We Thought We Were Invincible, by Michelle Lynn

Creativa, March 2017

In Gulf City, Florida, a group of high school friends are starting their last year of high school. The two viewpoint characters are Callie (California) McCoy, and Jamie Daniels. Callie and her twin brother Colby live with their Aunt Kat, working in the diner they inherited from their mother, Allison, when she died six years ago. They know nothing about their father. Callie, like her mother, is an enthusiastic and very good surfer. She is not otherwise either very social, or very interested in school.

Jamie Daniels is the younger son of a state senator with higher ambitions. The older brother, Jayden, is the apple of his father's eye, and also Callie's boyfriend, or so it appears to everyone except Callie and Jay. Jamie has a bad relationship with his father for reasons that no one outside the family knows. Jamie is also rather a troublemaker.

With the end of the summer, Jay is gong off for his first year of college. Callie, Colby, Jamie, Colby's girlfriend Morgan and her sister Parker are going through their momentous final year of high school together.

Shadow of Doubt (Detective Jason Strong #15), by John C. Dalglish (author), Bill Burrows (narrator)

John C. Dalglish, February 2017

Jason Strong is working with a new, he hopes temporary partner, Diana Torres. It's not that he has any objection to Torres; she's a good cop, and a good detective. But the reason for the change is that Vanessa Lane is on suspension, awaiting a disciplinary hearing after she struck a suspect in a previous case.

But things are about to get much, much worse, because Strong and Torres are called to the scene of a homicide, and the dead man is Lane's husband.

He and Lane had argued earlier, and he had asked her for a divorce.

How Great Science Fiction Works (The Great Courses), by Gary K. Wolfe (author, narrator)

The Great Courses, January 2016

Gary K. Wolfe is both a reader and a scholar of science fiction, and this is a great, comprehensive look at the history of the field, the ideas it has explored, and the literary influences that have affected it.

He dates the beginning of real science fiction, rather than simply stories that in retrospect somewhat resemble it, to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Frankenstein, and looks at the social, intellectual, and physical world changes that helped inspire it. Wolfe then follows these themes forward through the next two centuries.

A Cold Day for Murder (Kate Shugak #1), by Dana Stabenow (author), Marguerite Gavin (narrator)

Brilliance Audio, ISBN 9780425133019, October 2011 (original publication 1992)

Kate Shugak left her job as a detective on the Anchorage police force, and retreated to her late father's homestead in a national park in the interior of Alaska. That apparently isn't remote enough, though. Her ex-boss, Jack Morgan, and an FBI agent find her and ask her to take on a case of two missing people. The first is a Park Ranger with powerful connections--and whom Kate was previously involved with. The other is the previous FBI agent that went looking for him.

With one missing six weeks, and the other missing two weeks, there's not really any chance that either is alive.

Up Against It, by M.J. Locke (author),Cassandra Campbell (narrator)

Audible Frontiers, September 2011

Geoff and his friends on the asteroid Phocaea, just graduated from school, pull of an epic technical hack. They successfully dodge the omnipresent camera remotes of "Stroiders, a reality show broadcasting the lives of the Phocaeans to the entire system. It's a triumph.

It's quickly followed by someone's shocking act of sabotage that kills Geoff's brother, wtih Geoff and his friends, as well as Carl's boss, arriving too late to save him.

And even that is just the start.

The sabotage that kills Carl starts a meltdown of a delivery of much-needed water and methane ice, vital not just to the colony's economy but its survival.

The Piano Girl (Counterfeit Princess #1), by Sherri Schoenborn Murray (author), Sarah Zimmerman (narrator)

Christian Romances, July 2016

Princess Alia is a gifted pianist, and also the heir to the crown of the kingdom of Blue Sky. Her kingdom has been at war for twelve years, and it has just ended.

On the day after her sixteenth birthday, Princess Alia discovers she's being given away in marriage to a man she's never met. For her safety, she's got to travel in secret, disguised as a chicken farmer's daughter, to the kingdom of Yonder. She's about to get an education she never imagined.

Trouble at the Animal Shelter (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery #10), by Dianne Harman

Amazon Digital Services, January 2017

A cozy mystery involving dogs--I really wanted to like this one. And the characters are likable, at least the ones who are supposed to be.

But.

The basic setup is pretty straightforward. Maggie Ryan taught school in Cedar Bay for many years, but retired a few years ago, and has since become a bit of a recluse. When the local police get a call about barking dogs, they arrive to find her house on fire, about thirty dogs there, and Maggie Ryan dead from a bullet hole in her head. Who killed her, why, and where did those thirty dogs come from?

I have two basic types of complaint about the book. The first is what is known in science fiction reading world is known as "As you know, Bob"; information the reader needs is conveyed by the characters telling each other things they both already know.

A Woman Misunderstood (Tennessee Delta #2), by Melinda Clayton (author), Michelle Babb (narrator)

Thomas-Jacob Publishing, February 2017

Rebecca Reynolds returns to her parents' home for her weekly visit only to literally stumble over her wheelchair-bound sister's dead body.

Her parents are also dead, all three hacked to death with an ax.

She calls 911. She wonders where her other sister, Lena, disowned by the family years ago, is. And she wonders how long it will be before Lena is arrested.

It's a very effective, chilling set-up for chilling psychological suspense. We see the story through three sets of eyes--Rebecca's, Lena's, and those of the lawyer Rebecca hires for her sister (who is indeed arrested as the most likely suspect), Brian Stone.

Dallas Homicide (The City Murders #4), by John C. Dalglish (author), Rich McVicar (narrator)

John C. Dalglish, January 2017

A man arrives home, late, intentionally because since his divorce there's no pleasure in it anymore. Unfortunately, on this night, it's worse than usual: A killer is waiting. He is shot and killed.

Peter Brandt, a Dallas homicide detective, begins to investigate and quickly finds himself deep in the weeds of politics, corporate intrigue, and a love triangle. This is a short novel, a tightly plotted police procedural set in Dallas. Dalglish builds up his characters--both living and dead--convincingly. This is written with respect for the police but not a false sense that they're perfect, and I like to see both those traits in a good police procedural.

I don't know Dallas, so I can't say how true it is to the city, but other readers who say they know Dallas seem happy with it, so probably no major blunders. The narrator has a good, clear, strong voice, which is not only true to the main viewpoint character, but also good for the listener.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook and am reviewing it voluntarily.

The Interior Life, by Katherine Blake (a.k.a. Dorothy J. Heydt)

Dorothy J. Heydt, October 2016 (original publication Baen 1990) (downloadable at http://www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/)

Susan is perfectly happy as a suburban housewife in 1980s America.Well, perhaps not perfectly happy, or she wouldn't be periodically slipping away into a fantasy life, would she? As long as she keeps it within bounds...

She's periodically sharing the minds of sometimes Lady Amalia, a noblewoman with the Sight, and sometimes her servant and general right hand, Marianella, and occasionally others. She sees what they see, learns what they learn, about the creeping Darkness that threatens the land of Demoura.

As long as she doesn't let her fantasy life affect real life...