Bobbie

My only problem with this book is that, unlike the others, you need to have read/heard the first one for it to make sence. That said, I think the narrator is top-notch and the book is suspensful, full of vivid characters and it takes Tess away from Baltimore which is different and interesting.

This is the fourth book in the series and each one gets better. When I listened to the first book int the series, I loved the story but only liked the narrator. Four books later, I love it all. A frequent complaint about the other books is the occasional curse word. Here, Hockensmith finds a hilarous way to let the curse words fly without uttering a single vulgarity. Funny, compelling and filled with interesting characters and a well developed setting. My only warning is that if you like your mysteries very polite and clean, this series isn't that. It's not at all super gory or grusome but there is a little coarsness. Just a little.

The story started out well but lost steam as it went along. The ending was a little too quick and abrupt. The characters are intersting but not very developed. I'm a fan of Lincoln Child and he's written better. However, a mediocre Lincoln Child is still not that bad, it's just not great.

I'm a big fan of this series. They have interesting characters who are a little loony, but only a little, and a well plotted story set in the late 1800's out west. This book starts out with our Sherlock Holmes-loving, cowboys-turned-investigators brothers looking into the death of a friend in China Town in San Francisco. The boys and their comely friend, Dianna, end up contending with three other groups looking for a missing prostitute called the Black Dove. Most of the action takes place in China Town and the narrator isn't bad doing the different characters. This is an unusulaly populated book and it's a small challenge to keep all the characters straight but not too bad. Very adventerous with lots of chases and shady characters and a suprisingly emotional ending. This is one of those series that helps if you read them in order.

This is my favorite in the series so far. Having all the suspects and witnesses stuck on a train makes things a bit more tense and dramatic. I agree with other reviewers that the language is a bit strong, which you'd expect from a couple of un-refined cow hands, and the narration is too exagerated, but the charactrers and setting are so much fun and the story is well told that I didn't mind. If you don't like curse words, though, keep looking. (The 'Her Royal Spyness' series by Reys Bowen is quite good with no bad words.)

I enjoyed this a lot. It's a light hearted mystery set in the old west about two brothers who go about "Holmesifying" when murder strikes the ranch where they work. It's an interesting mystery with an entertaining setting and memorable characters. The narrator does a good job with the main characters, but a few of the minor ones are English and his accent is not good. His English ladie's maid voice is down right horrible. They are small characters, so it didn't bother me that much. Also, the characters curse a fair amount. Even using the N word a few times. It fits in with the setting, though, and it's not too exessive. I really liked it overall.

This story is about a mysterious adolescent girl who, for unexplained reasons, tries to assasinate someone and ends up as some sort of appretice for the police. The set-up was quite broad and clumsy but the rest of the book is great. The setting is a society where mages, humans, immortals and humanoids with lion or bird characteristics live together and the main characters are in law enforment. The author mixes the fantasy and crime story extremely well and the reader was very good. If I had to set this in time, I would say it's past-ish rather than futuristic because there isn't a lot of high tech talk and they travel by carriages instead of space ships. I prefer it that way. I loved this and I loved it even more because it was free.

This book is chock full of interesting characters and exciting plot developments. The problem is that I listen while doing other things, usually driving or working out, and because this book is so dense and detailed, I missed a lot. If you're the kind of listener who can really concentrate on every little detial, you'll love it because it is a great story. It's just not great for me.

I enjoy this series so much and this book in partuclar because the getting-repetitive love interest figures very little. However, Coco Chanel and the often absent mother are nice additions. The main character, who is a minor and penniless royal, is sent by the Queen of England to the French Riviera to quietly retrieve stolen item of her majesty's. Of course it's never as simple as it starts out. The mystery is challenging, yet not too dour or dark in tone. The author does a good blancing act in this respect. The setting is well described and lively. The reader is top notch and I enjoy every word and detail.

At first I liked this book because the plot was well written and the narration was very good. About half way thru, however, I started to get bored because the main character, Abigail is so two dimensional. She's even temperd, always right and nobody every makes mistakes or misses clues, which is just so boring. Let's face it, flawed people are more interesting and mistakes can be good plot devics. There are at least two scenes per chapeter of her blurting out her phychic visions to friend and stranger alike. From heart conditions to sports scores. She's always right. There are only so many times a character can exclaim "Oh my gosh! That's exactly right. Your amazing!" without it getting old and repetative. Perhaps it's a rookie mistake by a first time writer and the next one gets better, but I'm not using another credit to find out.

This book made a long car ride with my two sons, ages 8 and 10, a lot of fun. They loved that the main characters were kids and they really got into all the backstage information on the final four. The story is about the two young sports journalists who are at the final four because they won a contest and they overhear one of the star players being presured to throw a game. In order to enjoy this book, you have to accept the flimsey resons why the kids look into this themselves without asking any of the gorwn-ups for help. If you can make that leap of belief, the rest if the story is enjoyable. Somebody else should have narrated the book, though. John Feinstein is a great writer but a bad narrator.