Marian

Not his best but his usual character types, values and tying up loose ends were all there so I enjoyed it for the most part. Not as gripping as his best stuff - Time to Kill, Street Lawyer - but if you`re a Grisham fan you will have a good time. I liked the hero`s pursuit of justice to the end and looking out for everyone to include the AC - the firm dog. I didn`t like the long drawn out tort trial that wasn`t the main part of the book although probably necessary to lay out the way forward for the hero`s future success. Also tired of stereotypes of the knock out female lawyer, cute wife, etc. They are always tall and slim while the anti-heroines are dumb and busty.

Sure if they are Grisham fans and want something entertaining. Grisham is entertaining and keeps your attention.

Maybe.

It would make a good movie - all his would although some of the ones made into movies sucked. Time to Kill would have been a lot better if they stuck to the original. Pelican Brief was okay....The Firm was good. Street Lawyer would be great if they made it. Maybe his books are better off as TV dramas.

Maybe Grisham should come up with a female heroine - and she doesn`t have to be Harvard grad and beautiful. His male heroes do tend to be Harvard grad and idealistic. Something a little more realistic would be interesting. But I do like his small touches of looking out for the little guy, doing the right thing by everyone, and wrapping up loose ends where everyone comes out all right.

Sure. Anne Perry is great as a book but gripping as an audiobook

Not sure. Too many `moments`

I am amazed at his wide range or English accents and male/female characterizations but sometimes way too dramatic, hard to catch some inflections and he talks like he has too much saliva in his mouth. In person I would expect to be sprayed by his speech!

No - but I did experience frustration at the court room scene taking SO LONG. I get it that Anne Perry is trying to stretch out tension but maybe her editor should have chopped off a few pages....boring!! And just frustration for no good reason.

Anne Perry is good - love her social commentary. But dump Margaret as a character - she sounds weird choosing her pedophile dad over her husband. The reader starts to wonder about what is up with her. While in that day and age sheltered women were like her - as part of the Monk series women like that need to be deleted. Not interesting and takes away from Oliver`s taste in people.

Not sure. Probably not.

No. He doesn`t read well.

No

How about the author? Sorry. I have read a LOT on the American Revolution and I was shocked at how disappointed I was with this audiobook.

I really expected a lot from the author. Sometimes the author shouldn`t read his or her own book. But I will give it another try - I might be unfair.

I am a BIG Anne Perry fan but this is the first time I am doing it by audio. I will definitely listen to it again as audio has different dimensions from reading - you can skip over things in a book but when you listen you actually savor each word. The story was incredible but the author does tie it all together at the end...kind of. There are some loose ends but I figure as she always does, they will be mentioned in the next adventure of Charlotte and Thomas.

Yes it did. It was Prince Alois` visit that was upcoming so the reader knows the story was building up to a climax.

I like the ones with Vespasia and Narraway - I think the latter is old but far younger than Vespasia but it seems a spark of interest and respect bordering on some kind of chemistry is suggested. Why not? They are both free and like each other.

Yes and it got to where I was annoyed at routine interruptions like at a coffee shop when I had to give my order! I was literally pointing to an item on the menu to the waiter because I didn`t want to be distracted from Dorchester Terrace.

Anne Perry needs to have an epilogue. The story ends where it should but the reader is left hanging about the other characters in the book. What was the fallout of what Thomas does? Any kudos? There is still a crminal out there. Also it is annoying to always read about these awful boneheaded aristocrats who give Thomas a hard time yet don`t seem to get their comeupptance. Also Emily Radly continues to be a simpy sister and could use some character development.

Sure. I read a TIME article on the book and the photos were fascinating. The concept of a real A Team of presidents is cool and even entertaining. I am old enough to remember the Nixon years so I found it fascinating to relive the Nixon Ford pardon debate. After reading the book I realized I have changed my mind about the pardon and why Ford did what he did. I agree now that he did the right thing because it was always about the presidency, not the person. Although now the presidency and the man occupying are getting disrespected outright but I digress...Great book in giving the reader of history a real education not covered in the history books. The sections on Hoover and Truman were long but I came away learning a lot about that era and post war Europe.

Nixon and his interactions with Clinton. I could sense Nixon`s neediness to connect with Clinton and while ironic they became best buds, it all kind of makes sense. I have a new respect for Bush senior too.

It was okay. Pretty monotone.

There were many but the section when Carter lost it with Cedras to get the heck out of Haiti because children could die was moving. Carter for all his faults - he does seem more of a loner compared to the rest of the fraternity - does march to the beat of a different drummer. The section also on Ford telling Nixon and Carter to go with Jerry, Jimmy and Dick was pretty memorable.

I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I ended up disliking Eisenhower; sympathetic to LBJ; respectful of Nixon`s complexity; and overall had a vicarious enjoyment of the presidents being above the fray. Capturing the interactions of the ones alive and representing America in retirement makes great reading! The authors will need to include Obama in the next edition.

