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February 1, 2016, 202 voters

February 1, 2016 - March 1, 2016

Here are audiobook recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of February 1 - March 1.

Moshe Dayan

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.

Attribution

Moshe Dayan

Jerzy Kosinski

The principle of art is to pause, not bypass.

Attribution

Jerzy Kosinski

George Jean Nathan

An optimist is a fellow who believes a housefly is looking for a way to get out.

Attribution

George Jean Nathan

January 29, 2016

After racing out of town a day early to escape the epic snowstorm in the New York area, I was happy to spend time in Denver with booksellers from across the country, as well as more than 100 authors and dozens of publishing friends. I never managed to switch to Mountain Time, thus I was awake each morning at 5:00, ready for the very full days of programming that started at 7:45. Those in my office know that I am not one to hit the office in the early morning --- I prefer to start my day working from home --- but jet lag was in my favor here.

Editorial Content for The Ex

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Roz Shea

Olivia Randall is a single, successful 40-something Manhattan defense attorney who specializes in bailing celebrities out of trouble who have run afoul of the law. Her dreams of attaining a clerkship with the Supreme Court were dashed years ago, so she joined a small but high-profile law firm owned by a friend of her father’s. She makes the most of what is a highly profitable, if not personally rewarding, profession. Read More

Teaser

Widower Jack Harris has resisted the dating scene ever since the shooting of his wife by a 15-year-old boy three years ago. An early morning run along the Hudson River changes that when he spots a woman in last night’s party dress, enjoying a champagne picnic alone and reading his favorite novel. Eager to help Jack find love again, his best friend posts a message on a popular website after he mentions the encounter. Days later, that same beautiful stranger responds and invites Jack to meet her in person at the waterfront. That’s when his world falls apart.

Promo

Widower Jack Harris has resisted the dating scene ever since the shooting of his wife by a 15-year-old boy three years ago. An early morning run along the Hudson River changes that when he spots a woman in last night’s party dress, enjoying a champagne picnic alone and reading his favorite novel. Eager to help Jack find love again, his best friend posts a message on a popular website after he mentions the encounter. Days later, that same beautiful stranger responds and invites Jack to meet her in person at the waterfront. That’s when his world falls apart.

About the Book

In this breakout stand-alone novel of suspense in the vein of GONE GIRL and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, a woman agrees to help an old boyfriend who has been framed for murder --- but begins to suspect that she is the one being manipulated.

Twenty years ago she ruined his life. Now she has the chance to save it.

Widower Jack Harris has resisted the dating scene ever since the shooting of his wife Molly by a 15-year-old boy three years ago. An early morning run along the Hudson River changes that when he spots a woman in last night’s party dress, barefoot, enjoying a champagne picnic alone, reading his favorite novel. Everything about her reminds him of what he used to have with Molly. Eager to help Jack find love again, his best friend posts a message on a popular website after he mentions the encounter. Days later, that same beautiful stranger responds and invites Jack to meet her in person at the waterfront. That’s when Jack’s world falls apart.

Olivia Randall is one of New York City’s best criminal defense lawyers. When she hears that her former fiancé, Jack Harris, has been arrested for a triple homicide --- and that one of the victims was connected to his wife’s murder --- there is no doubt in her mind as to his innocence. The only question is who would go to such great lengths to frame him --- and why?

For Olivia, representing Jack is a way to make up for past regrets, to absolve herself of guilt from a tragic decision, a secret she has held for twenty years. But as the evidence against him mounts, she is forced to confront her doubts. The man she knew could not have done this. But what if she never really knew him?

Audiobook available, narrated by Xe Sands

Editorial Content for Even Dogs in the Wild

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

There are not many crime fiction/thriller writers better than Scotland's own Ian Rankin, whose faithful readers eagerly await each and every one of his tautly written novels. With the release of EVEN DOGS IN THE WILD, fans are in for a treat, as it features two of his fictional creations: Malcolm Fox of the Complaints bureau and the recently retired Detective Inspector John Rebus. Read More

Teaser

Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is investigating the death of a senior government prosecutor, David Minton, while Malcolm Fox is helping a surveillance team track a notorious Glasgow crime family. John Rebus gets a call from his old nemesis, "Big Ger" Cafferty; someone just fired a bullet through his front window, and the only man he trusts with his life is Rebus. As the cases collide, it's up to Clarke, Fox and Rebus to connect the dots and save their unlikely ally, whose past harbors a shocking secret that implicates Minton's friends in an unspeakable crime.

Promo

Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is investigating the death of a senior government prosecutor, David Minton, while Malcolm Fox is helping a surveillance team track a notorious Glasgow crime family. John Rebus gets a call from his old nemesis, "Big Ger" Cafferty; someone just fired a bullet through his front window, and the only man he trusts with his life is Rebus. As the cases collide, it's up to Clarke, Fox and Rebus to connect the dots and save their unlikely ally, whose past harbors a shocking secret that implicates Minton's friends in an unspeakable crime.

About the Book

In this instant New York Times bestseller, Rebus comes out of retirement...to save his nemesis.

Retirement doesn't suit John Rebus. Being a cop is in his blood. So when DI Siobhan Clarke asks for his help on a case, Rebus doesn't need long to consider his options. Clarke's been investigating the death of a senior lawyer whose body was found along with a threatening note. On the other side of Edinburgh, Big Ger Cafferty --- Rebus's longtime nemesis --- has received an identical note and a bullet through his window. Meanwhile, DI Malcolm Fox joins forces with a covert team from Glasgow who are tailing a notorious crime family. As the cases collide, it's up to Clarke, Fox and Rebus to connect the dots and save their unlikely ally Cafferty, whose past harbors an explosive secret that could blow the case wide open --- if it doesn't kill him first.

