Craig

I'm used to detective novels being highly plot driven (like John Grisham)-- so it's kind of nice to read a detective novel that draws from the "women's" style of being more personality-driven (like Helen Fielding). I like both kinds of books.

However, some of Evanovich's characters are much more believable than others making the book a big hit-and-miss.

I think this is somewhat aggravated by Lorelei King's narration. She almost acts out the different characters and does a really great job with some but others are a bit of a stretch. (the characters are very diverse!)

My other problem is that this book has a few too many characters for an audio book -- at least I have had trouble keeping track of them all.

If you have a good memory for names, then you'll probably have no problem. But, if you're like me, it's easy to loose track.

What I like best about TBOK is that they make me interested in a topic, so that learning something isn't painful at all. I can safely say that I have learned more from TBOK over the years, than any other radio program.

The only weakness of the show, in my mind, is that it is pretty much just talking. They hardly ever (never?) do any in-field recording or other more creative kind of radio journalism. Probably this has somethign to do with budget but it would be nice.

The American Life is among the best in modern radio. It takes you places you'd never go in your normal life, it introduces you the people you'd never normally meet .. it gives you understanding and insight that you normally wouldn't have.

Best yet, TAM uncovers issues and events, taking place all over, all the time -- that would not normally even catch my attention. For example -- I'll never read the want ads the same way again! It never occured to me that there are stories in the want ads.

The only criticism I have of it, is that there seems to be a lot of reruns. The shows are certainly worth a second listen but when I already own the issue on Audible, it's a complete waste of money and download effort.

I have to agree with the mediocre reviews of this book BUT I still enjoyed it.

Patterson's "airplane book" style writing is particularly appropriate for an audio book. There aren't a lot of characters to keep track of and the plot jumps along quickly. You could do worse, that's for sure.

It was good enough I'm going to use my BasicListener credit on 3rd Degree.

Thank you, Audible, for this free service. I live overseas and really enjoy keeping up on public affairs.

Could you also offer election debates, State of the Union speeches, etc?

Besides making me happy, I think this kind of free service would be a good way to get people to try out Audible.