Snow Blind (Monkeewrench Series) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

P. J. Tracy (Author), Mel Foster (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2006 | Series: Monkeewrench Series (Book 4)

With the holidays over and the long cold winter looming, January can be a bleak month in Minneapolis. So what better way to bring a little cheer to the good people of the city than by sponsoring an old-fashioned snowman-building contest? In a matter of hours, a local park is filled with the innocent laughter of children and their frosty creations. But things take an awful turn when the dead bodies of police officers are discovered inside two of the snowmen - sending the entire department and Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth on high alert. The next day, Iris Rikker, the newly minted sheriff of rural Dundas County, comes across another body in another snowman. Fearing that Rikker’s inexperience will hamper the investigation, Magozzi and Rolseth head north - in a blizzard - to hunt for clues. As Grace MacBride and her crack computer jocks at Monkeewrench comb the Web for connections, a terrifying link emerges, connecting the dead cops, Magozzi and Rolseth, and Monkeewrench - a link that must be broken before it’s too late.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of the exciting fourth Monkeewrench thriller (after 2005's Dead Run) from Tracy, the pseudonym of a mother-daughter writing team, two of the series' staples—Minneapolis police detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth—are on hand for a snowman-building contest their department is sponsoring in a local park. The contest turns into a double murder investigation after the frozen bodies of two policemen turn up inside two of the snowmen. Meanwhile, computer expert and ace crime solver Grace MacBride, who has a loving relationship with Magozzi, and the rest of her high-powered Monkeewrench gang are called in for help when a rookie female sheriff in rural Dundas County runs across another murdered cop inside another snowman. Grace and company discover trouble on their Web searches through arcane chat rooms—and also find themselves in danger as the bizarre but believable plot unwinds. A bestseller in the U.K., Tracy could well break out in the U.S. with this entertaining effort.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of the mother-daughter writing team of Patricia Lambrecht and Traci Lambrecht. Winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book awards, they both live outside Minneapolis.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD; Abridged edition (August 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596001348
• ISBN-13: 978-1596001343
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,105,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

P.J. Tracy is the pseudonym of the mother-daughter writing team of Patricia Lambrecht and Traci Lambrecht. They each live in rural Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN EXCITING THRILLER WITH LIKEABLE CHARACTERS, October 15, 2006

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Snow Blind (Monkeewrench Series) (Audio CD)

Many will remember voice performer Foster for his deft reading of "Fantastic, The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger." That story was a rich field for an actor, and Foster mined it well, as he easily segued from one characterization to another. The same may be said of "Snow Blind," as Foster becomes Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth as they face not just chilling murders but frozen ones.

It's Minneapolis; it's the dead (literally) of winter, and the idea of a snowman building contest sounded good. Minnesotans are hearty folk and many joined in the fun, filling a park with their icy creations. The fun came to a quick halt when the bodies of very dead policemen are found inside two of the snowmen - a shock for all, the townspeople, the entire police department and Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth.

Within 24 hours there's a copycat discovery in Dundas County. Is it a copycat or a serial killer? There's a new sheriff in Dundas, Iris Rikker, and Magozzi with Rolseth quickly head her way despite a raging blizzard.

These two detectives are pros; they know they need all the help they can get so they call on Grace McBride at Monkeewrench to start searching the web for any hints they can find.

P.J. Tracy (a mother/daughter team) has done it again - crafted an exciting thriller filled with likeable (and sometimes very funny) characters. Sit back, listen, and enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Monkeerench Team Play Very Minor Role as Their Support Cast From Former Novels Take the Limelight!, November 3, 2006

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Snow Blind (Hardcover)

Snow Blind revolves around Minnesotan detectives Rolseth and Magozzi who have been the support cast to the computer geniuses who make up the Monkeewrench team in the three former novels of this great series. The Monkeewrench team are still in this one, just on very few pages. Obviously after an extremely high quality and popular series so far, the ultimate test for this mother and daughter team is to write a novel with completely separate characters. Snow Blind is obviously them trying their hand to see if they can one day produce that independent novel, while still at the moment keeping the attachment to the popular characters of this great series. Good on them for them that, many authors are too scared of the backlash from their fans to take this step. Hopefully the success of this book will encourage them to take the next step and go all the way (while of course still continuing to write more in the great Monkeerench series as well).

In Snow Blind Minneapolis homicide detectives are disgusted to find inside the thawing snow men at a charity event the corpses of two of their own. As they pursue the case more corpse filled snow men appear outside of Minneapolis. Their pursuit takes them to rural Dundas County where small town politics still runs the police. They will have to deal with a police force that resents its newly elected female sheriff, Iris Rikker whose first day on the job was the discovery of a corpse snowman. Throw in a mysterious community called Bitterroot that has no male residents and Detective Magozzi and Rolseth and the other officers will have their most interesting and confusing case ever.

To be honest Snow Blind isn't the high quality masterpiece that the initial Monkeerench (also published as Want to Play? in some markets) and next in the series Live Bait were. I did like the fact that it was more plausible and relied less on coincidence to pull of the story line than third in the series Hit and Run did and is back to a traditional police homicide thriller rather than American terrorists as was the case with that novel. Although not as good as the predecessors and certainly more predictable than the other novels it is still a great read for anyone and not just fans of P.J. Tracy. It also does not give away the plots of former novels if this is your initial entry into their work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The snowmen are snow men, October 20, 2006

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Snow Blind (Hardcover)

Homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gina Rolseth take the lead in this wintertime murder investigation set in Minneapoilis. A major snowfall has come to provide the material for a snowman-building content. But a couple snowmen are different from the others in that they contain the bodies of murdered men, and policemen at that. Another snow-man, found on an iced over lake outside Minneapolis, turns out to be a missing parole officer. It is discovered that the link between the three men is a paroled convict who has been asking after his ex-wife, whom he had nearly beat to death.

The mother and daughter team who make up PJ Tracy certainly know how to write a page-turning book. Of their alternating protagonists, I actually prefer the detectives, but that's a personal choice. I appreciate the humor in their writing, offsetting the very serious subject of abuse with the completely inexperienced new Sheriff in Dundas County. The writing is tight, dialogue crisp, and characters engaging. The stories are fast-paced and make you want the next book as soon as you've finished the one. If you looking for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon read, this is it.