Audiobook available, narrated by James MacPherson

Editorial Content for Coconut Cowboy

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

Tim Dorsey doesn’t really write thrillers, at least in the classical (or even contemporary) sense. His Serge A. Storms series is probably closer to fantasy and hilarity. It’s just that so many of these books ring true that one can imagine a real-life Serge, accompanied by Coleman, his perpetually toasted companion, cruising up and down and across the streets and highways of Florida, looking to right wrongs and avenge slights in a terminal and permanent way. Read More

Teaser

Serge A. Storms devises his wildest plan yet: finish the journey begun by his freewheeling heroes, Captain America and Billy, tragically cut short by some shotgun-wielding rednecks. Setting a course for the Florida panhandle, Captain Serge --- with Coleman literally riding shotgun --- mounts his classic motorcycle and hits the highway in search of the real America. In a state where criminal politicians are more common than gators, Serge and Coleman discover one particular speed-trap locale so aggressively inept at corruption that investigators are baffled where to start.

Promo

Serge A. Storms devises his wildest plan yet: finish the journey begun by his freewheeling heroes, Captain America and Billy, tragically cut short by some shotgun-wielding rednecks. Setting a course for the Florida panhandle, Captain Serge --- with Coleman literally riding shotgun --- mounts his classic motorcycle and hits the highway in search of the real America. In a state where criminal politicians are more common than gators, Serge and Coleman discover one particular speed-trap locale so aggressively inept at corruption that investigators are baffled where to start.

About the Book

Florida’s favorite trigger-happy, shoot-from-the-hip vigilante history teacher is back --- and he has a few scores to settle.

Serge A. Storms is hitting the road. Inspired by the classic biker flick Easy Rider, the irrepressible trivia buff and his drug-addled travel buddy, Coleman, head out on a motorcycle tour down the length of the Sunshine State, on a mission to rediscover the lost era of the American Dream. But going from small town to small town, they discover that some have lost much of their former charm --- including one particular hamlet of sleazy rural politicos hell-bent on keeping prying eyes out of their ineptly corrupt style of local government.

Serge and Coleman engage in some high-life hijinks, complete with the state’s trademark crop of jerks, lethal science experiments, drug kingpins, double-crosses, unearthed bodies, barbecue and groovy tunes. And when a few innocent newcomers stumble into the mix, the stakes are raised to new backwoods heights.

Audiobook available, narrated by Oliver Wyman

Editorial Content for Where It Hurts

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

If the level of the quality of novels published in January 2016 continues to hold throughout the next 11 months, then this year is going to be a fabulous one for genre fiction. I present as an important example of this trend WHERE IT HURTS by Reed Farrel Coleman. Coleman has written over 20 novels and garnered critical acclaim from his fellow authors; the term “writer’s writer” should be applied to him. He also has been tapped to relaunch Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series, giving it a new luster and appeal while staying true to Parker’s vision. Read More

Teaser

Following the loss of his family, Gus Murphy has settled into a mindless, soulless routine that barely keeps his grief at arm’s length. But his comfortable waking trance comes to an end when ex-con Tommy Delcamino asks him for help. Four months earlier, Tommy’s son T.J.’s battered body was discovered in a wooded lot, yet the Suffolk County PD doesn’t seem interested in pursuing the killers. It’s a dangerous favor Gus has taken on as he claws his way back to take a place among the living, while searching through the sewers for a killer.

Promo

Following the loss of his family, Gus Murphy has settled into a mindless, soulless routine that barely keeps his grief at arm’s length. But his comfortable waking trance comes to an end when ex-con Tommy Delcamino asks him for help. Four months earlier, Tommy’s son T.J.’s battered body was discovered in a wooded lot, yet the Suffolk County PD doesn’t seem interested in pursuing the killers. It’s a dangerous favor Gus has taken on as he claws his way back to take a place among the living, while searching through the sewers for a killer.

About the Book

From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author comes a gritty, atmospheric new series about the other side of Long Island, far from the wealth of the Hamptons, where real people live --- and die. 
 
Gus Murphy thought he had the world all figured out. A retired Suffolk County cop, Gus had everything a man could want: a great marriage, two kids, a nice house and the rest of his life ahead of him. But when tragedy strikes, his life is thrown into complete disarray. In the course of a single deadly moment, his family is blown apart and he is transformed from a man who believes he understands everything into a man who understands nothing.

Divorced and working as a courtesy van driver for the run-down hotel in which he has a room, Gus has settled into a mindless, soulless routine that barely keeps his grief at arm’s length. But Gus’s comfortable waking trance comes to an end when ex-con Tommy Delcamino asks him for help. Four months earlier, Tommy’s son T.J.’s battered body was discovered in a wooded lot, yet the Suffolk County PD doesn’t seem interested in pursuing the killers. In desperation, Tommy seeks out the only cop he ever trusted --- Gus Murphy.

Gus reluctantly agrees to see what he can uncover. As he begins to sweep away the layers of dust that have collected over the case during the intervening months, Gus finds that Tommy was telling the truth. It seems that everyone involved with the late T.J Delcamino --- from his best friend, to a gang enforcer, to a mafia capo, and even the police --- has something to hide, and all are willing to go to extreme lengths to keep it hidden. It’s a dangerous favor Gus has taken on as he claws his way back to take a place among the living, while searching through the sewers for a killer.

Audiobook available, narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla