Pamela

If you enjoyed The Company, you'll love The Amateur. Both books are well-written and excellently narrated. Shorter than The Company, but long enough for hours of entertainment.

This is not my normal type of book, but I saw Sarah Vowell on John Stewart's The Daily Show and thought I would give it a try. Ms. Vowell's ironic twist on the world of today and the world of the past made me laugh and think. Ms. Vowell reads her own work which makes it even better. Who else could deliver her words with the proper touch of humor mixed with history.

As usual, many intriging characters and a twisted plot. The troublesome Bobsy Twins from Louisana are at it again. James Lee Burke is one of my favorite authors and Dave and Clete are wonderful characters. I thought Tin Roof Blowdown would be his best, but maybe not.

Edward Hallowell, an expert in ADD, tries in this book to broaden his horizons to include the rest of the world. I am ADD, have loved all Hallowell's previous books and found a lot of good information in them. In this one, I found a description of our "crazy busy" world built on a lot of Hallowell-created terms and little helpful information.
If your goal is to understand our modern world or to assure yourself that you are no crazier than the rest of us, this books is for you. If you are looking for practical suggestions to get control of the madness, they are there, if you have the patience to wade through the description to get to them, but they are nothing more than common sense. If you are ADD this book is not for you.

I love Dan Brown's other books. This one is just not up to par. The number of times the main character "almost" dies gets pretty silly. Really! While marooned on a drifting iceberg, she beats an SOS with her ice axe and gets rescued by a passing submarine. After that, I started cheering for the "bad guys".

I found myself cheering for the bad guys. I wanted anybody to kill Anne Murphy. I read the book to the end so that I could write this review. If you are really bored and this is your only choice, read it. If you are a fan of better authors (Grisham, Turrow, Evanovich) you will be disapointed in this weak, stupid, annoying heroine. It does have a nice twist at the end, if you can stand it long enough to get there.

When I found out that this book was written by a teenager, I was impressed. Until then I was mostly annoyed. I finished it, but I just as easily could have stopped in the middle. The similarities to Tolkein and McCaffrey bothered me, but the predictable plot and flat characters bothered me more. I won't be waiting for the sequel. One visit to this world is enough.

Some books are easier to listen to than others. This book is difficult to follow on tape because of the French names. It is a slow start and had an only mildly satisfying ending. The characters are also difficult to relate to. I never really cared about any of them.

I loved this book! It kept me spellbound for many hours. This is one of my Audible favorites. I liked it so much that I bought the print version for my husband. When I get interested in a storyline, I want it to go on forever. This one almost does.

If you can't get enough mysteries to fill your listening time, this one is worth a try. It's a quaint, historical, literary mystery that starts slowly, but has lots of twists and turns. Not the best I've come across, but not the worst. An interesting look a Boston in the 1800's.