I posted last week about several audiobooks I’ve been listening to. Audiobooks totally fit in with my lifestyle (to the extent I have one). I can listen to them while working, driving, writing, falling asleep, walking outside, and even watching soccer which I’m not too invested in.

I wouldn’t get to a lot of the stuff I listen to, if I had to read it. I mean, you have never heard such caterwauling as the folks in the carpool when I read a paperback while driving. Yeesh!

I re-listen to a lot of stuff. But between Audible Premium, and select library borrows through the Hoopla app, I have audiobooks going a lot of the time.

Here are some more recent listens – some repeats, some brand new to my ears.

LEAPHORN AND CHEE – Tony Hillerman

I did a rather in-depth three-part series on Tony Hillerman and his terrific police procedurals set on the Navajo reservation. I have read/listened to this series a dozen times over the years. I absolutely love it. Somewhere I’ve got some cassette tapes, read by Hillerman himself. But between DVDs and Audible, I’ve managed to get unabridged (do NOT get the abridged versions. Not nearly as good) versions of each novel, read well by George Guidall.

I recently mentioned I did not like Guidall reading Lawrence Block’s stamp-collecting hit man, Keller. Just wasn’t right for the part. And I think that’s partly because I like him reading Leaphorn and Chee. Very different from Keller.

I pretty much listen to multiple books from the series, every year. I often skip the first one, The Blessing Way. Joe Leaphorn was initially a supporting character, who just kept claiming more space. But this first novel is really more about the Caucasian anthropology professor. Book two, Dance Hall of the Dead is a much better book, and it puts the Navajo Tribal Police front and center. So, I listened to that one again. I tear through a couple in a row when I do this, so I skipped one and followed with People of Darkness (great villain with a deep backstory), and then The Dark Wind (which was a straight-video movie with Lou Diamond Phillips. It was cut poorly, but it’s not a bad movie).

I will probably do a few more Hillermans. If you haven’t done Leaphorn and Chee, it’s my favorite police procedural. And I’m a fan of Ed McBain’s cornerstone 87^th Precinct.

I also revisit his standalone attempt at The Great American Novel, The Fly on the Wall. It’s a political thriller, based on his experience as a newspaperman in New Mexico. It’s probably my favorite novel. Worth a listen or read.

As for his daughter continuing his series, the only qualification she has to write the books is her last name. They are TERRIBLE, nothing like his books, and I quit during book four or five – it was execrable.

TONY HILLERMAN: A LIFE – James McGrath Morris

Hillerman’s own Seldom Disappointed is one of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read (rivaling Bruce Campbell’s first one, though we’re talking two entirely different tones here). And maybe only the last third is about the Leaphorn and Chee books. He lived a very interesting life, which included a Purple Heart and other awards, fighting in France in WW II.

I finally got around to this 2021 bio of Hillerman. Clocking at 10 hours and 50 minutes, it’s pretty hefty. Three and-a-half hours in, we’re just getting around to him wanting to write a book. I’m pleased that the aforementioned George Guidall reads it. Since I’m such a big Hillerman fan, I like it. Seldom Disappointed hasn’t been recorded yet. If you’re looking to learn about Hillerman’s life via sound, you could check this out. I’m looking forward to getting the stuff about the novels.

DREAM TOWN– Lee Goldberg

Goldberg is a NYT best-selling novelist, and was also a successful screenwriter He co-wrote a couple of my favorite A&E Nero Wolfe episodes. Goldberg has created a tough California cop named Eve Ronin. A video of her captured by a bystander, resulted in her leveraging it into a detective position. Goldberg has written six books featuring the feisty Ronin (and with her parents, she has to be feisty), and her partner, Duncan. He is actually my favorite character in the series, and he can’t get enough page time, for me.

First off, if Eve Ronin is ever brought to the screen, doesn’t matter who is playing her – I’m gonna hear Nicol Zanzaerlla’s voice. She does a FANTASTIC job narrating this series. I hope they never switch.

A gated community and a reality TV family are at the center of yet another great entry in this series. It can get a little dark for me, but that’s pretty minimal. I have enjoyed all five audiobooks. I will stick with this series as long as Lee keeps writing new ones (book six due out late next year).

STILL LISTENING TO…

Last month I talked about Max Allen Collins’ Caleb York Westerns, based on a character created by Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer) in an unproduced screenplay the author wrote for John Wayne). I went ahead and listened to the remaining three books in the series. If you like hardboiled Westerns, you’ll probably like these. They’re all of a type, with an interesting protagonist and Trinidad, NV is an interesting little town.

There are three different narrators, and I like all of them. Click on back to last week for more info on the series.

I often listen to an audiobook to help me fall asleep. It behooves me to listen to something that it won’t matter I fell asleep to. One of my two go-tos, is Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, is a recreation of an old radio show that starred the Marx Brothers. Michael Roberts is a terrific Groucho, and Frank Lazarus fills in as Chico. I listen to these eighteen episodes, several times a week. I’ll give these the attention they deserve some time, but it’s one of my favorites on my phone. I never tire of this one.
Prior Audio Posts:
What I’ve Been Listening To: August, 2024
What I’ve Been Listening To: July, 2024
What I’ve Been Listening To: September 2022
May I Read You This Book?

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.