#audiobook – Page 2 – Rosepoint Publishing

Half Moon Bay: A Novel by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Clay Edison #3

Book Blurb:

Clay Edison has his hands full. He’s got a new baby who won’t sleep. He’s working the graveyard shift. And he’s trying, for once, to mind his own business. Then comes the first call. Workers demolishing a local park have made a haunting discovery: the decades-old skeleton of a child. But whose? And how did it get there?

No sooner has Clay begun to investigate than he receives a second call – this one from a local businessman, wondering if the body could belong to his sister. She went missing 50 years ago, the man says. Or at least I think she did. It’s a little complicated.

And things only get stranger from there. Clay’s relentless search for answers will unearth a history of violence and secrets, revolution and betrayal. Because in this town, the past isn’t dead. It’s very much alive. And it can be murderous.

My Review:

I really like the way the authors suffuse the professional with the personal. So many times, we see a technician going about their business and wonder what their home life looks like: six kids, a spouse equally harried, and a mortgage whose interest rates keep climbing?

In this case, Clay Edison is a new papa. The baby, as most, doesn’t sleep. Clay is working the graveyard shift so his wife can be home and she works days. It should work—doesn’t always.

Unfortunately, his call out is to the discovery of a very old skeleton—that of a small child. Whose? And how did it come to be buried in a park?

Clay might be the personification of a new dad, his baby girl Charlotte has a lot to teach him. The stark difference between his anxious self and his professional self is often laid bare by his self-talk, his first person POV.

The development of the characters in this series has been fun, and each new installment has brought growth and get-to-know-you sessions. I like Clay. He’s smart, dominating, and a strong personage around his peers, though he can be soft and sympathetic with the loved ones he must deal with in his professional capacity.

It doesn’t help that the park and the site of the skeleton is located in Berkeley, always a hotbed of political turmoil and protests. He may have a major development in the phone call from a man claiming that it may be his sister…but he can only supply a minimal amount of background to interest Clay further into the investigation.

The storyline wavers a bit with a couple of small branches off the main plot, but then I wouldn’t expect this would be Clay’s only case. It might create a slight lull in the pacing of the main plot, but there is always another tiny clue.

I’m not sure it would be classified as a slow-burn story as there is usually a lot going on and the characters, including Clay’s wife, Amy, supply a lot of lively dialogue. (I still haven’t warmed up to Amy though.) Of course, the flashbacks to the 60’s and 70’s drew me in. There are twists, divulged secrets, and evil doers as these things are never just simple straight forward…who is the skeleton.

Personally, I really enjoyed the novel and this series, one to go (Book 2), and just got it. I’ll recommend again. If you haven’t checked out this series yet and you found Alex Delaware a bit stodgy at times, you might find the collaboration between this father and son might be just what you were looking for.

I received a copy of this audiobook from my local library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Thrillers, Suspense, Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
ASIN: B0863359SD
Listening Length: 9 hrs 35 mins
Publication Date: July 21, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Authors:

Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than three dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer’s Daughter. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored The Golem of Hollywood and The Golem of Paris. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California, New Mexico, and New York.

Read more at:
http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Jesse Kellerman

Jesse Kellerman has written dozens of plays and published seven novels, two of them cowritten with his father, Jonathan Kellerman. He has won numerous awards, including the Princess Grace Award for Playwriting (“Things Beyond Our Control”) and the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle (“The Genius”/”Les Visages”). His novel “Potboiler” was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. An essay, “Let My People Go to the Buffet,” was included in Penguin’s Best American Spiritual Writing (2011). His next book, Crime Scene, was also cowritten with Jonathan Kellerman and will be published in fall 2017. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and children.

The Narrator:

Dennis Boutsikaris

Dennis Boutsikaris was born December 21, 1952 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman’s The Acting Company doing classical theatre. Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.

He can be heard in over 160 audiobooks and has received eight Audie Awards and two Best Voices of the Year Awards from AudioFile Magazine.^[14] He was voted Best Narrator of the Year by Amazon for The Gene.

Find him at:
http://www.dennisboutsikaris.com *

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.

