Two novellas and two short stories by the popular writer of travel literature and exotica may surprise the author's fans with their darkness and blunt sexuality. In the ironic title piece, for instance, a 60-year-old artist revisits a Sicilian resort where, as a youth, he engaged in a sordid affair with a languid, self-centered German countess. He knows his lover/benefactress is older than he but is shocked to discover that she has forty years on him. Her gay traveling companion--and pimp--is her plastic surgeon. In elegant and graphic prose, we get blow-by-blow descriptions of the decadent lovemaking that sparks the hero's (and our) attraction/revulsion. To serve up this fare, the young-sounding Nathan Nolan adopts a melancholy, humorless, and monotonous tone that flattens the resonance out of the text. He ignores the authorial voice in the other stories as well, concentrating on the superficial, which he delivers with admirable clarity, if not with depth.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2004
Duration: 8 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Recorded Books/ Clipper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Reader Michael Prichard delivers a convincing rendition of Archie Goodwin, the burly right hand of the portly Nero Wolfe, world-renowned gourmand and detective. Prichard preserves the 1970s setting and 1950s origins of the story, bringing listeners a well-paced narration of murder and politics--a combination of elements that usually guarantees an exciting listen. This audio entertainment is as well formed and fragrant as one of Wolfe's hothouse orchids (the stout sleuth cultivates them by the hundreds in his town house greenhouse) as Goodwin walks us through an explosive murder investigation and political wheeling and dealing in a tough yet intelligent read.
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2006
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Partners
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This collection of eight short stories contains gentle tales of fantasy and magic--not the magic of wizards and wands, but of wishing mats and enormous cats and gifts brought by the winds. In a lovely English accent, Lizza Aiken quietly narrates these stories in which magic and good fortune often come to those who deserve it. Although her pitch changes little, she registers a range of emotions--from the sadness of a girl whose necklace of raindrops has been stolen to the joy of a child who moves from a hard life and a ramshackle trailer to a happy home amid the clouds. A NECKLACE OF RAINDROPS would make a soothing choice for a family car trip after a long day.
Ages 6+Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
Duration: 1 hr, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781101915721
Publisher: Listening Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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