The Lady in the Silver Cloud

A Stewart Hoag Mystery, Book 13

By: David Handler

Narrated by: Kevin Rineer

A 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a fantastically expensive car, especially in the pristine condition of the one owned by Muriel Cantrell. Living in a luxury apartment building on Central Park West, the sweet 75-year-old woman is a neighbor of Merilee Nash, the beautiful movie star, and Stewart Hoag, whose first book was a sensation but whose career crashed when he became involved with drugs and alcohol. Divorced 10 years earlier, Hoagy has been welcomed back into Merilee's life and apartment.

Apparently universally beloved in her building, residents are shocked when Muriel is murdered after a Halloween party. No one takes it harder than her longtime chauffeur, Bullets Durmond, whose previous job was as an enforcer for the mob. Who in the world would want to harm the silver-haired lady whose major vices were buying shoes and Chanel suits and watching daytime soap operas?

Lieutenant Romaine Very of the NYPD is called to investigate and again seeks help from his friend Hoagy who, along with his basset hound, Lulu, has been an invaluable aide in the past. The investigation leads to the unexpected source of Muriel's wealth, the history of her early years as a hatcheck girl at the Copacabana, how her chauffeur came to be called Bullets, her desperate meth-head nephew, and her wealthy neighbors, who have secrets of their own.

©2022 David Handler (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Not worth the time

Maybe some potential based on the preview but basically not worth the time. Trite. Very poor narration - I mean it was stupid. Maybe if Lulu the dog had a better part? The characters could have been interesting. Maybe it is me.

Worst reader in the world

The reader, Kevin Rainier, absolutely ruined this book. He is horrible! The previous reader of the Hoagy books, Tom Stechshulte, died. He was terrific. But there are other great readers out there. Unfortunately Audible didn’t choose one for this book.

The reader makes a mediocre book very very bad.

If they hire this narrator for the next book, I’ll swear off this series forever.
He’s easily the worst I’ve ever heard and I own at least 300 audible books. I’m not sure what happened to Sean Runnette but please bring him back, or at the very least, fire this guy. He completely ruined this book and listening experience for me. The book was so-so, not nearly up to expectation and then to have this robot reading it with his inconsistent voices and halting speech-I swear to God I almost stopped the book there and wrote a scathing review. As for the book, I feel like there was not enough of Hoagie’s participation, ego, and trademark sarcasm. The storyline was going somewhere and then it wasn’t. It really fell apart at the end.
I also have a question-where is the baby Tracy?

Not the best In the series but enough of the familiar to keep it comfortable.

First off, let’s give the narrator a bit of a break. While maybe a little on the 1940s radio, drama-reading melodramatic side, he is certainly not as bad as all that venom in the reviews. In fact, he voices Hoag like I do in my head when I’m reading the text. Let’s face it, Stewart Hoag is a little douchey. He’s a Manhattan snob that sailed to great heights of praise in popular and literary circles and hit a wall. While he lost his career he didn’t lose the youthful prickishness of being put on a pedestal young.

I think the story was just OK. Same formula as other books but usually the person killed in this series is interesting or redeeming likable. Our victim here was a little old lady I didn’t grow to care about before she was killed. Seemed a bit rushed to blaze through the suspects and arrive at a conclusion. That said, whenever Handler decides to dip back into the Hoagy and Lulu world, I’ll show up and buy my ticket.

Great mystery terrible narrator

The newest entry into the Hoagy series is hampered by an awful narrator. It’s easy to say after having 4 different narrators in this series that Tom Stechschulte is far and away the best. Kevin Rinner is the absolute worst. Sean Runnette and Peter Berkrot give solid performances in their outings. I see that Highbridge is a division of Recorded Books. If they want to do this series justice they need to release the original audio books with Stechschulte on Audible.

If you’re new to Hoagy and Lulu, pass on this audio book and buy the print version instead. If you want a decent audio experience from this series pick any of the other ones currently on Audible with Sean or Peter. Peter also does a really nice job on one of David Handler’s other mysteries, Runaway Man.

And to answer the question posed by Lickety Split. The new Hoagy mysteries are not in chronological order. The original 8 take place in order. The new books are supposed to happen sometime between The Man Who Would Be F Scott Fitzgerald and The Woman Who Fell From Grace. Baby Tracy does not appear until book 7 - The Girl Who Ran Away From Daddy. That’s why she does not appear in this book. She’s not been born yet.

A steep fall from Grace

Historically such a great listen. What a disappointment. They had a formula that was pure entertainment. This book is poorly narrated and feels like it was written by someone else.