeed a mystery novel. In fact, it is two mystery novels in one. The mystery of the foursome in the library is merely a work of fiction — the “book within the book”, written by the The Woman in the Library‘s Australian narrator, interspersed with chapters that take the form of letters from a Boston resident to his Australian writer pen pal, which grow increasingly troublesome. The reader must watch as the plots of both the “library” story and the “real world” story increase their levels of tension, and begin to affect each other’s plots.

 

I’ll have to admit, I thought that the endings of both stories felt a touch anticlimactic, and yet I really did enjoy listening to this one in audiobook format. Narrator Katherine Littrell does a terrific job of bringing Freddie Kincaid to life, and I really found myself invested in the lives of the foursome of library customers. And then the plot of the other layer — the correspondence between the novel’s author and her Boston “friend” becomes more and more creepy. All in all, a fun read, and I recommend trying it on audio!

 

( official Sulari Gentill web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

by Tom Hanks, narrated in audioform by Tom Hanks and many others (Compact Disc Hanks)

 

Oscar-winning actor, producer, director and author Tom Hanks released his first novel in 2023, and it was a terrific read. I greatly enjoyed listening to the audiobook-on-cd version of his first book, Uncommon Type, a collection of short stories, in 2017, so I had my fingers crossed that his first novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, would similarly come out in audiobook form. I was not disappointed — Tom Hanks is the primary narrator, but is joined by a large number of his entertainment industry friends, to create something that is just shy of a “full cast recording” of this novel.

 

Hanks’ decades of experience in the film industry lend a great deal of authenticity to this oversized tale of movie-making. The stage is set with opening sequences in the 1950s and 1970s, creating some of the background that will come into play in the bulk of the novel. And that bulk is set in the modern era (2020s — COVID-19 is referenced), as a crew and cast is assembled to film a stand-alone entry in a superhero franchise (think the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but under another name), helmed by legendary director Bill Johnson. 60% of this novel then tells of the experiences of a multitude of characters as they participate in the the filming in little Lone Butte, CA, a dusty flyspeck town in northern California. Every moment of this novel is filled with the little details that show how well Hanks knows his topic — central characters aren’t just the big-name actors, but also include associate producers, locals hired to drive or to appear in bit parts, the make-up designers, the stunt coordinators, the families of the cast members, and the security people whose jobs are to prevent overly enthusiastic fans from penetrating the safety bubble around the stars.

 

I loved The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, and plan to purchase the book-on-CD set. But it isn’t without its flaws. At 417 pages, it feels like it could have used a tighter editorial touch to bring it down to 350 pages. There’s really no “villain” in the story, or sense of over-arching “conflict” — characters that you think are going to be a problem for the central characters are dealt with fairly quickly. Moments that could show the the possibility of critical flaws are glossed over. And some of the film-industry jargon will certainly go over the heads of many readers. But, in the end, this is a loving look at a bunch of creative people combining their talents to make a piece of art that can be appreciated by the rest of the world…and their passion in doing the best job they possibly can is contagious.

 

If you love the film industry and would like a tale that really goes into the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, don’t mind a somewhat slower pace, and love listening to Tom Hanks’ voice, I strongly recommend the audiobook version of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. If you’re not a big fan of audiobooks, then I recommend the print version — which includes three graphic novel segments, which are the inspiration for the plot of the movie being made. (Those graphic novels are available to listeners of the audiobook via a weblink.)

 

I was going to give this an “8” due to its slow pace and lack of dramatic conflict, but ultimately choose to give it a “9” because I grew to love all the characters and was very sorry to see the story end.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the short story collection Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks, which I also recommend as an audiobook read by Hanks himself.)

 

( Wikipedia page for Tom Hanks )

 

See Scott C.’s review of the audiobook version of Tom Hanks’ short story collection Uncommon Type in the June 2018 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Hello Beautiful
by Ann Napolitano (Downloadable Audio)

This is probably one of my favorite books of 2023 so far. Hello Beautiful gives all the feels of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, but is a more contemporary novel written for modern concerns.

 

Although the focus of the book is about a family of four sisters, the book begins with the perspective of one of the main male characters, William Waters. William lives a very solitary life, as his parents cannot cope with the loss of his newborn sister. He eventually turns to basketball in high school and college to give his life meaning. But then his freshman year in college he meets Julia Padavano. She is the oldest of four sisters. In her family he finds love and a warm and welcoming home like he has never experienced before.

