My New Listen

· The Rembrandt Affair

· UNABRIDGED

· by Daniel Silva

· Narrated by Phil Gigante

· Publisher Brilliance Audio

· Length 11 hours 27 minutes

Publisher's Summary

Determined to sever his ties with the Office, Gabriel Allon has retreated to the windswept cliffs of Cornwall with his beautiful Venetian-born wife, Chiara. But once again his seclusion is interrupted by a visitor from his tangled past: the endearingly eccentric London art dealer Julian Isherwood. As usual, Isherwood has a problem. And it is one only Gabriel can solve.

In the ancient English city of Glastonbury, an art restorer has been brutally murdered and a long-lost portrait by Rembrandt mysteriously stolen. Despite his reluctance, Gabriel is persuaded to use his unique skills to search for the painting and those responsible for the crime. But as he painstakingly follows a trail of clues leading from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires and, finally, to a villa on the graceful shores of Lake Geneva, Gabriel discovers there are deadly secrets connected to the painting. And evil men behind them.

Before he is done, Gabriel will once again be drawn into a world he thought he had left behind forever, and will come face-to-face with a remarkable cast of characters: a glamorous London journalist who is determined to undo the worst mistake of her career, an elusive master art thief who is burdened by a conscience, and a powerful Swiss billionaire who is known for his good deeds but may just be behind one of the greatest threats facing the world.

Filled with remarkable twists and turns of plot, and told with seductive prose, The Rembrandt Affair is more than just summer entertainment of the highest order. It is a timely reminder that there are men in the world who will do anything for money.

What I'm Reading Now

Cover Her Face is the debut 1962 crime novel of P. D. James. It details the investigations by her poetry-writing detective Adam Dalgliesh into the death of a young, ambitious maid, surrounded by a family which has reasons to want her gone - or dead. The title is taken from a passage from John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi: "Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle; she died young."

Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park (born 3 August 1920), commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring her most iconic creation, policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.

My New Listen

The Likeness
--unabridged

Author: Tana French
Narrated by Heather O'Neill
Publisher: Recorded Books
Length: 22 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary
Tana French's debut, In the Woods, hit the New York Times best-seller list and drew rave reviews from the Times (London) and Booklist. Picking up six months later, this riveting sequel finds Detective Cassie Maddox still scarred by her last case. When her boyfriend calls her to a chilling murder scene, Cassie is forced to face her inner demons. A young woman has been found stabbed to death outside Dublin, and the victim looks just like Cassie.

My New Listen

This should make the six-hour drive to Nashville for the CSC a little more interesting:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Steig Larsson

Unabridged

Publisher: Books on Tape

Narrated by Simon Vance

Length: 16 hours 19 minutes

Publisher's Summary

A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue....

It's about the disappearance 40 years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden...and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.

It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance...and about Lisbeth Salander, a 24-year-old, pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age, who assists Blomkvist with the investigation.

This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism - and an unexpected connection between themselves.

Whowunnit?

Whoduzzn't love a good mystery? I know I do! This genre probably tops my list for preferred recreational reading.

The Mystery Writers of America recently announced the Edgar Awards for 2009, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television and film published or produced in 2008. And the Edgar goes to . . .

BEST NOVEL

Blue Heaven by C.J. Box (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Foreigner by Francie Lin (Picador)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

China Lake by Meg Gardiner (New American Library - Obsidian Mysteries)

BEST FACT CRIME American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum (Crown Publishers)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Dr. Harry Lee Poe (Metro Books)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Skinhead Central” - The Blue Religion by T. Jefferson Parker (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company)

BEST JUVENILE

The Postcard by Tony Abbott (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Paper Towns by John Green (Penguin Young Readers Group - Dutton Children’s Books)

BEST PLAY

The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza (Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Prayer of the Bone” - Wire in the Blood, Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (BBC America)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY

In Bruges, Screenplay by Martin McDonagh (Focus Features)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“Buckner’s Error” - Queens Noir by Joseph Guglielmelli (Akashic Books)

GRAND MASTER

James Lee Burke

Sue Grafton

RAVEN AWARDS

Edgar Allan Poe Society, Baltimore, Maryland

Poe House, Baltimore, Maryland

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

The Killer’s Wife by Bill Floyd (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

Any of your favorites on the list?