Graphic by Canva.com

The God of the Woods: A Novel by Liz Moore #Audiobook #FamilyLifeFiction

#11 this week

Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2024)

Book Blurb:

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLER OF 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF 2024
PEOPLE MAGAZINE’S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY TOP 10 PICK OF 2024
ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S “100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024”

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

My Review:

Longer doesn’t always equate with better.

I’m the salmon battling up the river and over all the fish ladders as this novel appears to have done quite well and as usual I wasn’t all that thrilled.

While it started out with a hook and sparked my interest, the further I got into it, the less compelled I was to continue.

A seventeen-year-old girl disappears from summer camp and in the search for her the reader is introduced to myriad characters and their own POVs. Unfortunately, many times it is also the cause of timeline switches which disrupted the train of thought, derailed the plot line for me while I tried to digest the new time, the character in that time frame, and how they related to poor Barbara Van Laar whose family owns the camp.

Her brother disappeared from the same camp fourteen years previously. Yeah, now introduce a subplot. Why and how did he disappear?

What began as a nice pace became a slow burn, a mystery, that the longer the search, the more characters, timeline switches, and dysfunctional family memories are shared, the less I cared about any of them.

While there are some truly badass women, they are countered by milksops. My favorite character is TJ. She is smart, solid, and doesn’t let the money power behind the Van Laars lessen her authority. When it’s time for Alice’s POV (she is such a mess), I just want to slap her up the side of the head and tell her to shut up.

Well, are they ever going to find her? I don’t know—did you successfully navigate the twists and turns that lead nowhere? There is an interesting writing style, you can’t say the characters are not fully developed, but the atmosphere of the woods and the camp gets depressingly descriptive at times. Short chapters and slow passages kept me reading when I’d hit another interesting advance to the storyline. It was touch and go.

Perhaps better for you if you enjoy slow burn mysteries and character driven timeline switches. In any case, maybe that denouement will catch you by surprise. By that time though it just seems obvious.

I received an audiobook of this title from my local library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Family Life Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Riverhead Books
ISBN-10: ‎ 0593418913
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0593418918
ASIN: B0CL1YQLB5
Print Length: 490 pages
Publication Date: July 2, 2024
Source: Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Liz Moore is the author of five novels: The Words of Every Song, Heft, The Unseen World, the New York Times-bestselling Long Bright River, and The God of the Woods. A winner of the 2014 Rome Prize in Literature, she lives in Philadelphia and teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing at Temple University.

Crime Scene by Jonathan Kellerman #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Book 1 of 5: Clay Edison

Book Blurb:

Natural causes or foul play? That’s the question Clay Edison must answer each time he examines a body. Figuring out motives and chasing down suspects aren’t part of his beat – not until a seemingly open-and-shut case proves to be more than meets his highly trained eye.

Eccentric, reclusive Walter Rennert lies cold at the bottom of his stairs. At first glance the scene looks straightforward: a once-respected psychology professor done in by booze and a bad heart. But his daughter, Tatiana, insists that her father has been murdered, and she persuades Clay to take a closer look at the grim facts of Rennert’s life.

What emerges is a history of scandal and violence and an experiment gone horribly wrong that ended in the brutal murder of a coed. Walter Rennert, it appears, was a broken man – and maybe a marked one. And when Clay learns that a colleague of Rennert’s died in a nearly identical manner, he begins to question everything in the official record.

All the while, his relationship with Tatiana is evolving into something forbidden. The closer they grow, the more determined he becomes to catch her father’s killer – even if he has to overstep his bounds to do it.

The twisting trail Clay follows will lead him into the darkest corners of the human soul. It’s his job to listen to the tales the dead tell. But this time he’s part of a story that makes his blood run cold.

My Review:

Always late to the party, I discovered this novel by Kellerman and thought I’d try one of his new series. But it’s not so new. I’ve read a number of his Alex Delaware novels, so I’m familiar with Jonathan. This is the first I’ve read in a collaboration with his son. I thought since it is the first in the series, I’d go for it.

I liked the debut effort with Clay Edison, MC, who is a deputy sheriff with the county coroner’s office. It’s his job to access the situation and determine which of the five causes of death left the victim deceased. In the first death of the book, he meets Tatiana, the daughter of Walter Rennert. It appears to be an accidental fall, but she is sure it is not.

