I was driving to Lincoln and back again this week and needed audio books to endure the trip. This time, I selected three books from our CD collection.—"Safe Harbor" by Luanne Rice, "Trojan Odyssey" by Clive Cussler, and "The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. I did not have time to listen to all of them. The three combined had twenty CDs, but I finished one and listened to parts of the other two. I listened to all three enough to be able to write about them anyway.

When I am driving, an audio book must engage my mind right away. What is the point of listening, if you continually have to remind yourself to listen? "Safe Harbor" by Luanne Rice involved me immediately. Luannne Rice writes contemporary romances. Although I am in danger of stereotyping, I do not believe that most men would be interested in listening to her books. Women, on the other hand, should enjoy them. "Safe Harbor" begins when two sisters, Dana and Lillie Underhill, save the life of a young boy during a sailing accident. The story moves ahead 21 years. Dana , now a successful artist, returns home to raise her two young nieces after her sister and husband die in a sailing accident. Mystery surrounds the circumstances of the accident. Was it really an accident or suicide? Naturally things do not go smoothly for Dana as she tries to become a mother to her nieces. Also, a grown up Sam appears on the scene. He was the eight year-old boy who was rescued by the sisters many years earlier. Of course, a romance is in the brewing. I enjoyed this romance with a slight twist of mystery.

Clive Cussler’s "Trojan Odyssey" is an abridged audio book. Some people preferr abridged versions because they are shorter. I don’t, and this book was no exception; however, the abridgement was well done. I really could not spot places where the book’s narrative was changed to a summary of the action. However, I just did not get involved in the story line. Also, I am not a huge Clive Cussler fan so that could have been part of the problem. "Trojan Odyssey" is one of Cussler’s Dirk Pitt books, and of course, it is a maritime adventure/suspense novel. My husband enjoys reading Cussler’s novels so perhaps this is a better choice for men. Although it was only five CDs long, I did not finish the book.

The third book I took along for the ride was "The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. After listening to one whole book and half of another one, there was no way I was going finish a 10 CD book. However, I did listen to two CDs before quitting. My hunch is that "The Rule of Four" was published to take advantage of "The Da Vinci Code" phenomena. The story is about two Princeton classmates who are obsessed with a Renaissance tome, "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili". (Try to say that rapidly three times.) I admire the narrator. He rattled it off repeatedly. This is a book that is better enjoyed by reading it than by listening to it. The plot is convoluted, and all the Italian Renaissance references are too tortuous to keep straight while driving 75 mph on I 80. Two discs were enough for me.

I feel an urge to rate these audio books so on this trip I rate "Safe Harbor" 4 ½ ears out of a possible five. The abridged "Trojan Odyssey" gets 2 ½ ears, and "The Rule of Four" one ear because of the difficulty of following the arcane references and intricate plot. I wish you safe driving and listening.

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