Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (Travis McGee Mysteries)

Book Description

2 cassettes / 3 hours
Read by Darren McGavin

"...a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer."
--MARY HIGGINS CLARK

"...a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character."
--SUE GRAFTON

* All of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels are available from Random House AudioBooks*

Helena Pearson. Undeniably beautiful . . . indisputably rich . . incredibly wanton . . . the perfect client for Travis McGee. He did a big favor for her husband and then for the lady herself. Now Helena is dead, and McGee finds out that she had one last request to make of him: find out why her beautiful daughter, Maurie, keeps trying to kill herself. So, half-convinced that Maurie needs a good doctor and not a devil-may-care beach bum, McGee makes his way to the prosperous town of Fort Courtney, Florida, a respectable, booming, deadly little place. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper.......2007-08-11

Travis really has his work cut out for him this time. Happily, he finally handles the dangerous situation perfectly.

Like meeting an old friend.......2006-11-10

I do not even remember when I first read this book, it is only that I like Mr.McGee's style of meetig the world face-on so much that I bought the book again. I liked it like before. It was like joining the gang on the Busted Flush for an easy evening of music and laughter.

Poor Nurse Penny.......2004-07-08

A bit overplotted and maybe resolved just a little too neatly, "The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper" nevertheless transcends its dated, Spillane-esque title and serves as a entertaining, mid-level McGee adventure.

After two excellent introductory sections (a cool short section about Trav *actually* working in his supposed field -- salvage consulting; and a amusing backstory about his affair with an older woman), we gear into the breadth of the plot which involves a beautiful, unhinged blonde with a bottomless trust fund and her husband, a monied sociopath who's both more and less dangerous than he seems.

Somewhere along the way, we find Trav actually experiencing genuine feelings for a woman (and the *wrong* woman, no less; this is one instance in which most readers can finally say *they* know better than MacDonald's endlessly shrewd, canny protagonist).

The final third is a little too much Q&A, with Trav extracting exactly the information he needs from relative strangers; the fairly obvious examination of race-relations may be accurate but hasn't aged too well; and the ending -- in which MacDonald actually has to step back and explain the twists step-by-step to the reader through a deposition -- feels like a writer tip-toeing out of the corner he's painted himself into.

But nevertheless, this is a vivid little page-turner with some nicely rendered characters (Pike, Biddy, Nurse Penny, screwed-up lawyer Holton and his alluring wife and especially Detective Stanger) and an apt air of melacholy, regret and loss.

A Thinking Man's Mystery Novel.......2001-08-17

Travis McGee gets a check for $25,000 (a lot of dough for 1969) and the dying wish of an old friend, to look after her suicidal daughter. So McGee goes to Fort Courtney to observe the daughter, her sister and her husband. What McGee encounters is a series of unusual circumstances, including dead bodies, cheating spouses, and the evidence that somebody is spying on him. Could all of these things be connected? Sure - but only McGee could figure out the complicated connection. True to most McGee novels, justice is served in the end, although in a form the reader does not expect.

This is my 11th McGee novel. Clearly MacDonald writes in a more sophisticated style than 98% of the mystery writers today. A new reader may find it annoying that one must suffer through a good 100 pages before the action really begins, but this is typical MacDonald style. Not only do you get a complex mystery, but you get a lot of philosophy along the way.

My first McGee novel. A very good start!.......2001-03-12

Well, I'll keep this short & sweet. I'm not much of a mystery reader but this series was recommended to me by several people. I picked this one randomly to start the series. I liked it...the story was quick-moving, had good character development, some humor, a lot of action, and tied up nicely at the end. At 250 pages it's a quick read, perfect for an airplane ride. If you like Dick Francis, Robert Parker, et al, then you'll like this series.

Father Brown of the Church of Rome: Selected Mystery Stories

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Thought provoking quick reads
Beautiful Example of Divine Mirth
The best introduction for new readers of GKC
Raise your standards of good writing and good mystery!
Probably the best way to introduce new readers to GKC.

Father Brown of the Church of Rome: Selected Mystery Stories
G. K. Chesterton
Manufacturer: Ignatius Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0898709539

Customer Reviews:

Thought provoking quick reads.......2007-03-20

I enjoyed this collection of short mystery stories very much. It is especially satisfying if you are of the same faith as the writer - Roman Catholic.