I used to like Kellerman but this one was too grisly for my taste....and too long. I won`t be reading any more. One thing I noticed about a lot of authors of this genre is that the outrageous crimes get worse, criminals unbelievable and the story way too long just to extend the yuck factor.....I guess after a while authors have to out do their last book. Gratuitous cruelty, violence, psychological mind games and annoying characters are not entertaining. I only gave it 3 stars because at least it held my attention until almost the end.

Not Kellerman.

Rubinstein is find.

No because this story doesn`t need a follow up.

Maybe if there was more about his feelings about his interaction with Mrs Kennedy and his thoughts about after he left her service. There were some charming insights that only a Secret Service agent would be able to share but I felt he could have provided more personal insight not just observations about being there with her.

He was seamless in that at one point I thought he was Clint Hall although the latter sounds nothing like him.

It was but there could have been more. I was disturbed by the last chapter where it sounds as if Clint Hall is reduced to drinking in retirement living on memories. I don`t know if that was the case but it seems a lot has happened to Mrs Kennedy since she left the White House but Mr. Hall`s life just stopped and he is living on memories. He mentions the hardships initially of the job on his family life but then they never come up again. What is up with that? Surely that is a big part of being a SS agent. In a way the listener doesn`t really learn about Mr. Hall - just some observations of an agent who guarded Mrs. Kennedy. While that is fine I missed the personal insight.

Tami Hoag is one of my favorite authors but she overdid the (understandably) distraught mother of an abducted child story such that Lauren Lawton is an almost unsympathetic character. She neglects her remaining daughter to such an extent that I did not like her at all. Hoag also went on WAY TOO long about the pain - we get it - but hours of how much the character suffered, an drank, hated her late husband for copping out, etc didn`t add to the story itself. The narrator didn`t help either....especially her rendition of Tanner the female detective`s filthy tough talk was stereotypical of women who have to hold their own in a male work place. Bottomline - a lot of stereotypes and droning of the internal catharsis was painful. I actually jumped to the end to find who-dun-it because I got so turned off by Lauren Lawton`s mental breakdown - not sure how she survives on coffee, booze and toast for four years!

Less emphasis on stereotypes - e.g., tough talking female cop, knight in shining armor detective, hard bitten mom who while understandable just gets hard to take hour after hour...also where are the other characters like Franny? The gay friend of Anne. He was great.

No. She is dramatic but not quite right for mysteries. Also profanity doesn`t suit her - not sure who would be suited but the tone, pitch, etc didn`t go over well.

The story outline had promise but the guy identified early on was the guy....kind of a let down.

I will stick to reading Tami Hoag`s books - they don`t lend themselves to audio for some reason.

There is a lot of anger out there - some of it justifiable but this book actually nails the problem by boiling it down to unmet needs. Common sense so it seems but after listening to it and thinking about `unmet needs` amazing things happen - what is really bothering you becomes obvious. And it isn`t that complicated but not obvious when you try to figure it out yourself. At least it wasn`t obvious for me. Definitely a great audible selection and plan to listen to it a couple of times. The anger Scheff discusses gave me a perspective on even the anger we see in society and politics at large. The clearer the unmet needs become, the more obvious the resolution so anger fades. That the author had his own anger issues makes his points even more convincing. A great book!

I usually check the reviews before buying an audiobook but this one I didn`t and BOY AM I SORRY! Never again - for the most part the reviews are right on. As for this audio I don`t even want to put one star but I think you have to to post a review. Anyway - the book never takes off -in fact I was like - so okay, Tut is murdered (toward the end of the book) by X and ...nothing??? The book just ends????? Who the heck cares that Howard Carter died alone or that his socialite girlfriend visited his grave when he died? I frankly care very little about Carter or his sponsor et al - this is all old history so let`s get to the story! There were too many fillers (that don`t even rise to the level of fillers but that is another story) that were uninteresting, irrelevant and just dumb! In fact I was not expecting the book to be so much about Carter and everyone else EXCEPT Tut! I foolishly thought the book would be about speculation re Tut being murdered for a bunch of new medical evidence or something like that. Given how many new wanna bes can`t get published it is amazing something this bad does. There is only one line that refers to the murder and (maybe I need to listen to it again to be sure) I am not sure how the author came to even that conclusion b/c I sure didn`t at least not based on the story the author created. Or at least he doesn`t convince me that what might have happened to Tut, did.
Fool me once, but never again will I read anything by this author. This book is just a huge disappointment! The chapters jumping back and forth from 1300 years ago to 1900s was a clever device until it kept happening practically every 2-3 paragraphs - so it seemed. Before going on to post my review I was relieved to read my views are not in the minority. I do not recommend this book ever to anyone. In fact, I deleted it from my drive for good measure.