Clay Edison is developed well, providing an interesting and thoughtful character in the role although it appears to me that he quickly oversteps his job description. He has to remind himself not to jump to conclusions. But the concept of coming from this direction into the mystery sets up some suspense and the tension ratchets from there. Gather the facts…(and he has the hots for Tatiana, of course, who also quickly proves an enigma).

Yes, there are other little ventures out, usually in the dead of night or crack of dawn when a body is discovered and he’s called in. Some will prove natural causes, a few won’t. The storyline settles on a wave line with interesting material and filler.

I hung in there because I really liked, from the beginning, the narration by Dennis Boutsikaris. He doesn’t just read it—he becomes the character, very dynamic—the dialogue is complete with changes in pitch, pace, tone, and pauses. These characters are actually talking to each other! He’s an accomplished actor. He’s acting the part of Clay and does it exceedingly well. Thinking I’d jump into installment 5, I went back to my library, but no. It’s on a wait list. So is episode 2, 3, and 4. Wow. This thing is good and you might want to check it out.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Fiction, Suspense, Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B072BMCYK7
Listening Length: 9 hrs 38 mins
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Publication Date: August 1, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Crime Scene – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Jonathan Kellerman

Read more at:
http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Jesse Kellerman

The Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris was born December 21, 1952 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Greek American father and Jewish mother,^[1] and grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He took up acting while a student at Governor Livingston High School, because he felt he was too small to succeed in athletics.^[3] A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Boutsikaris toured the country with John Houseman’s The Acting Company doing classical theatre. Boutsikaris was married to actress Deborah Hedwall; they divorced in 2002.

Find him at:
http://www.dennisboutsikaris.com *

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.

#throwbackthursday

The Waiting by Michael Connelly #AudiobookReview #HeistThrillers

Editors’ pick Best Books of the Year 2024

A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel Book 6

Book Blurb:

LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a serial rapist whose trail has gone cold, and enlists a new volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: patrol officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet two decades ago. The arrested man is only twenty-four, so the genetic link must be familial: His father was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the City of Angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department ammunition to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her mission draws her into unexpected danger. With no choice but to go outside the department for help, she knocks on the door of Harry Bosch.

My Review:

I really enjoy the Ballard and Bosch series and don’t fail to try and snag a copy if available—and it was—at my local library.

My fav, of course, hands down is Bosch, made so real by Titus Welliver in the TV series and his voice never fails to conjure his image from these audiobooks. Ballard is a smart, tough, and seasoned detective and for the most part I appreciate her main character. In this installment, however, Maddie Bosch comes calling and wants to work with Renée in the Open-Unsolved Unit (while she is still a patrol officer). She is bringing what she believes is the solution to a very old Cold Case.

Yes, Maddie is Bosch’s daughter, but as a patrol officer has no real detective experience and her becoming hero of the day is a bit annoying. At the same time, Ballard had her badge, ID, and gun stolen while she was catching the last of the good surfing waves before work. Rather than reporting it (a case of her being on thin ice, I guess), she chooses to chase down and recover her property, stumbling in the process on a bigger and critical sub-plot.

Then there’s the case her team has stumbled upon, that of the matching DNA of an old, cold case they called the Pillowcase Rapist. But, oops, that would have to be the father, not the kid arrested and the father is a present-day judge. They’ll have to tread lightly.

Never a dull moment in Connelly’s books and this is no exception—it moves along pretty good. Bosch comes late to the party and though his voice appears to fit in a bit better this episode, it still sounds somewhat “phoned in” to me and my only real problem with the novels. I love the use of his wisdom and experience, but wish it sounded more like a live discussion happening between them, rather than the lapse of response time (and volume) currently detected at times. I’ve mentioned this before including my review of Book 5, Desert Star last year. Obviously does not affect the other formats of the novel, the smart and suspenseful plots are intelligent, hook in the reader, and keep them with great characters. My slight irritation with Welliver’s responses are a technical audio thing but still whittles my rating to 4.5 stars. Perhaps I’m the only one that picky and you’ll enjoy another great Connelly novel regardless.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Heist Thrillers, Serial Killer Thrillers, Mystery Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ASIN: B0CTKSPQZX
Listening Length: 10 hrs 50 mins
Narrators: Christine Lakin, Titus Welliver, Madison Lintz
Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: The Waiting – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels and one work of nonfiction. With over eighty-five million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into forty-five foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today. A former newspaper reporter who worked the crime beat at the Los Angeles Times and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Connelly has won numerous awards for his journalism and his fiction. His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly’s 1998 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his #1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, hit theaters worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. His most recent New York Times bestsellers include Resurrection Walk (2023), Desert Star (2022), The Dark Hours (2021), The Law Of Innocence (2020), Fair Warning (2020), and The Night Fire (2019). Michael is the executive producer of Bosch and Bosch: Legacy, Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver and streaming on Amazon Prime/Amazon Freevee. He is the executive producer of The Lincoln Lawyer, streaming on Netflix, starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. He is also the executive producer of the documentary films, “Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story’ and ‘Tales Of the American.’ He spends his time in California and Florida.

Happy Thursday!

It’s Time to Vote in the Goodreads Choice Awards! #TuesdayBookBlog

My Goodreads Choice Awards for 2024

I’ve mentioned the Goodreads Choice Awards in previous years as it’s one of my favorite places to look for trending novels and authors, often finding my next book or audiobook.

I vote in each level from the opening round to the final round and some years score more winners than others. It’s fun to see how many of my reads, whether gleaned from Goodreads suggestions, publishers and authors, or NetGalley made it to the finals and, if so, where they came in. (Number 1?)

As of the prep for this post, there were already 2,736,392 votes cast in fifteen categories. Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Romance, Romantasy, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Debut Nove, Audiobook, Young Adult Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, History & Biography.

Romantasy? New last year? My favorite categories are Mystery & Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fiction, and Crime Fiction, but also read Humor, Memoir, Biography, Nonfiction, and Debut novels. Of course, the CE adds his own brand of reading usually of more masculine novels with action-adventure.

Up for consideration this year are eight of the books read in 2024 that landed on the list in the following categories: (Links are to my reviews which list sales info as well as the Goodreads link.)

Is one of these nominees yours?

Fiction

Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty* (audiobook)
Margo’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe (audiobook)

Historical Fiction

The Women – Kristin Hannah*
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon (audiobook)

Mystery & Thriller

Darling Girls – Sally Hepworth* (audiobook)
The Heiress – Rachel Hawkins (audiobook)
First Lie Wins – Ashley Elston (audiobook-Reese’s Book Club selection)

Audiobook

The Women – Kristin Hannah*
Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty (audiobook)
Funny Story – Emily Henry (audiobook)
First Lie Wins – Ashley Elston (audiobook-Reese’s Book Club selection)

*My vote

(I’m rather surprised so many are from my audiobook selections.)

Last year, my Memoir & Autobiography vote went to Spare by Prince Harry, but surprised Britney Spears won for The Woman in Me (did you read that one? I read it but preferred Spare.) I did, however, pick the winner for the History & Biography category, The Wager. Gees, that was good and so glad it won!

There are 300 nominees this year across the 15 categories, but I swear a couple of those are new and a few categories were eliminated from previous years (poetry, middle grade and children’s, comic novels and graphics). The opening round of voting is between November 12 until November 24, so you still have time to make your voice heard.

Did one of your favorite books land in the nominees? Vote for it! The final round starts November 26, ends December 1. Winners are announced December 5.

So I have to ask:

How many of the above did you read?
In how many different categories do you participate?
Do you look for reading ideas from the Goodreads winners?
What is your source for 2025 trending books?
And, lastly—have you gone to any movies or viewed series based on one of your choices?

I’ve always appreciated Goodreads for the extensive resources they provide. I often check their New Releases section under “Browse” as well as Recommendations and crosscheck those against the offerings in NetGalley. If I cannot find the book in NetGalley, I check my local library and look for the audiobook first.

What is the book you are hoping to see listed in those nominees?

#TuesdayBookBlog

Ruthless Tide by Al Roker #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America’s Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster

Book Blurb:

A gripping narrative history of the 1889 Johnstown Flood – the deadliest flood in US history – from New York Times best-selling author, NBC host, and legendary weather authority Al Roker.

May 1889: After a deluge of rainfall – nearly a foot in less than 24 hours – swelled the Little Conemaugh River, panicked engineers watched helplessly as swiftly rising waters threatened to breach the South Fork Dam in central Pennsylvania. Though they telegraphed neighboring towns on this last morning in May, warning of the impending danger, residents, used to false alarms, remained in their homes.