Beautiful Example of Divine Mirth.......2005-07-18

G.K. Chesterton's writings are often compared to those of John Henry Newman in their beauty and eloquence; Chesterton's "Edwardian" prose is particularly amazing and tends to focus more on Divine mirth than on Divine sorrow (as does J.H. Newman in his wonderfully Victorian way). "Father Brown and the Church of Rome" is a perfect example of Chesterton's love of Divine joy, and is a wonderful playground of the imagination. His various stories of the exploits of Fr. Brown are beautifully written, and his prose is unbeatable. Children should read (or be read) this and other volumes on Fr. Brown, for Chesterton writes as an artist paints, and will greatly influence their use of the imagination. A definite winner!

The best introduction for new readers of GKC.......2000-04-27

There is no better way to get that vital first experience of G. K. Chesterton than by reading his famous "Father Brown" mystery series, and short of buying the whole set, there is no better selection of Fr. Brown stories than that provided here by John Peterson and Ignatius Press. Peterson's choices were excellent, and his discreet footnotes and commentary make the subtlety, richness, and humor of GKC shine through undimmmed by the passage of 75 years since they were first penned. Clean, intelligent reading for kids, too! I did as full review of Peterson's excellent collection in the "National Catholic Register", 15 February 1998, p.8.

Raise your standards of good writing and good mystery!.......1998-11-29

I happened upon this collection of short mysteries and got hooked! What unconventional and creative mysteries for Christians or non-Christians, Catholics or Protestants. My boyfriend (catholic) and I (protestant) tossed out our television sets in search of more constructive entertainment. We started reading these short stories to each other--fun evenings of mystery!

Read Chesterton because he is a great master of language and will raise your standard of good writing and good mystery! I'm online now looking for more Chesterton....

Probably the best way to introduce new readers to GKC........1998-02-27

There is no better way to get that vital first experience of Gilbert Keith Chesterton than by reading his famous "Father Brown" mystery series, and, short of buying the whole collection, there is no better selection of Fr. Brown stories than that provided by John Peterson and Ignatius Press. Peterson's choices were excellent, and his discreet footnotes and commentary make the subltety, richness, and humor of GKC shine through undimmed by the passage of 75 years since they were first penned. Clean, intelligent reading for kids, too! I did a full review of Peterson's excellent collection in the "National Catholic Register", 15 February 1998, p.8.

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Larry Karp's latest book
Ragtime, Racism, and Murder
history of ragtime music makes this book outstanding
strong historical mystery

Ragtime Kid, The
Larry Karp
Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1590583264

Book Description

Brun Campbell, a 15-year-old piano fool, gets to play Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" one 1898 afternoon in Oklahoma City. It's destiny calling. Though he tries for ragtime lessons, he's told no--"Ragtime is colored music" So Brun runs away from the family home in El Reno, Oklahoma, to Sedalia, Missouri, to persuade Joplin to take him on as a pupil. What Brun doesn't expect is to trip over the body of a young woman--he thinks at first she's a log and thoughtlessly picks up a couple of items before he rushes away.

When Edward Fitzgerald, who befriended Brun his first night in town, is arrested for the woman's murder, Brun is certain he's innocent. But if the boy shows anyone the things he pocketed at the scene, things he now knows belonged to Scott Joplin, he'll point the finger at the composer--and himself.

Caught in this dilemma, Brun decides to get Fitzgerald and Joplin—and himself—off the hook by finding the real killer, but for that he will need some grown-up help which he gets from the story's other linchpins: Dr. Overstreet, the alcoholic town mayor, and John Stark, a man pushing sixty and feeling it, who's been employing Brun at his music store.

Sedalia is rife with suspects, some of them opportunists bent on stealing Joplin's music. And then there are the girls and women. Both are a mystery to Brun. A teenager seized with religious fever, a couple of mischievous prostitutes, and an attractive, ambitious young woman with a hint of scarlet in her past complicate the pursuit of the killer.

Customer Reviews:

Larry Karp's latest book.......2007-02-16

I've just re-read Larry Karp's The Ragtime Kid, and just as you shouldn't play ragtime too fast, you shouldn't read Karp's book too fast, either, lest you miss the music of his prose and the nuances of the stories he tells.
In this, his latest book, it's 1899, and young piano player Brun Campbell has run away from his rural home in Oklahoma to Sedalia, Missouri. He's only just heard ragtime for the first time, and hopes to learn this new music from the master himself, Scott Joplin. Arriving in Sedalia, and looking for a room for the night, he stumbles, literally, upon the body of a woman, and picks up two objects that will become vital to the solution of her murder. He finds employment at a music store, and begins studying with Joplin, but when a man he knows is innocent is arrested, Brun is, however unwillingly, drawn into the search for the real murderer.
Though Sedalia is a town filled with music, it is only 30 years since the end of the War Between the States, and racism is very much a part of this story. Joplin insists on being taken seriously as a musician, and receiving royalties on the sheet music which will bear his name as composer, an unprecedented demand for the times. Thus, another plot line develops, as Joplin pursues his ambitions despite some unprincipled and amoral adversaries.
The characters here are a mixture of real, from Joplin and Campbell and other musical figures, and fictional, to some of the townspeople. In skin color, they are black and they are white, and in character they are black and white, as well, but the two categories do not necessarily overlap. Brun himself is a fifteen-year-old, a musical Huck Finn in some ways, coming of age in a world more complex than he ever imagined, and he's learning, at first hand, what black and white are all about. As events unfold, Karp vividly captures the sheer awfulness of racial (and other) bias as it was then.
Just as there are two plot lines, there are two narrative voices here, speaking in a gentle counterpoint. One voice is someone who knows Brun and tells his part of the story, occasionally noting that "Brun once told [him]" about one event or another. The other voice is an omniscient third-person narrator, who recounts Joplin's story, and the ongoing search for the murderer of the woman whose body Brun found. As Brun's music lessons commence, his plot and Joplin's intertwine, connected by some unscrupulous music promoters, and by his own efforts to absolve the innocent man.
All the characters, and some of them are surprising, are vividly realized, and they all speak very much in their own voices. Those voices, moreover, are often eloquent. Early in the book, Joplin tells Brun that ragtime is like "a bright sunny day, just a perfect day, but . . . sooner or later, the lovely day will have to end." Even more moving is a grieving father's lament for the brutal death of his son, which he knows will not be investigated: "[We] was born slaves, and now we been set free, but I don't see the leas' difference. White men kill us on the plantation, they kill us now, an' it's no matter."
From the geography of Sedalia to its weather, the sense of place in the novel is intense. It's a book that takes place in a hot Missouri summer, when the air is "close to drinkable," and we breathe in that heat and humidity as we follow Brun through the city. More characters appear, his life becomes more complicated, and as he puzzles out the solution to the murder, the action leads up to a triple denouement. First there's a violent confrontation with some brutal men, followed by an even more suspenseful encounter which culminates in the unmasking of a murderer. Then, in a shocking turnaround, Brun's own "lovely day" is over, and his life moves in a new direction.
The Ragtime Kid is a scrupulously researched look at a time in America's musical and social past, a fiction that can, as Karp notes in the concluding pages of his book, tell "a truth more striking and wondrous than any historical reality." It's a book written with humor (and not a little irony), with occasional pathos, and always with generosity . Listen to some Joplin while you read it

Ragtime, Racism, and Murder.......2006-12-20

Larry Karp writes books. He doesn't just write genre fiction; he writes each work as an individual, well-crafted, offbeat narration. Even in his Music Box series, published by the now-defunct Write Way, all three novels were entirely singular, and unique. So, too, is *The Ragtime Kid*, an outstanding piece of historical intrigue that focuses on the origins of ragtime music and is written within the murder mystery/crime literature category of fiction.

Dr. Karp is a particularly fine writer, and his prose shines, but here, the story itself--and the characters--truly dominate.

The protagonist of the book, young Brun Campbell, is so drawn by the allure of the new music craze, ragtime, that he runs away from home to study with the great Scott Joplin in Sedalia, Missouri. Just off the train, Brun stumbles over the body of a woman, Then, not long after, he has himself a job and becomes a student of the elegant black composer, Joplin, who very well might be a homicide suspect.

Another great theme of the book is American racism. Although the Civil War has been over for a good long time, those who fought in the war--and many in Sedalia did--haven't forgotten--from one side of the great divide, or the other.

Racism, ragtime, and murder are his topics, and Karp intertwines the three adroitly for the novel's readers, then throws in a little romance as a sort of seasoning. Male/female relationships are as complex in The Ragtime Kid as they are in real life.

But perhaps the element that tickled me most about the book is the fine detailing of the time and place. Karp, a longstanding ragtime enthusiast, took the Scott Joplin biography and that of the real-life Brun Campbell, and without distorting the documented facts, wove a tale of what might have occurred. Behind that marvelous foreground though lies a backdrop lending the intoxicating particulars of the time: memories of the Chicago's World Fair in 1893, a young woman eager to perform in vaudeville, a spring-powered fan to drive away the heat, and yellow streetcars providing the Sedalia citizens their transportation.

In short, Karp has created a darn good read, a compelling and literate story that entertains on many levels--as a novel, as a mystery, and as a chronicle of one stage in our national history--a tale peopled by very real and believable characters.

*The Ragtime Kid* proves itself to be both a fun and an enlightening pastime.

G. Miki Hayden, author of *Writing the Mystery* and *The Naked Writer*.

history of ragtime music makes this book outstanding.......2006-12-16

We already knew that Larry Karp was a talented mystery writer, thanks to his previous novels. This latest work shows that he can write historical fiction and make it fascinating. Even though I started the book knowing nothing about ragtime music, by the end I wanted to learn more!

His other strength is his ability to create characters that are so real, and so endearing, that the reader quickly begins to identify with and root for the protagonist(s). This makes the book a real page-turner, because you can't wait to read more about what "your" characters are doing!

If you haven't read anything by Larry Karp yet, you're in for a treat!

strong historical mystery.......2006-12-03

Brun Campbell loves to hear and play music. In Oklahoma city he listens to some musicians in a music store playing a tune by Scott Joplin and knows instantly that is what he wants to learn how to play. He runs away from home at fifteen and hops a train for Sedelia, Missouri in the hopes that he can get Mr. Joplin to give him lessons. On the way into town he runs across the body of a woman strangled to death and he takes a musical money clip that is nearby and a locket on her neck.

In town he meets businessman Mr. Fitzgerald who stakes him to a room at the YMCA and money to buy food while he looks for work. Someone who hears him playing music recommends he ask music store owner Mr. Stark for a job. Mr. Stark listens to him play and offers him a job on the spot. He also auditions for Joplin who agrees to give him lessons. When Mr. Fitzgerald is arrested for the murder of the woman Brun saw the first day he was in town; he knows the man didn't do it. The money clip which belonged to Joplin could implicate him and Brun in the murder. Brun decides to find the killer with the unwitting help of the townsfolk as he maneuvers them in the direction he wants them to go for information relating to the murder.

As historical mysteries go, THE RAGTIME KID is one of the better ones. The author doesn't only write a good who done it, he shows the readers how the plight of the black man had changed very little since Emancipation back three decades earlier. Scott Joplin takes a big risk to be paid in royalties with his name as the arranger of the music, something unheard of in the 1890's. The protagonist has a touch of larceny in him that helps him get what he wants but he is so adorable, readers will root for him in spite of his faults.

Harriet Klausner

Treason in the Blood: H. St. John Philby, Kim Philby, and the Spy Case of the Century

Average customer rating:

Five Stars for Topic; Three Stars for Research Methods
Exhaustive and Intriguing, albeit with a political bent
Philby - Anti-Hero of 20th Century Ideological Wars
The title promises more than the book delivers.

Treason in the Blood: H. St. John Philby, Kim Philby, and the Spy Case of the Century
Anthony Cave Brown
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 039563119X

Customer Reviews:

Five Stars for Topic; Three Stars for Research Methods.......2005-02-15

Despite the implications of the title, "Treason in the Blood," Anthony Cave Brown presents a generally well-balanced portrayal of the life of Kim Philby, one of the Soviet Union's Cambridge spies, who had penetrated deeply into MI6 during World War II. Mr. Brown's entertaining account adds missing pieces to the puzzle, beginning with Philby's childhood and his admiration for his usually absent father, St. John, an adventurer who had become a friend and adviser to King Ibn Saud. Brown also presents an absorbing narrative of Kim Philby's depressingly ambiguous reception in the Soviet Union after his hasty departure from Beirut in 1963. The book, which juxtaposes a portrayal of Philby's headstrong father (based upon the elder Philby's reminiscences and letters to his long-suffering wife) with Kim's youth, education, entry and career in espionage (much of the latter being familiar territory), is a 'page-turner' in spite of its 637 pages (including index).

As fascinating as the account of Philby's life in Beirut and Moscow is, however, the reader must be cautious. The author frequently relies uncritically upon evidence supplied by those whose own axes were sharply honed, as it were, since Philby's defection either made them look like fools or cast a shadow of complicity over them. The author also relies occasionally upon a juxtaposition of unrelated events, offering several interpretations, including gossip-- introduced by "it is said"--and leaving the worst interpretation (in respect to Philby's motives) to the last, where it will linger in his readers' minds (This rhetorical technique of innuendo will be recognizable to readers of the Ancient Roman authors, Suetonius and Tacitus.).

Perhaps the author's most infuriating fault, however, is the tendency to bring up a question that begs, if not an answer, at least some comment. For example, on p. 518 he notes that Guy Burgess on his deathbed ("is said to have") denounced Philby as a British (and therefore triple) agent, but that Burgess nevertheless bequeathed most of his precious library, some furniture, and a considerable amount of money to Philby. Then the author moves on to another topic, Philby's legal status in the Soviet Union. The reader would like to learn more about Burgess' startling allegations and their implications. Only on p. 589 do we discover from a former KGB agent that Philby could not possibly have been a "British plant" since, being under continual Soviet scrutiny, he had "no contact" with the British in Moscow. Whom are we to believe?

Keeping these caveats in mind, the reader will nevertheless be rewarded with a tale of espionage that rarely ceases to enthrall.

Exhaustive and Intriguing, albeit with a political bent.......2003-05-28

The research was top rate; the writing was superb; the factual underpinnings for everything were uncontravertible, and the subject was fascinating. That said, there exists a political bent here that attempts to skew the reader to have a sense of sympathy for Philby. Skip it, Philby was a treacherous lowlife. Clearly Philby had a communist belief system, that's not in question. The real issue of course is, should your ideological belief system justify treasonous acts? In other words, Philby was placed in a position of trust by the British Government. Does the fact that he had the heart of a communist justify the actions he took on behalf of the Soviets? No. In fact, as demonstrated later in his life, which really isn't explored as much as it should have been, Philby clearly become disenchanted with the communist manifesto.

The bottom line, however, is that this is a great read, well done

Philby - Anti-Hero of 20th Century Ideological Wars.......1999-09-08

I think I can say without exaggeration, this is possibly the most important book of the 20th Century to date, which I have just had the good fortune to read within the last 6 months or so of that century. It illuminates and supplies all the linkages between the titanic struggles for the Middle East among the Great Powers of the Nineteenth Century, and the present hellish landscape that is their legacy. Then it goes on to meticulously study the character of Kim Philby, possibly the most important man of the century and certainly the one who embodies most all the contradictions and ambiguity of it. In the end nobody could penetrate this man's psyche, not the British and Americans whom he betrayed, nor the Russians whom he supposedly served. He remained a mystery wrapped inside an enigma to the end. The book causes one to ponder, how many of the great events of this century, turned on this one man? I can see why Graham Greene was so fond of him, because he is the character Graham Greene was trying to perfect in all his novels...

The title promises more than the book delivers........1998-07-08

Brown paints engaging and detailed pictures of St. John and Kim Philby. The chapters on St. John are particularly interesting. To judge by Brown's book, the elder Philby led a more colorful, though less notorious life than his son Kim.

Brown ultimately fails to support his charge of treason against St. John Philby. The charge, implicit in the book's title, is never really followed through in the text. St. John, as described by Brown, was an active critic of British policy in Arabia, a gadfly, and ultimately an embittered nuisance. This is not the same as being a traitor, however.

The chapters on Kim contain no new blockbusters, though Brown draws his character deftly. Ultimately more interesting than Kim Philby the man, though, is Kim Philby the phenomenon.

Book Description

On his deathbed, the great ornithologist John James Audubon is haunted by an incident thirty years ago, when a beautiful woman died suddenly on a Louisiana plantation where he was employed as a tutor. This is the central mystery of Brown's beguiling third novel.
Having failed as a businessman and portraitist, Audubon in 1821 is just beginning to formulate his grand design to draw all the birds of America. An artist and scientist, aristocrat and wayfaring outcast, he is ambitious, reckless, and naive. Such is his frame of mind when visitors arrive from New Orleans: a scandal-ridden physician and anatomist named Emile Gautreaux and his stunning wife, Myra. When Myra collapses and dies, the distraught Gautreaux believes she has been murdered. He asks the young tutor to sit with him though the long night, keeping watch over her body.
The two men do not meet again for decades, until the now famous Audubon summons Gautreaux to his New York estate. The mystery of Myra's death has linked them inextricably over time, as each has harbored secrets and deceptions. Richly atmospheric, this mesmerizing tale confirms that "Brown's compassionate vision of human destiny is one that contains both suffering and the possibility of deliverance" (New York Times).

Customer Reviews:

Great Reading.......2002-02-13

"Audubon's Watch", by John Gregory Brown is the first book of his work that I have read, and I intend to read his previous two books very soon. While reading this tale I often thought of the work of Wilkie Collins, one of the great writers of the late 19th century, and the man widely credited with the creation of the modern mystery genre. The Audubon of this novel is the famous artist who documented the birds of America, and while knowing some of the man's history is helpful it is not necessary.

A great mystery work maintains the suspense, the tension of the story to the very end. The tale itself sustains and lures the reader throughout the book without the need for blind alleys or misdirection. The facets that I mention can be great fun when used by many authors. Mr. Brown did not use them here, and I think the work is all that much better without the devices.

A young woman dies and Audubon is asked to sit watch with the husband the first night following her death. There is a second watch that has three owners, a watch that works or doesn't, a watch that appears to have a mind of its own. A common ritual in this instance has immense importance, for the husband is considered a notorious anatomist/resurrectionist, and Mr. Audubon has knowledge that drives his guilt for 30 years, when on his deathbed he summons the man he sat with that evening. But what is he guilty of, why does Emile, the deceased's husband, make a month long trek dealing with his own failing health to hear what Audubon wishes to say? And what could possibly be haunting Emile for these now past 30 years? The answers are all in the book, and they are not what appear to be obvious or even high probability predictions. The author is brilliant at manipulating what he shares and how he shares it, so that what you may take as a conversation among characters is something very different.

The author seems to play with the reader's need to know and the reader's willingness to make presumptions before the tale is complete. The effect he produces is really marvelous and entertaining. When he digresses from the specifics at hand to share the imagery of a roaring fire, a hurricane, and the flashing blades of the cutters of the cane as they work in his inferno is great reading.

John Gregory Brown is another writer that seems to have yet to be discovered by large numbers of readers. His work will now be on my reading list going forward.

A captivating novel.......2001-09-07

I loved Brown's first two novels, "Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery" and "The Wrecked Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur", but I think this new one is his best. As with the others, this is a terribly sad and rather disturbing story but the writing is glorious and the observations about John James Audubon completely fascinating. Brown takes us into the minds of Audubon and the anatomist Emile Gautreaux not just as artist and scientist but as men. He examines them the way they examine their subjects. The novel's real subject seems to be grief and passion and the way both can take hold of us. I think John Gregory Brown's books deserve to get much more attention than they do.

Average customer rating:

Anna's Win
Disappointing and looooong winded
LOVED IT, GREAT READ !!!!!!
Excellent Novel
Unreadable

Unspeakable
Sandra Brown
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
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Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0553502174
Release Date: 1998-06-08

Amazon.com

Anna Corbett is deaf and mute, but she's not stupid. When the young widow is told by her aging father-in-law, Delray Corbett, that Jack Sawyer has been hired to work their eastern Texas ranch merely as an extra pair of hands, Anna knows that it's really the news of criminal Carl Herbold's recent prison break that has Corbett hiring the tough drifter. Carl Herbold, along with his brother Cecil, swore vengeance against Corbett, their stepfather, for cooperating with the police when the two were convicted of armed robbery. The Herbold boys were also suspected of another crime--the murder of young Patsy McCorkle--but Ezzy Hardge, then sheriff of Blewer County, Texas, never found the proof needed to go to trial. Twenty years have passed, and the McCorkle murder remains a mystery. A man obsessed, Ezzy Hardge continues to search for clues that will convict the Herbolds of the monstrous murder. Soon, Carl and his brother will take their revenge. But Anna and her 5-year-old son, David, are unaware of the degree of viciousness with which the Herbold brothers can strike. Only hired hand Jack Sawyer knows the real danger, and his growing love for Anna and David keeps him close despite the impending onslaught. Yet the longer he remains in Blewer, the more he risks revealing his past--and one particular secret that may destroy his only chance at Anna's love. In Unspeakable, Sandra Brown once again flexes her "literary muscle," providing a fast-paced, spine-tingling tale of passion, conspiracy, and stark brutality. It's a story that unfolds through the eyes of diverse, compelling characters, and culminates in a delicious ending you won't expect. --Kate Breslin

Book Description

Carl Herbold enjoys being bad.  After all, he is terrifyingly good at it.  Stimulated by violence, he and his brother, Cecil, had easily graduated from being juvenile delinquents to full-blown killers.  And when Carl, serving a life sentence in an Arkansas penitentiary, carries out a daring escape with a fellow inmate, he heads back to where he began--Blewer County, Texas--and sets in motion events taht will threaten and change lives forever.

Ann Corbett had been widowed right before her son was born.  Beset by debt and personal tragedy, she faces the toughest challenge of her life--holding on to the ranch that is her son's birthright--unaware that she is at the center of Carl Herbold's vengeful plan.  Ezzy Hardge is a retired lawman who is haunted by the one crime he sacrificed everything to solve, but could not.  And Jack Sawyer, a seemingly easygoing cowboy and drifter whose past is shrouded in mystery, understands Herbold's twisted mind and his hate-filled lust for vengeance.  Risking exposure of his own troubled past, Jack arrives at Anna Corbett's ranch asking for work, but in reality hoping to protect the innocent deaf woman and her young son from Herbold's rage.

Carl Herbold's prison break draws them inexorably toward a day of reckoning: Ezzy, an over-the-hill peace officer seeking redemption; Jack, a man stalked by dark secrets he can no longer outrun; and Anna, a beautiful woman locked in silence and self-imposed isolation.  All must grapple with their own demons before their tumultuous confrontation with a diabolical killer.

Realistic, sharp-edged, and complex, Sandra Brown's Unspeakable is her best yet.

Customer Reviews:

Anna's Win.......2007-07-24

This is anexcellent book. It gives the reader insight into the world of a deaf individual. The plot moves along swiftly and is a real page turner.

Disappointing and looooong winded.......2007-07-10

When Delray Corbett discovers that his stepson Carol Herbold has escaped from prison, he's concerned that he might venture back to Texas. He reluctantly hires drifter Jack Sawyer, who has his own agenda, as further protection for his deaf daughter-in-law Anna and grandson David. Newly retired sheriff Ezzy is trying to solve the decades old murder of town harlot Patsy. Everyone in town assumes it was the Herbold brothers - he was just never able to prove it. His obsession with the case wreaks havoc on his marriage. As Jack spends more time with the Corbett family, he feels a sense of family that he has never had as well as a deep attraction to Anna. When tragedy strikes the family, Jack is there to help Anna cope, learning her language and providing a strong shoulder. As the Herbold brothers venture south to Mexico, a side trip to the East Texas town for retribution with Delray on the agenda. Will Jack be able to protect his new "family?"

Brown manages to give a voice to Anna, and provides plenty of chemistry between her leads, but the story is told in excruciating detail; she could easily peel away 100pages and it still would be far too long. Carl is one of her more menacing and unredeemable characters. He is evil incarnate, and not above proving it from chapter to chapter. "Unspeakable" is a pretty average novel (and a little disappointing for fans of Browns later novels); recommended only for true Brown fans that want to read her full library of offerings.

LOVED IT, GREAT READ !!!!!!.......2006-08-04

This is her second I have read and I really enjoy Mrs. Brown's writing. She has an amazing talent for including crime, passion, betrayal, and so much more. Her attention to detail is wonderful, I felt like I could actually see the whole book as a movie.

Excellent Novel.......2006-03-04

I loved this book. Next to "Chill Factor" this is the best of the four books I've read so far by Sandra Brown. This book was evenly paced and believable. The good characters were lovable and the romance between Jack and Anna was electrifying. I suggest listening to it on audio to get the full effects of the tension and emotions between the two of them. This is more a love story than anything, but there are plenty of grisly details and intrigue surrounding the criminality in the story.

Unreadable.......2005-05-19

I too Love Sandra Brown. A close friend of mine gave me two of her books one day- I read them and was HOOKED. I own about 40, I've read about 10 thus far, and I have to say that this one was the HARDEST. I too found it VERY HARD to stick with and finish "Unspeakable," even though I had already made it half way through. I did finally force myself to finish, but did I mention how hard it was? There are so many stories to follow and so many characters to keep straight. It was very dry and very bla. I did not enjoy it AT ALL. The end is meant to throw you off, but it only left me flat. PLEASE SKIP THIS ONE. Read Two Alone (my personal favorite) or Exclusive instead.

The Scandal of Father Brown: 7 Unabridged Stories

Average customer rating:

Some similarities to some of Chesterton's other stories

The Scandal of Father Brown: 7 Unabridged Stories
G. K. Chesterton
Manufacturer: The Audio Partners
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1572701811

Book Description

Father Brown uses his distinctive style of deduction to solve the seemingly unsolvable. His cherubic face, his dull eyes behind thick glasses, and his air of outward confusion disguise an amazing perspicacity.

Customer Reviews:

Some similarities to some of Chesterton's other stories.......2002-10-28

Flambeau, Father Brown's great friend and sometime sidekick, appears in only one of the stories herein.

"The Scandal of Father Brown" - A beautiful (and married) rich woman has taken up with a distinguished poet - and Father Brown, rather than reacting as expected, appears to be providing active assistance.

"The Quick One" - Old John Raggley is a law unto himself - spending his life writing to newspapers in protest, drinking only cherry brandy because of the poor quality of all other drinks sold - but he died of poisoned brandy, all the same. Early in the story, Raggley insults a Moslem's religion to his face, when the man's teetotaler companion makes a nuisance of himself - and is overjoyed when the stranger takes him seriously, and throws a dagger at him. This closeness between enemies, when they respect each other for having principles even though they're opposites, is fleshed out more fully in Chesterton's novel _The Ball and the Cross_.

"The Blast of the Book" - Professor Openshaw, who devotes his time to investigating psychic phenomena, and thoroughly enjoys exposing fraudsters, is confronted with a singular incident resulting in the disappearance of his own clerk.

"The Green Man" - The Admiral, tricked out in his most elaborate formal uniform, is found drowned in a pond near his home.

"The Pursuit of Mr. Blue" - A private detective fails to prevent the murder of a millionaire, who's been pursued to a seaside resort. A police inspector recommends that he visit the renowned amateur, Father Brown, who sifts some interesting information from the detective's story of the pursuit. A racist epithet, thrown in casually while setting the opening scene, mars the story; the actual dismantling of the puzzle is handled cleverly.

"The Crime of the Communist" - Two philanthropists, invited to dinner at the university since they're about to endow a new chair of Applied Economics, are found poisoned in the garden after dinner - and the chief suspect is the chair of Political Economy.

"The Point of a Pin" - Father Brown, currently being awakened every morning by the start of work on a nearby construction site, is interested professionally because of a labour dispute brewing therein.

"The Insoluble Problem" - A case wherein Flambeau, in his respectable retirement from his first profession, is in pursuit of a team of jewel thieves, and brings in his old friend Father Brown.

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Complete Plays of the Wakefield Master
John Russell Brown
Manufacturer: Theatre Arts Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 087830584X

Average customer rating:

an unsung major novel

The Taking of the Waters (John Brown Books)
John Shannon
Manufacturer: John Brown Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Cracked Earth (Jack Liffey Mystery)

ASIN: 0963905015

Customer Reviews:

an unsung major novel.......2004-10-21

The Publisher's Weekly review above is wrong. Shannon's prose doesn't lumber, nor are his characters unsympathetic. Nor is "The Taking of the Waters" an inefficient piece of storytelling. Through the use of the German narrator, Dieter Sachs, who has a fresh, outsider's perspective on America, Shannon deftly strings together the story of his three generations of left-wing activists. Maxi Trumbull joins the doomed fight by Owens Valley residents to prevent the theft of their water by the city of Los Angeles; her son, Slim, leads auto workers in a lightly fictionalized account of the successful Flint, Mich., sit-down strike against General Motors, only to be driven underground by post-World War II anti-Communism. Then Slim learns, via Khrushchev's 1956 speech about Stalin's crimes, that something is fatally wrong with the doctrine to which he has devoted his life. How can he disown the doctrine without also disowning his positive achievements? This question torments his later years. In the subsequent wreckage of the American Left, his son, Clay, flounders; the country is moving rightward and working people are losing many of their hard-won gains, but there is no longer any viable ideology to check the excesses of capitalism.
Hardly anywhere else in American literature has the channeling of so much idealism into a dead end, and the practical consequences of this defeat(which economist Paul Krugman describes in "The Great Awakening": growing economic equality in America from 1940 to 1970, growing inequality ever since), been explored in such human, dramatic terms. In a juster world, this book would be read as widely as Dan Brown's mumbo-jumbo about the Holy Grail or Tim LaHaye's apocalyptic fantasies. If that's too much to ask, at the very least it should be rescued from obscurity and honored. It's literary and intelligent and thought-provoking on every page. Those "unsympathetic" characters will linger in your minds. Don't be put off by the idea of reading about old-time Reds, or by the ironic, existentialist flavor that Dieter brings to the story. This is a major American novel.

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Brilliant!
A great read:

The Concrete River (John Brown Books)
John Shannon
Manufacturer: John Brown Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0963905058

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant!.......2001-09-10

There are writers in various genres (mystery, romance, westerns, etc.) and then there are Writers; they're the gifted people whose genre is scarcely relevant because their work always rises above the territory upon which they've staked their claim. John Shannon is a Writer.

This first of Shannon's Jack Liffey series is a work of lean, effective prose, spiced with startling dashes of outrageous humor (as was The Orange Curtain, my introduction to Shannon's work). Los Angeles, as portrayed through Liffey's eyes, is a series on ongoing atrocities and carnage that are so everyday as to be normal. Add to this mix a character with a tired, yet invincible, spirit who observes and accepts (but doesn't like) what he sees, and you have a hero unlike any other.

Liffy is the essential American of a certain age, (and a Viet Nam vet) possessed of heart and conscience, trying very hard to be honorable while he searches for missing children (in itself a profound metaphor for the lost innocence not only of the city, but of our entire society.)

It is a sad fact that talent is not its own reward; it does not guarantee success. But if anyone writing today deserves recognition on a large scale, it is John Shannon. His work is both insightful social commentary and an unflinching, wrenching look at the human heart. If you want to be entertained and informed, get this book! Go to out-of-print booksites if you must, or search your local library, but this is a writer who very much deserves to be widely read.

A great read:.......1999-04-20

Captures Los Angeles perfectly. Protagonist is believable, story is absorbing - I couldn't wait for the second of this series and bought it immediately when it came out (this is the first). Looking forward to the author's next book. If you like Michael Connelly, Abigail Padgett, and find Andrew Vacchs compelling (if not always palatable), give this author a try. You won't be disappointed.

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