Tangled Web UK Review - O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton March 2000

File Updated: 29/03/00

Recent Titles from ISIS Audio

Winter Frost by R.D.Wingfield

Pork Pie Hat by Peter Straub

The Poet by Michael Connelly

O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton

The major problem with most audio recordings is that, as with TV adaptation, abridgement is a necessary evil. If this is enough to put you off, if you prefer the story as intended by the author, then take a look at ISIS audios. All titles are unabridged, and it certainly shows, with some titles running to 10 or even 12 tapes, heaven knows what usually gets cut! And in a medium where the quality of the reader can make or break the title, ISIS seem to have the knack for choosing high quality readers. Some are exceptional.
The ISIS crime range is huge. It includes recent classics such asThe Poet by Michael Connelly, and When The Wind Blows by James Patterson, cult classics such as The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb (filmed in 1954, directed by Charles Laughton & starring Robert Mitchum), and new titles from all-time favourites such as Peter Straub, Sue Grafton, Thomas Harris, Sara Paretsky. And to emphasise the forward-looking nature of the list, there is also a wide selection of lesser-known authors such as Gillian White and Nigel McCrery who deserve to be more widely read.
All in all you are spoilt for choice. If you thought that audio recordings could never compare with the real thing, then you might be pleasantly surprised.

Winter Frost by R.D. Wingfield
Audio out February 2000 Published by ISIS at Ł19.99

“A bit of advice sonny, don’t mess about with the police, we can play dirtier than you and there’s more of us.”

The inimitable Frost is back in all his glory: Cooking the crime clear up statistics, fiddling petrol expenses (or more likely getting someone to do it for him) and dodgy driving. He’s as comfortable as old boots and just as tough. And, as always, he’s ready willing and perfectly able to run rings round Chief Inspector Mullet whose main aim in life appears to be to block expensive overtime requests and to do anything to make sure that Denton, or at least its Chief Inspector comes to the notice of the powers that be.
So when Mullett offers the services of his already stretched staff to another force the villains in Denton go on over time – armed robbery, missing children, beaten and murdered prostitutes. To top it all, a coach load of drunken louts are hauled into the station in the middle of the night (another of Mullett’s “favours”), wreaking havoc, throwing up copiously and finally trashing Mullet’s car – the only highlight in Frost’s day!
Lying beneath the wit and humour in Wingfield’s telling of the tale is a serious, hard-hitting story of paedophilia and murder and Jack Frost is under pressure to find the solutions before Denton is overtaken by fear.
DI Jack Frost has become a household name, and, thanks to David Jason, is one of the best-loved screen detectives of recent years. Which is a hard act to follow. But Stephen Thorne manages admirably. Despite the initial oddity of Frost having a London accent, Thorne gives an impressive performance, and as much of the book taken up with dialogue, this is exactly what it is, with each character being given an individual voice. This is a title that Frost (Book or TV) fans will love. Well worth listening to.
N.B. Although the titles are available to buy on-line, you can get them MUCH cheaper direct from ISIS - freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637

Pork Pie Hat by Peter Straub
Audio out January 2000 Published by ISIS
Peter Struab has established himself as one of our finest writers of dark fantasy. In this novella (originally published by Orion, 1999), he is certainly on top form.
Pork Pie Hat tells the story of the elusive Jazz legend “Hat”, a man who captures the heart of his audience with the sweetness of his music. The narrator of the book, a young graduate student who has worshiped him for years, is determined to interview the great man before he dies, to have the story of his genius preserved for posterity. He eventually manages to pin Hat down in a New York hotel room on Halloween night. The emerging story meanders through the years before leading back to a dark wood on a Halloween night long ago, in The Backs, a place for criminals and fugitives, where the eleven year old Hat and his best friend, Dee Sparks, witness something that has haunted his life ever since.
Peter Marinker’s reading of Pork Pie Hat is superb. The mood is set skilfully: you are actually listening to the man himself as he lulls you into the frame of mind where anything can happen, and most probably will…
This title should truly not be missed.
N.B. Although the titles are available to buy on-line, you can get them MUCH cheaper direct from ISIS - freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637

The Poet by Michael Connelly
Audio out February 2000 Published by ISIS at Ł18.99
The Poet, when originally published in 1996 was a ground-breaking novel of serial murder that projected Michael Connelly to the top of the genre, where he has very much stayed. The story is narrated by Jack McEvoy, a crime reporter for the local Rocky Mountain News whose twin brother, a homicide cop, is found dead in his car: the verdict suicide. None of his family want to believe it, but he had been suffering from depression, tied to a nasty case of child murder which he had been unable to solve.
Jack McEvoy is a hard-nosed hack who doesn’t think twice about using others’ grief to make good copy. When Jack expected his brother to give him the inside story on a case he had worked on, a flaming row ensued, and the rift between the brothers was never resolved. What are Jack’s motives, then, when he decides to write about his brother’s death? Is he so callous as to turn the death into just another story? Jack begins an investigation into the recent spate of cop suicides, but is soon, again, forced to question the verdict of suicide.
What starts as a way of coming to terms with his relationship with his brother, turns into a compulsive quest to discover the real truth behind the death. This is a classic tale of twist and counter twist. The complexity of the story and characters and the compelling way in which chilling details emerge make this title one to savour.
N.B. Although the titles are available to buy on-line, you can get them MUCH cheaper direct from ISIS - freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637

O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton
Audio out February 2000 Published by ISIS at Ł17.99
When asked which writers have had most influence on the American female PI genre over the last two decades, the answer has got to be, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller. There have been many imitators, but these three remain up there at the top, and Kinsey Millhone, V.I.Warshawski and Sharon McCone are still going strong.
O is for Outlaw is the latest in the Alphabet series. The time is 1986, the place, Santa Barbara, California and the P.I. Kinsey Millhone, as tough, ingenious, tenacious and independent as ever.
When Kinsey pays $20 for a box full of personal papers that had been auctioned off as unclaimed in a lot under the name of John Russell, she is not only catapulted back in time to her first marriage, but concerned about why the box came to be sold off in the first place. Where is John Russell (a.k.a Micky Magruder her ex-cop ex with a penchant for Elmore Leonard), and why have his personal belongings been abandoned? Their short-lived marriage ended in disaster when Magruder, an old-style, non-conformist cop, worshipped by the eighteen-year-old Kinsey and under suspicion of manslaughter, asked her to lie about where he was on the night of the death. Kinsey’s curiosity soon turns to concern as details about the old case emerge that change her perspective on own role in the ruin of Magruder’s career.
Liza Ross’ reading captures the voice of Kinsey Millhone well and you soon find yourself caught up in a story that has that “just one more chapter” appeal. If you haven’t met Kinsey Millhone before, O for Outlaw might just give you an appetite to go back and start from the very beginning…. A is for…
N.B. Although the titles are available to buy on-line, you can get them MUCH cheaper direct from ISIS - freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637

( Liz Lees )