At 3:10 p.m., the dam gave way, releasing 20 million tons of water. Gathering speed as it flowed southwest, the deluge wiped out entire towns in its path and picked up debris – trees, houses, animals – before reaching Johnstown, 14 miles downstream. Traveling 40 miles an hour, with swells as high as 60 feet, the deadly floodwaters razed the mill town – home to 20,000 people – in minutes. The Great Flood, as it would come to be called, remains the deadliest in US history, killing more than 2,200 people and causing $17 million in damage.

Al Roker tells the riveting story of this tragedy, which remains one of the worst weather-related disasters in American history. Ruthless Tide follows a compelling cast of characters whose fates converged because of that tragic day, including John Parke, the engineer whose heroic efforts failed to save the dam; Henry Clay Frick, the robber baron whose fancy sport-fishing resort was responsible for modifications that weakened the structure; and Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, who spent five months in Johnstown leading one of the first organized disaster relief efforts. Weaving together their stories and those of many ordinary citizens whose lives were forever altered by the event, Roker creates a classic account of our natural world at its most terrifying.

My Review:

Yes, I found not only the authoritative book and then the movie narrated by Richard Dreyfuss regarding the Johnstown Flood and posted that review on October 3, 2024. No, I’m not fascinated with the disaster, but having read what I thought was the definitive book on the subject, discovered Roker’s book on the flood and thought I’d give it a whirl; see if or how it differed from McCullough’s book.

The city of Johnstown PA today. — The City Of Johnstown Pennsylvania From The Highest Point

McCullough’s book was almost a textbook on the who, why, and how the devastation occurred. Although that book named names, those who were the responsible parties on the side of human failure, it also described the rampage of Mother Nature that resulted in a foot of rain in a twenty-four hour period.

As noted previously, Johnstown PA was a booming coal and steel town of some 20,000 people, enjoying the gains of the Industrial Revolution. An old earthen dam had been built to create a premiere fishing lake and resort area for the wealthy tycoons of the time heavily involved in steel production and mining, including Andrew Carnegie.

Al Roker creates a more emotive human interest story, citing both those worker bees in the lower income strata as well as the merchants and the wealthy, the latter of which willing to ignore repeated warnings from knowledgeable engineers regarding the safety of the dam.

So many individual stories, from the six-year-old girl who is separated from her family by the ferocious rampage to the heroes who put their own safety behind the rescue of any they could manage. It puts the “human” back into the human interest story, a loss of more than ten percent of the population with graphic description of the horrific circumstances they faced.

The narrator puts a sober voice into the storyline, telegraphing the terrifying sight of upwards of a sixty-foot wall of mud and debris barreling down on them.

A disaster movie—real, horrifyingly real–and you don’t want to be in it.

The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled the average flow rate of the Mississippi River, the flood killed 2,209 people. Illustration from 19th century.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Disaster Relief Studies, Natural Disasters, Disaster Relief
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B07BK9YB3J
Listening Length: 8 hrs 27 mins
Narrator: Mirron Willis
Publication Date: May 22, 2018
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Ruthless Tide [Amazon]

The Author: In addition to being known to over thirty million viewers for his work on NBC’s Today show, a role that has earned him 13 Emmy awards, Al Roker is a bestselling author with many acclaimed books to his credit.

His first book, “Don’t Make Me Stop This Car: Adventures in Fatherhood” spent weeks atop the New York Times best-seller list. In May 2002, “Al Roker’s Big Bad Book of Barbecue” was published and, quickly became a summer blockbuster hit. His second cookbook, “Al Roker’s Hassle Free Holiday Cookbook”, became a huge success as it prepared America’s budding chefs for the holidays. “Big Shoes: In Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood” honors fathers and their contributions to lives of their children.

Working in fiction, Roker’s trilogy of murder mysteries are exciting crime novels that revolve around a fictional TV program much like TODAY. This trilogy includes “The Morning Show Murders” (recently made into a TV movie for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries starring Holly Robinson Peete and Rick Fox), “The Talk Show Murders,” and “The Midnight Show Murders.”

Al’s 2013 book, “Never Goin’ Back-Winning The Weight Loss Battle For Good” was a NY Times Bestseller and told Al’s personal struggles with his own weight, bariatric surgery, and diet/nutrition. It even included healthy eating recipes!

In 2015, Al published “The Storm Of The Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America’s Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900.” In less than twenty-four hours, one storm destroyed a major American metropolis—and awakened a nation to the terrifying power of nature. Al’s use of first person narrative received rave reviews.

Al collaborated with his wife, ABC News correspondent, Deborah Roberts, on “Been There Done That – Family Wisdom For Modern Times.” BTDT has been described as a funny, heartfelt, and empowering collection of life lessons, hard-won wisdom, and instructive family anecdotes from Al and Deborah’s lives, from their parents and grandparents, and from dear friends, famous and not.

Al also recently wrote his first children’s book, “Al Roker’s Extreme Weather: Tornadoes, Typhoons, and Other Weather Phenomena” in 2017. With this mesmerizing book that covers a wide range of topics, readers will learn about the conditions that generate unique weather occurrences like red sprites, thundersnow, and fogsicles.

Al’s latest book book “Ruthless Tide – The Heroes And Villains Of The Johnstown Flood” was released in May 2018. In Ruthless Tide, Al Roker follows an unforgettable cast of characters whose fates converged because of that tragic day, including John Parke, the engineer whose heroic efforts failed to save the dam; the robber barons whose fancy sport fishing resort was responsible for modifications that weakened the dam; and Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, who spent five months in Johnstown leading one of the first organized disaster relief efforts in the United States. Weaving together their stories and those of many ordinary citizens whose lives were forever altered by the event, Ruthless Tide is testament to the power of the human spirit in times of tragedy and also a timely warning about the dangers of greed, inequality, neglected infrastructure, and the ferocious, uncontrollable power of nature.

Check the EVENTS tab on Facebook/BooksByAlRoker for appearances by Al Roker.

Follow Al on Instagram and twitter at @AlRoker.

#ThrowbackThursday

The More the Terrier: Andy Carpenter Book 30 by David Rosenfelt #AudiobookReview #AnimalCozyMysteries

in Animal Cozy Mysteries

Book Blurb:

The next installment in David Rosenfelt’s bestselling Andy Carpenter series brings a lone pup to his doorstep, but when it comes to dogs, The More the Terrier.

Reluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter is relieved to be headed back to Paterson, New Jersey, after a week-long family vacation in the Adirondacks. He’s ready to put the holly jolly season way behind him and settle in at home with his three dogs. But when they finally arrive, there is an extra dog eagerly awaiting them, as well as one anxious dog sitter.

When the dog showed up on the doorstep a few days ago, the sitter knew Andy would know what to do. Indeed, Andy recognizes Murphy, who the Carpenters fostered before the dog went home with BJ Bremer and his mother. BJ wanted to learn all he could about caring for Murphy, which made Andy like him immediately.

When Andy goes to take Murphy back to the Bremers, though, instead of the happy reunion he expects, he finds BJ’s mother in tears. It turns out Murphy ran off…after BJ was arrested for murder. Andy had hoped for a quiet Christmas vacation, but he likes Murphy’s family and his golden retriever, Tara, likes Murphy, so he can’t resist getting involved. The case isn’t as simple as Andy thought it would be, though, with BJ suspected of murdering one of his professors. With nothing to go on but Andy’s own conviction in BJ’s dog-loving character, proving his innocence would be a Christmas miracle.

With equal doses of doggy humor and courtroom drama, as well as Andy Carpenter’s traditional humbug Christmas spirit, David Rosenfelt delivers another winner.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

My Review:

Another doggy series and one I adore from David Rosenfelt and Grover Gardner. No, Gardner didn’t help write it, but his familiar voice and the way he narrates Andy Carpenter keep you coming back for more. This is number thirty? No problem—I’m already looking forward to number thirty-one (except I hope we don’t have more of the Jersey mob in the next one),

Yes, it’s a popular and successful formula, but these characters all come together in each of their roles perfectly drawn and work beautifully. Even better, you could come in on number thirty as easily as number five as the author supplies the reader with enough background info to show you how they relate to the overall main character, Andy Carpenter.

Still, those of us who know and love Andy at this point remember that Laurie (his wife and ex-cop) still starts Christmas before Halloween, he’s still paying for (and threatening to cut them off) his buddies at their favorite haunt, and he still walks and talks to his dogs while pondering his cases. All except for Sebastian who he has finally acquiesced to allowing him to do his business without the long walks. Tara hasn’t rescued Andy lately, could still do so, but patiently listens to his arguments without comment.

In this episode, Murphy, a terrier, shows up at Andy’s door step one evening, a past rescue, Andy’s main passion. He remembers her of course and tracks down the mother and son who adopted the dog. Unfortunately, the son has been arrested for murder. Of course, Andy will take the case even as he vows to stop being a criminal attorney. These cases just keep popping up keeping him from fully retiring.

While you might think this formula could get old, it doesn’t for several reasons. I love the sarcastic sense of humor, the quick wit that keeps him on his feet both with dealing with law enforcement, other lawyers, and in the courtroom. That sharp mind almost misses nothing and when it does, niggles at him until he susses it out.

These stories are deemed cozy mysteries, but they far exceed the cozy concept with deeply complex and layered storylines and always keep you second guessing. Love the courtroom “dance” and I usually learn something new. In this case, the metaverse. Metaverse!!—really?

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Animal Cozy Mysteries, Animal Fiction, Holiday Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0CWB2412M
Listening Length: 6 hrs 34 mins
Narrator: Grover Gardner
Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The More the Terrier – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: David Rosenfelt, a native of Paterson, New Jersey, is a graduate of NYU. He was the former marketing president for Tri-Star Pictures before becoming a writer of novels and screenplays. “Open And Shut” was his first novel; “First Degree,” his second novel, was named a best book of 2003 by Publishers Weekly. He currently lives in Southern California with his wife and 35 dogs.

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The Narrator:

Grover Gardner’s narration career spans twenty-five years and over 550 audiobook titles. AudioFile Magazine has called him one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and features him in their annual “Golden Voices” update. Publishers Weekly named him Audiobook Narrator of the Year for 2005. His recordings have garnered 18 “Golden Earphones” awards from AudioFile and an Audie Award from the Audio Publishers’ Association.
http://grovergardner.blogspot.com/

Happy Autumn Weekend to you from Rosepoint Publishing

The Heiress: A Novel by Rachel Hawkins #AudiobookReview #GothicHorrorFiction

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.

And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

My Review:

I had no idea I was tackling a Gothic thriller, but I can tell you that this dysfunctional family makes you happy you aren’t rich. Good grief, with money comes treachery, woes, and misery. Or perhaps the McTavish family is unusual? I hope so.

Cam and Jules have been married for a while, solid and comfortable, childless but happy in Colorado far away from the family who adopted him and the mother who denied her birth children the home and fortune she left Cam. The siblings, who were never thrilled with him, are now left bitter and conniving after Ruby’s death.

Cam is called by his uncle to Ashby House to straighten out a financial mess. It’s Jules who convinces him he should return, reconcile with his adopted siblings.

Then it does read like a Gothic novel, describing a home of monumental proportions on a palatial estate, breathtakingly beautiful. It’s easy to veil the secrets, tension, and suspicion each family member heaps on each other. Narcissism screams with each character, whose personalities have been defined by money, power, and privilege.

The plot deepens with revelations from each of the characters, beautifully captured by multiple narrators. Adding to the tension are the little letter vignettes from Ruby, disclosing the stories of her four unfortunate husbands, all having met suspicious deaths.

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller and the trove of unreliable narrators, ramping suspense. From a slightly slow start through the twists, one last zinger at the end, and the satisfying denouement, this novel may well be enjoyed by Gothic and psychological thriller fans and it doesn’t hurt that the area descriptions become so atmospheric.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Gothic Horror Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0C3NX3ZK6
Listening Length: 8 hrs 20 mins
Narrator: Dan Bittner, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla, Patti Murin
Publication Date: January 9, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Heiress [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Rachel Hawkins (http://www.rachel-hawkins.com) was a high school English teacher before becoming a full-time writer. She lives with her family in Alabama, and is currently at work on the third book in the Hex Hall series. To the best of her knowledge, Rachel is not a witch, though some of her former students may disagree….