Paul V. Spade

This is the second book of Karin Fossum that I've read. The first one was Broken, which I read in printed form and LOVED. This one isn't as successful as that, in my view, but I still liked it a lot. Fossum is a Norwegian author, but not as "dark" as Jo Nesb?? or as the Swedish Stieg Larsson. Some interesting plot twists, and the narration is quite good.

Two of the less typical Du Maurier stories -- short stories, not novels. Both are familiar from movies: Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now" (1973) with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. These original stories are as eerie as the movies. Superbly read here.

I agree with Scott from Portland that there should be an unabridged version of this audiobook. For myself, I don't buy abridged versions of anything (except once, by mistake). On the other hand, Audible.com is not to blame, since it is at the mercy of the companies that produce these audio recordings, and does not usually produce them itself. I am reading the book in hardback, and for those who don't mind listening to an abridged version, I can at least report that the book is a wonderful, savory read. This isn't a corny "B"-movie version of the Dracula story, but a fairly intricate novel, well-written and -- incidentally -- well-researched.

*Listening* to a book on audio is not at all the same as reading it in print. This is one I would never read in print; it would put me to sleep in ten minutes. But I listened to it on a long drive and found it a surprisingly good listen. Lots of lore (for example, the origin of the words 'salad' and 'salary'), and lots of history that's far more interesting than it has any right to be! And many more recipies prominently featuring salt than you'll ever cook up in a lifetime.

As someone with a blood pressure problem, I found that -- oddly -- there only minimal discussion of the medical aspects of salt. Never mind, I'm glad I got this one.

The novel speaks for itself. It's not to everyone's taste for downloadable listening, but it's a classic of the first oder. And the narrator is masterful. (I first heard Dietz on Huckleberry Finn.) My main complaint, however, is that this reading is not -- as advertised -- "unabridged." This version contains 99 chapters and an Epilogue. The full version of course contains 135 chapters and an Epilogue. Because I didn't have my printed copy handy when I first started listening, the first discrepancy I noticed was in Chapter 7, where, without warning, the narration breaks off from the middle of the second paragraph and leaps suddenly (with no pause in the voice or any notice of a chapter break) into Chapter 8.

The sound quality is pretty good, although as another reviewer noted the level drops rather low in parts. If you want a very good reading of an abridgement of the original, this one will do you well. But if you want a truly unabridged version, you'll have to look elsewhere.