Audio - Crime 2002

File Updated: 21/12/02

Tangled Web UK: New Audio - Crime Titles 2002

Peter May The Killing Room Published November 2002 by ISIS at Ł19.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Laurence Bouvard
When the mutilated and dismembered bodies of eighteen women are discovered in a mass grave in Shanghai, detective Li Yan is sent to establish if the corpses relate to an unsolved murder in Beijing.
Once more, American pathologist Margaret Campbell finds her personal relationship with Li compromising their professional collaboration. She arrives in Shanghai to find her partnership with Li threatened by another woman - the deputy head of Shanghai’s serious crime squad. Faced with the grisly proposition that the murdered women have been subjected to ‘live’ autopsies, the three realise they are tracking a monster of inhuman capacity. And the closer they get to the killer, the closer they come to realising their own personal nightmares.
Originally from Massachusetts, Laurence Bouvard trained at LAMDA and made her professional debut creating the role of Maria Elena Holly in the original cast of the West End musical, Buddy. Her other theatre credits include leading roles in Cyrano de Bergerac, Wuthering Heights, Speed-the-Plow, and Persephone in Stravinsky’s Persephone at the BBC Proms. Her appearances on TV include EastEnders and The Tomorrow People.
12 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 13 hrs 30 mins
About The Author
Peter May, winner of the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award in 1973, went on to become a television screenwriter, creating three major TV series - The Standard, Squadron and the Gaelic-language drama serial, Machair. He has published seven novels; The Reporter, based on the BBC TV series, The Standard; Fallen Hero, a novelisation of the Granada TV series of the same name; Hidden Faces, a political thriller set in Brussels (published as The Man With No Face in the U.S.); and The Noble Path, a very human story played out amidst the ruins of Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The first of his China novels, The Firemaker, a scorching thriller set in contemporary Beijing, resulted from extensive research in China where he received unprecedented access to the Chinese police. The sequel, The Fourth Sacrifice, was published in hardback and paperback in 2000, and the third in the series, The Killing Room, came out in hardback in December 2000 and paperback in May 2001. He is married and lives with his wife, writer Janice Hally, in rural Argyll, Scotland, and in France.
Peter May spent six months in Beijing and travelling across China as part of his research for the books and continues to visit regularly. He also gained unprecedented access to the normally Chinese police force, due in part to his friendship with Commissioner Wu He Ping, a former policeman from Beijing. Peter’s trips to China have also provided him with a wealth of stories – from drinking competitions with Shanghai detectives to banquets where the menu included deep fried scorpions encrusted in ants. (He is a keen cook, and does all the cooking at home, specialising in Chinese dishes.)
Peter also discovered that many crime writers in China are policemen, who produce their own magazine of short stories every two months, called The Woodpecker. This may be due to the fact that young police officers take classes in Western crime fiction - Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie are favourites. Peter is an honorary member of the Beijing Chapter of the Chinese Crime Writers’ Association.

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Peter May Snakehead Published September 2002 by ISIS at Ł18.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Laurence Bouvard
American pathologist Margaret Campbell returns from China to her home soil only to be faced with a truck full of dead Chinese and an inevitable confrontation with her past.
Beijing detective Li Yan, now based at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, is dispatched to find out how his fellow countrymen suffocated in a sealed refrigeration unit in southern Texas - only to find himself face to face with the woman who walked out of China, and his life, to return to the US.
Working together again and wrestling with the demons of their past, Li and Margaret discover that the immigrants were unwitting carriers of a deadly cargo. They must race against time to defuse a biological time-bomb that threatens to wipe out not only their future but that of mankind.
Originally from Massachusetts, Laurence Bouvard trained at LAMDA and made her professional debut in the West End. Her TV appearances include The Tomorrow People and EastEnders. Laurence has recently recorded The Dud Avocado for BBC Radio 4.
10 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 10 hrs 50 mins
About The Author
Peter May, winner of the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award in 1973, went on to become a television screenwriter, creating three major TV series - The Standard, Squadron and the Gaelic-language drama serial, Machair. He has published seven novels; The Reporter, based on the BBC TV series, The Standard; Fallen Hero, a novelisation of the Granada TV series of the same name; Hidden Faces, a political thriller set in Brussels (published as The Man With No Face in the U.S.); and The Noble Path, a very human story played out amidst the ruins of Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The first of his China novels, The Firemaker, a scorching thriller set in contemporary Beijing, resulted from extensive research in China where he received unprecedented access to the Chinese police. The sequel, The Fourth Sacrifice, was published in hardback and paperback in 2000, and the third in the series, The Killing Room, came out in hardback in December 2000 and paperback in May 2001. He is married and lives with his wife, writer Janice Hally, in rural Argyll, Scotland, and in France.
Peter May spent six months in Beijing and travelling across China as part of his research for the books and continues to visit regularly. He also gained unprecedented access to the normally Chinese police force, due in part to his friendship with Commissioner Wu He Ping, a former policeman from Beijing. Peter’s trips to China have also provided him with a wealth of stories – from drinking competitions with Shanghai detectives to banquets where the menu included deep fried scorpions encrusted in ants. (He is a keen cook, and does all the cooking at home, specialising in Chinese dishes.)
Peter also discovered that many crime writers in China are policemen, who produce their own magazine of short stories every two months, called The Woodpecker. This may be due to the fact that young police officers take classes in Western crime fiction - Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie are favourites. Peter is an honorary member of the Beijing Chapter of the Chinese Crime Writers’ Association.

