Two story lines converge in this James Ford mystery. Follow the lives of the Schmitt family through their trials in war torn 1938 Germany. One of James Ford's most difficult cases involves a theft that happened during World War II. Finding evidence for such a cold case is daunting and requires all of his detective skills along with Lacey's computer magic to crack the case.
I'm a retired Registered Nurse who loves to write. I have 16 published novels; 3 medical thrillers( Rebirth & Murder by Proxy, Behind Prison Bars) 2 romantic thrillers (The Turquoise Cross & Connections) and 11 James Ford detective mysteries (Toxic Blood, Finding the Lost Ones, Cold-blooded Revenge, Greed & Lies, His Haunted Past, Death of Dreams, Thieves, Hidden Mysteries, Hidden Treasures, Stranger Than Fiction, & The Fire). My books are available as hardback, soft cover and e-books through amazon.com. Some of them are audio books. I write about my own experiences as a nurse blending actual fact with fiction to create page-turning stories. I have worked in hospitals in Obstetrics & NICU, at a women's prison, at a dialysis clinic and have taught at a nursing school. My 2 nonfiction books include information about the the story of caring for my mother with dementia (Navigating the Fog of Dementia ) and a Family history genealogy.
My stories do not contain graphic sex as I want my granddaughters to be able to read my works, but some of them are PG-14. They contain mysteries, love stories, murders, mayhem and excitement.
Worst narrator ever, couldn't finish because of it I only listened to about 30 minutes of the book, in those minutes the narrator repeated everything at least 3 times. I do not know who was supposed to edit this, but they never did! At some stage she went back to what sounded like at least 2 pages! It was so irritating, that I stopped listening and this author and narrator will go on my black list. DISGUSTING and really irritating!
Ford juggles multiple cases throughout this story. The most interesting one is the Jewish family separated during WWII. He flies to Germany to find and unite family members. I felt there was a lot of added "filler" that could have been eliminated. I received this audio book at no cost from Audiobookworm for my honest review.
( Format : Audiobook ) "Hate makes people do terrible things." James Holt is a genial, family-loving man with a wife he adores and two brightly thoughtful children: sounds like the perfect setting for a cozy. But James is a successful P.I. and in amidst the various other cases he encounters, one comes along which will prove both unusual and unexpectedly dangerous. Eva Miller was 83, beginning to become a little forgetful. When browsing through the pictures of an advertised art gallery exhibition, she sees a small painting by Monet and is certain she remembers seeing it once some time before. But this could not be possible, unless ... James Holt is employed to look into the provenance of the little picture, taking him and his wife to Germany.
The book is cleverly written, weaving present day with events from 1938 and 1950s Germany. Simply written, it focuses on character and family, although a!losing the events surely surrounding them to filter in. Unlike most P.I. stories, this one is mostly upbeat and positive. Narrator Nina Price does a fine job in further breathing life into the main protagonists with differentiated voicings for each one. The timbre of her voice is warm and pleasant, her reading conveying understanding with good inflection. However, she presents this reader with three problems when trying to give a star assessment: the first two are more a matter of taste, but the third is far more serious. Firstly, her reading is quite slow, requiring a speeding up of replay to 1.25, then later to 1.5. Then there is the problem of accents. Several of the characters are given German accents when they speak, and this is fine except (and here is the personal irritation) when they are talking, not in English, but to each other so, presumably, in German, their native language: they would not then have these obvious accents. Like old World War II movies where anyone who wasn't a native English speaker was given a caricature speech pattern, it bothered me. But these are points more personal to me. What is far more bothering was the total lack of recording editing in chapter 4, a section of 12 minutes 35 seconds. Words, phrases and on one occasion, a whole sentence/paragraph were repeated, sometimes more than once, as the narrator struggled to get it right. An interesting insight into how she performed, perhaps, but very destructive to the flow of the story. So much so, this reader almost abandoned the entire book at this point, but finally skipped to section five instead. Fortunately, this really poor state of affairs did not repeat.Sent
My thanks to the rights holder of Thieves, who, at my request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy via Audiobook Boom. The central story, so painfully real, was treated with a delicacy rarely seen in books, and the characters were vibrant, believable. More for those readers who prefer the slight whimsy of cozy mysteries than hard edged detective work, this is still an enjoyable story of section 4 is skipped.
Thieves by Sandra Olson pulled me in immediately. The storyline is both fascinating and devastaving as it is based historical events. The atrocities against the Jews during WWII were unforgivable. The author was magnificent in how she wrote this book, and I loved the image of the small painting being the root of the book. Art History has always appealed to me, and this book is full of it. Nina Price performs this book brilliantly. She has wonderful accents for the characters and is easy to listen to. I could hear exactly who was speaking.. I love it when a narrator brings the characters to life. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review. I will definitely listen to more books by both Sandra and Nina.