murder – Page 19

Review of FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer

SFFaudio Review

FlashForward
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Mark Deakins
9 CDs – Approx. 10.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 1433252945
Themes: / Science Fiction / Hard SF / Time Travel / Disaster / Physics / Toronto / CERN / Murder / Mystery / Switzerland /
A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: everyone in the world goes to sleep for a few moments while everyone’s consciousness is catapulted more than twenty years into the future. At the end of those moments, when the world reawakens, all human life is transformed by foreknowledge. Was that shocking revelation a peek at the real, unalterable future, or was it only one of many possible futures? What happens when a man tries to change it, like the doctor who has twenty years to try to prevent his own murder? How will the foreknowledge of a part of “then” affect the experience of the “now”?

This is the sixth Robert J. Sawyer novel that I have enjoyed. But, I didn’t get into it via the usual route. I started watching the TV series without explicitly knowing that it was an audiobook, that it was by Robert J. Sawyer, or that the novel even existed. But after seeing the TV series go into a mid-season hiatus I discovered the novel, and decided this was the perfect chance to read the story upon which it was based. Having seen the first half of the first season, and having read the novel, I recommend that you don’t watch any of the FlashForward TV series until you have read the audiobook. Both are really good and worthy, but different. The TV show is not spoiled by the audiobook, but seeing how it was adapted should add some value. The novel veers towards Hard SF, whilst the TV show is more of a Hollywood drama with SF leanings.

I personally found a couple of blemishes in the novel’s story that may only bother a few others. George Bernard Shaw and I agree that your particular country is not that interesting just because you were born there. I can understand mentioning TRIUMF and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, they are useful to the plot and interesting. But the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)? I ride it every day, and I don’t care. This and a few other Canada Canada Canada details are like being beaten with a Canadian hockey stick. Does the truly “True Great North” need to be bragged about? How un-Canadian. Another quibble, for me, was Sawyer use of John A. Wheeler’s Participatory Anthropic Principle, where things exist only when observed by a consciousness. I cannot fathom anybody believing this anthropocentric twaddle, the idea should be banished like the dark matter, astrology, and celestial spheres. Humans are neither that powerful nor that important.

Despite these quibbles FlashForward has an obliging rationalistic science slant. Consistency reigns. If you like to hear scientists with reasonable amounts of emotions talking, this book is for you. The conversations were what I expect from physicists. The visions of the future, caused by the flashforwards of the title, were very down to earth and believable. The audiobook also mixes in a modicum of mystery, via a future “who done it.” I predicted some of the events and was pleasantly surprised by others in this not-too-long a story. The ending, though plausible, did not unfurl as I had expected.

Narrator Mark Deakins gave a realistic delivery. His only error being when he twice mis-pronunced “Dyson” with the accent incorrectly on the last syllable, as in “Die-sown.” FlashForward is definitely worth a listen.

posted by Steen Hansen

Recent Arrivals: The Complete Ripley Radio Mysteries and Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

They are still “recent arrivals” when I borrow them from my local public library right?

Yeah, I thought so.

The Complete Ripley Radio Mysteries
Based on the novels by Patricia Highsmith; Performed by a full cast
4 CDs – Approx. 5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Publisher: BBC Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781408409473
Ian Hart stars in these BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of Patricia Highsmith’s five Ripley novels. Tom Ripley detests murder unless it is absolutely necessary. He prefers someone else to do the dirty work. But if he’s called on to act there is no one more cool, calculating and clever. In these dramatisations, BBC Radio 4 brings all Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels together in one thrilling series. In The Talented Mr Ripley, Tom makes a bid for another man’s inheritance and succeeds, but has he really got away with it? Ripley Under Ground is set a few years later, when Tom is living in luxury in a French chateau with his beautiful wife Heloise – but the clever art forgery which funds Tom’s expensive tastes is about to be uncovered. In Ripley’s Game,Tom sets up a man he dislikes to carry out two perfect murders, while in The Boy Who Followed Ripley, a rich young stalker arrives at Belle Ombre and he and Tom end up fighting for their lives. Finally, in Ripley Under Water, strange new neighbours show an overdeveloped interest in Ripley’s past. Will Tom’s shady dealings be exposed? Tense, thrilling and atmospheric, these dramatisations are perfect evocations of Highsmith’s unique, complex and brilliantly twisted crime novels.

Catwings
By Ursula K. Le Guin; Read by Ursula K. Le Guin
1 CD – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: September 2008
ISBN: 9781428174375
Le Guin wrote this highly acclaimed novel about a very special litter of kittens. Mrs. Jane Tabby has always longed to get away from the cramped alleys of the city. She knows it is too late for her, but she thinks her longing may be the reason her litter of kittens was born with wings. When they are old enough to fly, she sends the four kittens, who become known as catwings, out into the world to find their home. But they find that danger does not lurk only in city alleyways.

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC + RR.cc: Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe EXCELLENT RADIO DRAMA from 1982

Aural Noir: Online Audio

In 1982 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a fantastic 13-episode radio series:

Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe

It stared Mavor Moore (as Nero Wolfe), Don Francks (as Archie Goodwin), Cec Linder (as Inspector Cramer), Frank Perry (as Fritz), and Alfie Scott (as Saul Panzer).

“It took [Toronto actor and producer] Ron Hartmann two years to adapt, direct and produce the 13 episodes for radio,” reported the Globe and Mail. “Ron and I are ardent Nero Wolfe fans, and we’re out to convert the listener,” Moore said.

The series was released on cassette by Durkin Hayes Audio (aka DH Audio) in the late 1990s. But DH is out of business, the cassettes out of print, and the CBC hasn’t licensed any replacements.

What’s a serious Wolfe fan to do?

Well, he can do do a search on RadioArchive.cc! It’s the premier place to find publicly funded programming, and it just now happens to have a new collection of old-off air recordings!

CBC Radio - Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe

Episodes:

Episode 01 – Disguise For Murder
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: January 16, 1982
When Wolfe hosts a flower showing, a women is killed by someone she recognizes — but who?
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Layly Cado, Jack Krely, Neil Monroe, Eric Peterson, Fiona Reed
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 02 – Before I Die
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: January 23, 1982
A mob boss wants Wolfe to stop a blackmailer, and protect his daughter — who then dies.
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Jane Eastwood, August Shellenburg, Maria Loma
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 03 – Counterfeit for Murder
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: January 30, 1982
An old woman gives Archie a package — containing lots of counterfeit bucks.
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Joy Coghill, Brent Craver, Gilly Fenic, Lynn Griffin, Sandy Webster
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 04 – The Cop Killer
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: February 6, 1982
Wolfe’s barber is on the run for murder — and Archie hides them in the front room!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Jackie Buroughs, Brian George, Arch MacDonald
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 05 – Christmas Party
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: February 13, 1982
Archie, Wolfe and Santa are all under suspicion when a man dies at a Christmas party!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Marty Meriden, Linda Sorenson, Patricia Hamilton
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 06 – Cordially Invited To Meet Death
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: February 20, 1982
A prominent woman is blackmailed — then murdered — while Archie is standing beside her!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Barbra Hamilton, Terry Tweed, Lynn Deigon, Ken James, Tom Harvey
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 07 – Man Alive
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: February 27, 1982
An heiress’s uncle returns to life — and then dies at her office!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Lynn Griffin, Neil Monroe, Sandy Webster, August Shellenburg
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 08 – Instead of Evidence
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: March 6, 1982
A man hires Wolfe to provide evidence if he is murdered — and then he is!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Laly Cadoe, Sean Sullivan, Eric Peterson, Martha Gibson

Episode 09 – Eney Meeny Murder Mo
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: March 13, 1982
When Wolfe’s necktie is used to kill a potential client visiting his home, he is outraged!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Charmin King, Bud Knapp, Aileen Seaton, Neil Monroe
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 10 – The Squirt And The Monkey
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: March 20, 1982
A comic artist hires Wolfe to find his stolen gun – but who uses it to kill his assistant — or is it Archie’s gun?
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Jack Krealy, Patricia Collins, Sheri Flet, David Hemlin
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 11 – The Next Witness
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: March 27, 1982
Wolfe can’t stand waiting at a trial — so he leaves to solve the murder!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Dixie Settle, Terry Tweed, Michael Christy
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 12 – Death Of A Demon
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: April 3, 1982
A women confesses a would-be murder plot, then finds out her husband — the would-be target is dead!
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Mary Peery, Bud Knapp, Patricia Hamilton, Meana E. Meana, Helen Hughs
Music by: Don Gillis

Episode 13 – Murder is No Joke
Based on a story by Rex Stout; Adapted by Ron Hartman; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 55 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: April 10, 1982
Wolfe and Archie hear a murder on the phone — but if it’s real, can they solve it?
Stars: Mavor Moore, Don Francks, Cec Linder, Frank Perry, Alfie Scott
Special Guest Stars: Joy Coghill, Vivian Reese, Noni Griffin, Richard Monet, Murry Westgate
Music by: Don Gillis

[with props to the Wikipedia entry]

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. There’s another CBC radio drama that’s been languishing unlisted to, but there’s no chance anybody’s going to get to hear it ever as it HAS NEVER BEEN BROADCAST!

Aural Noir Review of The Fabulous Clipjoint by Fredric Brown

Aural Noir: Review

[This audiobook was created by Wonder Audiobooks which is owned by SFFaudio contributor and a past reviews editior Rick Jackson]

SFFaudio Essential The Fabulous Clipjoint
By Fredric Brown; Read by William Coon
Audible Download – 5 Hours 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible.com / Wonder Audio
Published: 2009
Themes: / Crime / Mystery / Murder / Alcoholism / Noir / Carny / Chicago / Janesville /

You’ll hear the soft, lazy voice of a dame who’s been around, and you’ll meet up with a beautiful heller. You’ll learn the lurid secrets of a man’s locked past, and you’ll prowl dark alleys with two men–two men turned hunters. And you’ll wonder–why Ed and his Uncle Am didn’t level with the cops; what business a gang would have with Ed’s dead father; and where the killer thought the hunters would go wrong. Here are your answers, in this fast-spinning, two-fisted mystery about thugs, molls, and carnival folks.

Ed Hunter is 18, an apprentice linotype operator in 1940s Chicago. He works with his father. One morning Ed gets up to work only to find his father missing, having not come home the night before. This can only mean one thing – MURDER! The cops aren’t too interested, his alcoholic stepmother and oversexed step sister aren’t up for it, so it’s up to Ed to get justice. But to get the job done he’ll need help so For he enlists his uncle, a carny with more brains and experience than any man Ed knows.

Rick Jackson, the man behind Wonder Audiobooks, is a good friend of mine. It’d be hard to say I’m 100% objective about reviewing his stuff. The problem mostly being that he and I have such similar tastes in audiobooks and fiction that to praise one of his audiobooks is very much like saying how cool I am! But he is cool damn it! And more importantly this is a truly awesome audiobook. I will stake my reputation on you loving it. If you’re twice as apt to like an old crime novel as a new one, then you’re three times as apt to love The Fabulous Clipjoint. The mystery is not hard to follow, the story is told in first person, but conversely it was devilishly hard to solve. I pride myself on being an excellent armchair detective, but I was happily baffled right up til the big reveal. That’s really saying something. William Coon sounds like a wise teenager. But then whenever he’s tasked with another character’s voice he switches: Falsetto, gruff, kindly, Coon does them all. Highly recommended.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Aural Noir review of Columbine by Dave Cullen

Aural Noir: Review

I didn’t expect to be reviewing this audiobook. Prior to its arrival in the SFFaudio mailbox I didn’t even know this audiobook existed. It is neither Science Fiction, nor Fantasy. Its Horror is of the very detached and remote kind because of the way it is told. I scoured the packaging looking for a sign as to why we were sent this audiobook. The only thing that stood out was that it was directed by Emily Janice Card (that’s Orson Scott Card‘s audiobook producing daughter). That’s a very tenuous connection to what is normally our kind of audiobook. But, after listening to the book in its entirety I found I had some things to say about it. And… we do have this handy “Aural Noir” tag that I use to talk about the Mystery, Thriller, and Noir audiobooks that I so love. Why not review it under its aegis?

Done!

Columbine
By Dave Cullen; Read by Don Leslie
11 CDs – Approx. 13 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: March 2009
ISBN: 9781433290435
Themes: / Crime / History / Colorado / Murder / Suicide / Psychopathy /

“If you want to understand ‘the killers,’ quit asking what drove them. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were radically different. Klebold is easier to comprehend, a more familiar type. He was hotheaded, but depressive and suicidal. He blamed himself for his problems. Harris is the challenge. He was sweet-faced and well-spoken. Adults, and even some other kids, described him as ‘nice.’ But Harris was cold, calculating, and homicidal. ‘Klebold was hurting inside while Harris wanted to hurt people.'”

Journalist Dave Cullen has assembled what must be, for the foreseeable future, the definitive book about the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Myself, I was only vaguely familiar with the incident at the time. In 2002 I watched Michael Moore’s disturbing film Bowling For Columbine. It was a kind of editorial-documentary on the event itself, the connections with other shootings and firearms in general. Since then, the Columbine High School massacre had been completely off my radar. Dave Cullen’s non-fiction book Columbine supports my conviction that if you really want to know what exactly happened, you’ll have to wait for the facts to be ferreted out by a historian. Cullen is just such a historian. The history Cullen paints is rich in factual details. His sources are: the writings and videos of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold themselves, county records, friends of the murderers, their fellow students, eyewitness interviews, police records, victims, victim’s families and probably most crucially a senior FBI agent. That agent, Dwayne Fuselier, had a son attending Columbine High School on the day – so his arrival on the scene was both personal and professional – his later investigations reveal insights into the vast reams of documents and video produced by the killers themselves. With Fuselier’s assistance Cullen debunks virtually all of the many myths and falsehoods that swirled around the media’s coverage of the massacre.

Other than the two murderers, and the gun suppliers, the only other major villain in Cullen’s account of the massacre and its aftermath is the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “Jeffco” was in charge of the investigation. It was also responsible for a lot of the incompetence that lead to it being necessary. In the aftermath Jeffco had a limelight loving sheriff who was concocting conspiracy theories that he had no investigative evidence for. But that bunk seems to have supressed some very interesting facts. For instance. Were you told the police had, prior to the attack, documented murder threats by Harris/Klebold prior to the attack? Did you know that the police had even made out a search warrant based on these threats? Did you know that, if the warrant had been taken to a judge, it would have allowed the police to discover the weapons cache the teens were preparing? Did you know that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold been arrested together, for another crime, prior to the attack?

Other myths Cullen debunks are those generated by the media and church groups. Had you heard about the girl who said ‘yes’ when asked if she ‘believed in God’? Ya, I had too. Did you know that she actually didn’t say it? That another teen had, and that she wasn’t shot? That instead this survivor, the one who had actually proclaimed her belief, was branded a liar by the evangelical community? I hadn’t known that.

With Columbine Cullen, has assembled a first rate piece of non-fiction history. It illustrates exactly why a public reaction to the daily news so often leads to dangerously false beliefs. If there was just one takeaway from this audiobook let it be that American society needs to be more focused on the problem of detecting psychopathy. Not all psychopaths are murderous, in fact most are law abiding. What unites them all is that other people don’t matter to them, except as a means to their ends.

Blackstone has issued the same stark cover for the audiobook as is on the paperbook. Chapters jump back and forth in time, showing the consequences of and the preparations for the murderous assault. This is a wise structural move as the day’s events themselves are not the primary focus of this book. In fact a good deal of the narrative follows others who were there that day: Frank DeAngelo, the Columbine High School principal, some of surviving victims and their families or the workings of the media itself. Don Leslie, the narrator, is given the grim task of reading the words of Klebold and Harris. It isn’t an enviable job, but he is up to the task. There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the audiobook that explains that all the words in quotes are sourced from interviews, transcripts and articles. This is naturally less clear in the audiobook version than the paperbook edition but Leslie does his best to make each quote as clear as he can.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Bat Wing by Sax Rohmer

Aural Noir: Online Audio

“A crime thriller with a voodoo twist, from the creator of Fu Manchu.”

Is this the first great summer audiobook from LibriVox? I think it may very well be. Just image listening to this tale in on a summer evening, a tall glass of cold beverage in hand, the sun setting, the bats flying out of their belfries. So cool.

Bat Wing
By Sax Rohmer; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
12 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 9 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 12, 2009
Private detective Paul Harley investigates a mysterious case involving voodoo, vampirism, and macabre murder in the heart of London. The first book in the Paul Harley series, written by Sax Rohmer, author of The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu. Originally published in 1921.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/bat-wing-by-sax-rohmer.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis