NEW AUDIO BOOK REVIEW - GONE FOR GOOD by HARLAN COBEN

I'm really not having much success at the moment in choosing audio books from the library!

According to Sunday Times: "As thriller writers go, they don't get much better than Harlan Coben." If that's the case, then I'm not in tune with modern crime writing because I could only stomach 4 CDs out of the 10. This morning I joyfully decided to take the whole set back to the library and take out something more enjoyable.

As I recalled the plot so far to my husband over supper last night, his head noticeably sank with each new detail, and that's exactly how I felt listening to the darn thing.

If you enjoy a crime novel that is full of violence, despair, a psychopath or two, dysfunctional drug addicts, prostitutes and pimps, and broken parents, then I won't spoil it for you by giving away too much of the plot in case you want to read/listen to it. So I'll stick to the bare minimum.

Set in an affluent New Jersey suburb, Will Klein, is coping not only with the death of his mother but also the mystery surrounding the brutal rape and murder, some years ago, of an ex-girlfriend. His brother, Ken, was the prime suspect and shortly after the murder, disappeared into thin air. And now, Will's girlfriend, Carol, has also disappeared and in order to find her, he searches the prostitute area of town with his good friend, Squares, a reformed racist.

Carol is found murdered in New Mexico, having first been tortured, and as far as the police are concerned, Will is the main suspect. And that's about as far as I got. Life is way too short for me to subject myself to this kind of nastiness.

Quite frankly I felt so removed from all the characters that I really didn't care what had happened and who had done it. But if you like to have your nose rubbed into the seedier side of life, then read the book or get the audio book but if you don't like it, all I can say is: "You have been warned."

I have been choosing crime novels to listen to because I am writing my own crime novel and so wanted to get a flavour of what is popular but I have come to the conclusion that I shall continue to write what I want to read, which will be light years away from 'Gone For Good'.

And hopefully, by the time I've finished writing the novel, readers will be so sick of ultra- violent crime fiction that they'll be desperate to read something in a lighter vein and I'll have publishers knocking at my door to fill the gap!

In actuality, my own library, Winchester discovery Centre, has a very limited supply of audio CDs and most of them are by writers I've never heard of. And it would seem, according to one librarian I spoke to, audio CDs are now out of vogue because so many novels can be downloaded. Guess I'll have to do that too.

P.S. I've just taken out a Beryl Bainbridge ('Winter Garden') so at some stage I'll be reviewing that.

P.P.S. Could only manage the first CD of 'Winter Garden' – too boring for words. I am now going to buy my audio CDs from Amazon – the selection in my library is just not good enough.