The version I listened to was from "Books In Motion" read by Ron Verella. He did a good job. The quality started out poorly, but then got better. Not sure what was up with that whether it was damage to the file or not. I suspect it was just poor quality on their part since at least 3 times there were misreads & then repeats. They obviously should have been edited out, but weren't. I also tried another audio book by this producer just before this & turned it off quickly due to the quality. I may give it another chance to see if it gets better, although that reader wasn't very good.

This was a pretty good murder mystery, reminding me of Block's writing in the understated tone. Our hero was fairly tough, but not a great fighter & fairly stupid in the art of self defense. That last hurt the novel in a couple of situations as it undercut the motivations. Raleigh did paint a good picture of skid row in Chicago, not that I've ever been there, but it felt real.

The characters were full blown, a little too much so in some cases. One gets a couple of drinks in him & then does an info dump. Interesting, but not really in character. Still, it was an interesting look into him & he was a more fun than the hero in some ways.

One surprising aspect was the dated feel to this novel. It was first published in 1990 & I would have guessed 5 or more years earlier. That's still only 20 or 30 years ago, but it felt dated due to the lack of cell phones & the smoking. People smoked in so many public places & a phone answering service played a fairly part. Amazing how times have changed.

I have one more of these from the library. I think I'll listen to it soon. ( )