 

Once William meets Julia, the book is often narrated by Julia and her three sisters. Julia is smart and driven. Sylvie is a book worm, working at the library and waiting for a great romance. Cecilia is the artist, but her wild spirit causes her to make risky choices, becoming a teenage mother. Cecilia’s twin Emeline is happiest taking care of children and her family.

 

In the beginning, the sisters seem inseparable. But thrown into a world where depression and mental illness, divorce, and sexual orientation cause divisions, their family could be torn apart. Can love overcome a perceived wrong, even if it seems unforgivable?

 

Ultimately the book causes a person to think: who do we think we are? Or who do we think we have to be? One theme I carried from the book relates to the Padavano father, Charlie, who often spoke the phrase “Hello Beautiful” to his family members. He was a poet and a dreamer and did not have fame or fortune, which is hard-working wife lamented. But the author reveals that Charlie’s life was rich from the kindness and caring he showed towards everyone around him. He was fondly remembered by everyone whose life he touched. Perhaps, I suppose, it’s not about who we think we are, but who we are to the people around us.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano or Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.)

 

( official Ann Napolitano web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

Daisy Darker
by Alice Feeney (Compact Disc Feeney)

Daisy Darker showed up on many “Best Mysteries/Thrillers of the Year” lists for 2022 releases, so I was excited to read (or listen to) this for the June 2023 meeting of the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery book group. Indeed, I chose to enjoy this as an audiobook-on-cd, narrated by Stephanie Racine.

 

It’s a little hard to effective review this, since Alice Feeney’s stock in trade is mysteries or thrillers with a shocking twist near the end, that completely recalibrates the reader’s interpretation of the novel. In a nutshell, however, this novel features an awkward family reunion on an island off the British coast, isolated until the next day by changing tides. The novel is narrated by Daisy Darker, seemingly the only family member who actually loves her grandmother, Nana, a famed children’s author. When a dramatic death occurs, and it’s only the first of several, the survivors must come to terms with some unresolved issues from the past, while scrambling to survive until the receding tides will allow them to escape in the morning.

 

The suspense ratchets up effectively, though jumping back and forth between modern scenes and flashbacks to the past diminishes some of that building tension. The ultimate twist is telegraphed somewhat early on in the novel, but several of our Just Desserts members were still surprised…which may be reason enough to recommend this title. Personally, I really enjoyed the narration by Racine, so I do recommend Daisy Darker, particularly, as an audiobook. And if you like twisty, turny plots, check out Feeney’s other novels as well!

 

( official Alice Feeney web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Troubleshooters series -- novellas by Suzanne Brockmann

The Troubleshooters series
by Suzanne Brockmann (see hotlinks for each individual story)

Four short stories and a novella from the Troubleshooters series By Suzanne Brockmann.

 

Only download the following Hoopla and Libby audio books if you are a fan of the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann. These five stories are novellas and shorts that are hilarious, scary, thoughtful, and poignant. They catch you up with some of our favorite characters, giving you more insight into the lives of Adam, Izzy, Gilman, Jules, Robin, and others beyond what we’ve read in the full-length novels. The narrators, Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank, are perfect as they portray our characters.

 

Book #12.1 “When Tony Met Adam” 2hrs/10min, story timeline Dec 2007-Feb 2008.

Main characters: Navy SEAL Tony Vlachic, actor Adam Wyndham.

This story starts at the end of book #12, “All Through the Night” (the night before Jules and Robin’s wedding), when Adam has been escorted out of Jules and Robin’s home after the stalker has been captured. If you remember, as he’s walking down the street to the corner, Tony is one of the SEALs guarding the house and recognizes Adam as his favorite actor, runs up to him and writes his phone number on Adam’s palm, then they go their separate ways. “When Tony Met Adam” picks up their story over the course of the next several months. By the end we understand Adam much better, he’s pulled his life together, and he becomes one of our likeable characters.

 

Book #18.1 “Free Fall” 1hr/29min, story timeline early Jan 2010.

Main characters: SEAL Team 16.

This take places after novel #18, “Do or Die,” with our favorite SEAL team doing a High Altitude training jump when Tony’s equipment fails. Izzy to the rescue with an innovative plan which will either work, injure one or both of them, or kill one or both.

 

Book #18.2 “Home Fire Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn!)” 1hr/29min, story timeline Jan 2010, just a couple of weeks after 18.1 “Free Fall.”

Main characters: Navy SEAL Team 16 including new guy Hubert Bickles (HoBoMoFo), Eden Zanella, Jenn Gillman, Brianna Bickles, Brianna’s 5th grade teacher Carol Redmond, and Adam Wyndham.

SEAL Team 16 is at the airport Mission Ready for an overseas job – meaning they are set to leave at any moment for location unknown for reason unknown for mission-length unknown with no communication with anyone outside of the team. Then Jenn goes into labor a month early while stranded in the California desert, unable to contact anyone. Jenkins, recovering from a knee injury in the previous story, fills-in for HoBoMoFo for his daughter’s Career Day at school and sets his eye on the teacher.

 

Book #18.3 “Ready to Roll” 6hr/8min, story timeline four weeks after #18.2 (late Feb 2010).

Main Characters: SEALS Izzy, Gillman, Jenkins, and Tony, Eden and her brother Ben, with cameos by Kelly, Sam, Alyssa, and Robin, and we meet Lt. ‘Grunge’ Green (who gets his own story in novel #19 “Some Kind of Hero”).

 

Three stories going on with this one. Eden’s 16-year-old brother Ben is dealing with a homophobic classmate, but things may not be as they appear. Izzy is an instructor, along with Lt Grunge, at BUD/S SEALs training during Hell Week where we meet the most interesting crew – Boat Squad John. And Dan and Jenn’s new baby cries constantly, what in the world is wrong?

 

19.1 “Beginnings and Ends” 1hr/12m, story timeline June 2012. This takes place five years after Jules and Robin’s 2007 wedding in book #12 (and two years after the final novel, #19, “Some Kind of Hero”).

Main characters: FBI Agent Jules Cassidy, actor Robin Chadwick Cassidy.

Robin has been starring in an award-winning TV series but is ready to leave the show. What will the future bring? This story pretty well ends the series and it’s a perfect ending – unless Brockmann writes further in-between shorts.

 

( official Troubleshooters page on the official Suzanne Brockmann web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

I Have Some Questions For You

by Rebecca Makkai (Downloadable Audio)

 

Your roommate is murdered during your senior year of high school at boarding school. Now you are back to teach a class at your alma mater. Was it really the school athletic trainer who killed her in a love affair/drug deal gone bad? If you had just been more forthcoming and told the police everything you knew back then…

 

A now-famous podcaster and film professor, Bodie Kane, returns to Granby High in New Hampshire to teach a class about podcasts. It’s an emotional return, considering that Bodie’s roommate Thalia Keith was found drown in the gymnasium pool in 1995. The conviction of the athletic trainer Omar Evans never sat well with Bodie. She feels guilty that she initiated the idea that drugs were an issue; Thalia wasn’t into drugs. Bodie never forgave herself for not revealing Thalia may have been having an affair with a teacher. Could that have been a factor in her death?

 

As part of the podcast class, Bodie instructs students to pick an old unsolved crime to review. Of course one of her students picks Thalia Keith — Omar has been looking for a retrial. Bodie struggles with the choice. Will justice really be served by stirring up old secrets? Will she be perceived as a fame seeker? Is everyone better off just moving on?

 

I loved this modern whodunit by award-winning author Rebecca Makkai. I Have Some Questions for You grabs you in the first chapter and keeps you guessing if or how justice will be served. I enjoyed the inclusion of modern elements in Makkai’s novel: the true-crime podcasts, and the social media outrage and trolls. This is the world we have come to live in now. I also am a fan of how the main character envisioned how each suspect could have committed the crime. Don’t we all have a little bit of a dark side?

 

If you love a good mystery, check this one out.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try One by One by Ruth Ware or The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.)

 

( official Rebecca Makkai web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

My Husband’s Wife
by Jane Corry (Downloadable Audio)

A patron recently recommended the author Jane Corry to me, and I’m so glad she did. If you enjoy suspense authors such as Liane Moriarty or Gillian McAlister, you are going to love Jane Corry. I started with her first novel My Husband’s Wife. It has so many twists and turns, you will keep guessing until the end.

 

The book opens as lawyer Lily is on her way to visit a potential client in prison. She just returned from her honeymoon with Ed the artist and is excited for her new life. The new client, however, puts Lily to the test, making her solve puzzles and clues to uncover a defense for his case. As she works to prove his innocence, she finds herself oddly attracted to the peculiar man.

 

At the same time, the story follows nine-year-old Carla, who lives next door to Lily and Ed. As a young Italian girl growing up in London, she suffers from bullying in school. To survive, Carla learns that sometimes she has to lie, steal, and even blackmail, to get by.

 

The second half of the story jumps ahead several years when Carla returns to England as a young woman and walks back into Lily and Ed’s lives. Old secrets come back to haunt anyone who thought they were long past — secrets so dangerous it may cost them their lives.

 

Fortunately, My Husband’s Wife is just the beginning of Corry’s catalog. Unfortunately, Lincoln City Libraries only offers two other titles by this author: Blood Sisters and The Dead Ex.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Blood Sisters by Jane Corry or Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.)

 

( official Jane Corry web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Reveiw: The Levee by William Kent Krueger

The Levee

by William Kent Krueger (Compact Disc Krueger)

 

The Levee is a newly-released, but somewhat older title from William Kent Krueger, author of the long-running Cork O’Connor series, set in Minnesota, and the stellar stand-alones Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land. As Krueger mentions in an author afterword at the end of this audiobook, The Levee was a title he’d written many years before, but never done anything with — he’s kept coming back to it again and again, to rewrite and polish what he’d done before. And, finally, during COVID-19 self-isolation periods in the past couple of years, he finally finished it.

 

The Levee has been released only as an audiobook, narrated by J.D. Jackson. It is a novella in length, taking up only 3 discs as a book-on-cd. Based on an actual historical event, The Levee is set during the historic flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927, as four men (a former priest and three convicts ordered to assist him) journey by rowboat through the flood waters to the ancestral home of family, temporarily encircled by a levee built to withstand the flood waters.

 

Everyone in this story has their own motives and emotional connection to the attempt to save this stranded family — some noble and others less so. Krueger’s character-building skills are in full view in this short work, and I was pulled into the story quickly, finding myself invested in the (hopefully) successful outcome of the quest.

 

If you’re a fan of Krueger’s stand-alone novels, mentioned above, I recommend this short “new” work to you. One bonus with this audiobook is that includes an advance preview of Krueger’s forthcoming new novel, The River We Remember (due out in the Fall of 2023).

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land, both by William Kent Krueger, or No One Goes Alone, an audio-original novella by Erik Larson.)

 

( official William Kent Krueger web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: Bark to the Future by Spencer Quinn + reminder of tonight's Just Desserts meeting

Bark to the Future
by Spencer Quinn (audiobook-on-cd ordered through InterLibrary Loan — libraries only own in physical book format)

 

This is the 13th entry in the Chet & Bernie mystery series, by Spencer Quinn, which are told from the point-of-view of Chet the dog, the canine partner of private detective Bernie Little. I particularly enjoy all entries in this series as audiobooks, read by James Frangione (which I have had to order through the libraries’ InterLibrary Loan service since the Lincoln City Libraries haven’t been buying the audiobook versions since the 7th in the series back in 2015).

 

In this latest installment (another is due in late 2023), an encounter with a homeless man panhandling at a highway off-ramp turns personal for Bernie, who recognizes the man as a former teammate on Bernie’s high school baseball team. “Rocket” has obviously fallen on some hard times, and may also be facing some mental and emotional challenges. But when the troubled man disappears, Bernie and Chet start digging into his background, as well as the history of some of Bernie’s other former classmates. Included in their investigation are several visits to the “slot canyons” in the desert outside the (unnamed) U.S. Southwestern city where Chet and Bernie live.

 

Frangione once again captures the overly-enthusiastic yet easily distracted voice of Chet’s story narration perfectly. And the unswerving love of Chet for his human “partner” is always appealing in these tales. The fact that this case is so close to Bernie’s own life adds a certain level of poignancy, and even if the ending is a tad bit predictable, the process of getting to that ending is the true joy in reading a Chet & Bernie story.

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try all of the Chet & Bernie novels and short stories, by Spencer Quinn, preferably as audiobooks if you can find them!)

 

( official Spencer Quinn (a.k.a. Peter Abrahams) web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

 

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If you're a mystery fan, you're invited to join us for this month's Just Desserts meeting tonight, May 25th, at 6:30 p.m. in the 4th floor auditorium of the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown at 14th & "N" St. -- this mystery-themed discussion group meets on the last Thursday of each month, January through October. This month's is our annual "Series Share" meeting -- all participants are encouraged to read the first or second entry in any new mystery/suspense/thriller series that has started in the last two years (2021-2023), and report on your opinion about it to the group in a Round Robin discussion format.

 

Even if you haven't read anything for this specific discussion, you can still participate, and learn about great new mysteries to try! For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts