Charm City

Tess Monaghan, Book 2

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

PI Tess Monaghan knows and loves every inch of her native Baltimore. It's a quirky city where baseball reigns, but lately homicide seems to be the second most popular sport. Business tycoon Wink Wynkowski is trying to change all that by bringing pro basketball to town - until a devastating expose appears in the Baltimore Beacon Light. The newspaper's editors thought they'd killed the piece. Instead, the piece killed Wink, who's found dead in his garage. Tess is hired to find the unknown hacker who planted the lethal story.

©1997 Laura Lippman (P)2010 BBC Audio

On of my favorites

Probably my favorite Tess Monaghan audio book so far. (My favorite print book is Sugar House). This book has Tess looking into a news paper story about a new basketball team that wasn't supposed to be printed but was. She also tries to figure out why her Uncle Spike was beaten into a coma over a dog. Both plots are juggled well. My only complaint is that one of the big suprises wasn't very suprising. It was well-paced with a very natural tone. By that I mean not artificially glib and not too grim and gory. A well balanced mystery all around.

Easy Listening

I like the narrator, the stories are involved without being complex. A nice easy, entertaining listen.

Fun, suspense, and love in a good mix.

Really enjoyed this book. Liked it much better than the previous "Baltimore Blues," the first of this series. Deborah Hazlett, the narrator, seems to have settled-in to the characters and made it easy to follow which character was speaking. The story had a lot of understated humor, a little romance, and a really interesting and intriguing mystery all rolled up in a very enjoyable listen. Would highly recommend this Audible book. Tess Monoghan has become an interesting and likable character I want to know more about. If there is a sequel, I will be purchasing it.

Another great one!

Real, flesh and bone Tess does it again! Love these books and love the narrator. Will keep on listening!

OK, but not great

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I don't think so. The story and reader dragged a bit.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Charm City?

I'm afraid nothing was memorable. It just plodded along.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Change the narrator. This person only reads the story flatly. No emotion. No change in characters.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

The reader has alot to do with the enjoyment you get from a book. This is not a good match.

Great local color

The reader takes you to Baltimore with brilliantly done local argot. Always fun to get to know just a bit more of Tess.

BORING!

I really tried to like this story. I've lived most of my life within 15min of Baltimore so I was excited to listen to this. The narrator was ok at best. Although, the Baltimore accent she attempted was horrible. People who grew up in Baltimore don't sound southern at all. She made it sound like they're from the deep south. As for the story itself, I couldn't get through it. I got halfway through chapter 5 and the story seemed to focus on a grey hound dog. Perhaps it gets better? I wouldn't know. If it does, this is a SUPER slow starting story. Good thing it was free.

Not my cup of tea

Unnecessarily crude. I’m not opposed to profanity, but it felt completely unnecessary in this case. Ya, too many reasons I didn’t like this.

Disappointing; didn't finish it

I really wanted to like this book, with its Baltimore setting and newspaper theme, but it is, simply, dull. The performance is fine; there just isn't enough story to make a reader care what happens.