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Val McDermid The Last Temptation Published May 2002 by ISIS at Ł21.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Vari Sylvester
Mapping the minds of murderers is what Dr Tony Hill does better than anyone. So when a twisted killer starts targeting psychologists across Northern Europe, he’s the obvious choice to track the executioner’s mental and physical journey. Except he no longer wants to delve into the minds of serial killers. But soon the case comes too close to home: the next victim is one of his friends.
Hill’s former partner, DO Carol Jordan, is in Germany, working undercover in a world where human life is cheaper than a drugs deal. She needs his help as much as the hunters of the killer.
So Tony and Carol are joined in a battle against the odds. In the morass of double-cross and double-dealing, they have no-one to trust but each other.
Of mixed Scots and English descent, Vari Sylvester trained at RADA and spent her early career in London. She worked extensively with 7:84 England before basing herself in Scotland during the late 70s. She has played leading roles in many theatre productions including several for the Edinburgh Lyceum and has toured with 7:84 Scotland and the Scottish Theatre Company. Television credits include Billy Liar and Taggart.
14 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 16 hrs 40 mins
About The Author
Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years and is now a full-time writer livingin South Manchester. Val won the 1995 Golden Dagger Award given by the British Crime Writers' Association for Best Crime Novel of the year for her book Mermaids Singing. Her comples and disturbing stand-alone thriller A Place of Execution won the 2001 LA Times Mystery/Thriller Book Award. She has also written 6 crime novels featuring Kate Brannigan, and 5 more featuring Lindsay Gordon. She has written a non-fiction book on real-life female private eyes, A Suitable Job for a Woman and three psychological thrillers featuring forensic psychologist Tony Hill ('Manchester's answer to Thomas Harris' (Guardian)). You will find copies of Val’s Crime Fiction Reviews for the Manchester Evening News here at Tangled Web.
A major ITV series based on Val’s books will be broadcast in 2002 with Robson Green playing the lead role.

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Sara Paretsky Total Recall Published March 2002 by ISIS at Ł18.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Sandra Burr
When a man claiming to be a survivor of the Nazi death camps seeks out his family among Lotty Herschel’s circle of friends, he forces her to confront a memory from the war she has long refused to think about.
As a frightened VI Warshawski watches her longtime friend and mentor unravel, she comes to Lotty’s help in the only way she knows how - by investigating the survivor’s past.
A case of insurance fraud on Chicago’s South Side which VI is also investigating leads her to an international conspiracy reaching back to Nazi Europe and gives her the unexpected means to help save her friend . . .
As a freelance voiceover talent Sandra Burr’s voice has been featured on many commercials in the USA and also on industrial and instructional videos. However, her favourite performances can be heard on audio books. Where else, she points out, can an actor play all of the parts or talk to herself without attracting a lot of curious looks?
She is married and has two sons.
10 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 16 hrs
About The Author
Bestselling author Sara Paretsky has written eight V.I. Warshawski novels. She is also the author of a short story collection, Windy City Blues and the editor of A Woman’s Eye and Women on the Case. She lives in Chicago with her husband and their golden retriever.

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James Patterson 2nd Chance Published August 2002 by ISIS at Ł17.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Pat Starr
Lindsay Boxer, San Francisco’s only woman homicide detective, is back in 2nd Chance - the mind-blowing new thriller in the Women’s Murder Club series.
The tragic end of the honeymoon murder case left Lindsay Boxer unsure if she could ever return to work. But when a little girl is shot outside a San Francisco church, she knows it’s time to reconvene the Women’s Murder Club. Working with reporter Cindy Thomas, assistant DA Jill Bernhardt and medical examiner Claire Washburn, Lindsay starts to track a mystifying killer who quickly turns his pursuers into his victims.
Further murders make them suspect the worst - that the killer may be an ex-cop. The clues point towards a man with a thirst for vengeance but nothing could prepare them for the demented logic behind his choice of victims.
Pat Starr is an American actress living in London. She has worked extensively in the theatre with West End roles in The Rose Tattoo, All My Sons and Kennedy’s Children and a one-woman show, Tea With Liszt. Dozens of television appearances include Tender is The Night and Bob Martin. Her 22 movies include Reds and Four Weddings and a Funeral. She also sings regularly with a jazz band in London.
7 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 8 hrs 35 mins
About The Author
James Patterson grew up Newburgh, New York, fifty miles north of New York City where he currently resides. Patterson majored in English at Manhattan College.
Patterson's first novel published in 1976 when he was twenty-seven years old. Patterson, who says he ‘lives full time’, has since written over half a dozen novels and has been hailed as mastermind of the page-turning thriller.

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James Patterson Violets are Blue Published May 2002 by ISIS at Ł17.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Paul Birchard
Around noon, I got a call on my cell phone. ‘Just checking in, ‘ the Mastermind said. ‘How is San Francisco, Alex? Lovely city. Will you leave your heart there?’
The Mastermind of Roses Are Red is back - and he’s hot on Alex Cross’s trail. His cold taunts leave Alex angry and concerned for his family’s safety.
Meanwhile, Alex is drawn into his most bizarre investigation yet. Two San Francisco loggers are found dead, bitten and hung by their feet to drain the blood. Further murders in California and on the East Coast completely baffle Alex. Is this the work of a cult, of role players, of modern-day vampires? Desperate to stop the deaths, Alex teams up with Jamilla Hughes, a savvy woman detective, and the FBI’s Kyle Craig. But Alex has never been closer to defeat . . .
'Master of the suspense genre' The Sunday Times
Paul Birchard comes from Los Angeles. His work in movies and television includes The Tailor of Panama, Memphis Belle, Poirot, Absolute Hell, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and many others. His solo stage performance of The Pat Hobby Stones by F. Scott Fitzgerald has garnered rave reviews in Dublin, London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and he counts himself very fortunate to have worked with the late Lindsay Anderson on the play The Fishing Trip. Paul has read numerous stories and novels for BBC Radio, as well as unabridged audio books.
7 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 8 hrs 20 mins
About The Author
James Patterson grew up Newburgh, New York, fifty miles north of New York City where he currently resides. Patterson majored in English at Manhattan College.
Patterson's first novel published in 1976 when he was twenty-seven years old. Patterson, who says he ‘lives full time’, has since written over half a dozen novels and has been hailed as mastermind of the page-turning thriller.

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James Patterson 2nd Chance Published April 2002 by Hodder Headline Audio at Ł14.99 ISBN: 1-84032-343 4
Read by Mellisa Leo & Jeremy Piven
With Andrew Gross
Master of suspense, James Patterson, takes us into a terrifying underworld with this second thriller in his dazzling new ‘Women’s Murder Club’ series.
When a little girl is shot on the steps of a San Francisco church, Detective Lindsay Boxer knows it’s time to reconvene the `Women’s Murder Club’. Working with reporter Cindy Thomas, assistant DA Jill Bernhardt, and medic examiner Claire Washburn, Lindsay tracks a mystifying killer who soon turns his pursuers into his victims.
The unorthodox allegiances of `Women’s Murder Club’ leads them suspect the unexpected - the killer may be an ex-cop. But nothing could prepare them for the demented logic behind his choice of victims. Read by Melissa Leo and Jeremy Piven
‘A master of the suspense genre’ The Sunday Times
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs
About The Author
James Patterson grew up Newburgh, New York, fifty miles north of New York City where he currently resides. Patterson majored in English at Manhattan College.
Patterson's first novel published in 1976 when he was twenty-seven years old. Patterson, who says he ‘lives full time’, has since written over half a dozen novels and has been hailed as mastermind of the page-turning thriller.

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James Patterson 1st to Die Published January 2002 by Hodder Headline Audio at Ł8.99 ISBN: 1-84032-493 7
Read by Dylan Baker & Melissa Leo
1st To Die is the electrifying first novel in a thrilling new series from megabestselling James Patterson. The creator of Alex Cross - one of the most popular series characters in thriller fiction - now introduces Lindsay Boxer and the Women’s Murder Club, whose fight against the criminal mind has only just begun.
As the only woman homicide inspector in San Francisco, Lindsay Boxer has to be tough. But nothing has prepared her for the honeymoon murders.
A brutal maniac begins a killing spree -slaughtering newlywed couples - and Lindsay takes on the case. She is sickened by the deaths, but her determination to bring the murderer to justice is threatened by a personal tragedy. So she turns to Claire, a coroner, Cindy, a journalist, and Jill, an attorney, for help with both crises: and the Women’s Murder Club is born.
`A master of the suspense genre’ The Sunday Times
4 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs
About The Author
James Patterson grew up Newburgh, New York, fifty miles north of New York City where he currently resides. Patterson majored in English at Manhattan College.
Patterson's first novel published in 1976 when he was twenty-seven years old. Patterson, who says he ‘lives full time’, has since written over half a dozen novels and has been hailed as mastermind of the page-turning thriller.

New Books by James Patterson at Amazon.co.uk

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Iain Pears The Titian Committee Published May 2002 by ISIS at Ł15.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Daniel Philpott
A member of the famous Titian research committee has been found stabbed to death in a Venetian public garden, and Rome’s Art Theft Squad sends Flavia di Stefano to help the local carabinieri. There they think it is a simple case of mugging, but quarrelling within the committee makes everyone a suspect to Flavia. When a web of clues begins to emerge in a most confusing manner, she calls on the services of art historian Jonathan Argyll. But each time Flavia comes close to solving the case, another Titian member is murdered. Now she and Argyll must race against time - before the committee is snuffed out for good.
'Light and sassy . . . Agatha would have loved it.’ Los Angeles Times
‘Writes with a Beerbohm-like wit’ Publishers Weekly
Daniel Philpott has appeared in many theatrical productions including And Women Must Weep and The Strike of 1889. Trained at LAMDA, and runner-up in the BBC CarltorHobbs Award for Radio Drama, his numerous voice credits include: Charge of the Boys’ Brigade for BBC Radio and The Cost of Freedom for Focus on the Family Radio, which received a Peabody Award in New York in 1998.
5 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs 20 mins
About The Author
lain Pears is a journalist and art historian. After several years working for Reuters, he went to Yale University to complete his book on eighteenth-century British art. He now lives with his wife and children in Oxford.

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Iain Pears The Raphael Affair Published January 2002 by ISIS at Ł15.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Daniel Philpott
When English art historian Jonathan Argyll is caught breaking into a church in Rome, he has an astonishing story to tell. He claims that the church contains a genuine Raphael, hidden under a painting by Mantini. Further investigation reveals that the painting has disappeared . . . to reappear later in the hands of top English art dealer, Edward Byrnes.
Soon Byrnes is able to unveil the Raphael to the world. But how had he discovered the hidden masterpiece? There is also the curious matter of the forger whose safety deposit box contains some highly suspicious sketches.
Then a hideous act of vandalism is perpetrated. Murder follows and General Bottando of Italy’s Art Theft Squad faces the biggest challenge of his career.
Daniel Philpott has appeared in many theatrical productions including And Women Must Weep and The Strike of 1889. Trained at LAMDA, and runner-up in the BBC CarltorHobbs Award for Radio Drama, his numerous voice credits include: Charge of the Boys’ Brigade for BBC Radio and The Cost of Freedom for Focus on the Family Radio, which received a Peabody Award in New York in 1998.
5 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs 45 mins
About The Author
lain Pears is a journalist and art historian. After several years working for Reuters, he went to Yale University to complete his book on eighteenth-century British art. He now lives with his wife and children in Oxford.

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George Pelecanos Shoedog Published March 2002 by ISIS at Ł16.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Jeff Harding
Constantine is a drifter, a man with a lot of miles behind him and a lot more ahead, and a number of jobs in between that never showed up on anyone’s books.
He hitches a ride on a bright spring morning with a little man named Polk. Heading down a country road, the two men share a few cigarettes. Later, when Constantine walks toward the big brick house, the Beat in his head, the grip of the .45 warm in his hand, the siren wailing at his back, he considers how the whole thing started on that road, with the car stopping for his upturned thumb. He thinks that the things that happen to a man are put in motion by something just that small, just that random. He thinks about that and he laughs, but keeps on walking.
Jeff Harding was born in Massachusetts, U.S.A.
He has worked extensively in television, with recent roles in The Fast Show and Trail of Guilt. Jeff also played Father Buzz Cagney in Father Ted. Jeff has appeared in feature films including Tomorrow Never Dies.
6 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 7 hrs 10 mins
About The Author
George P. Pelecanos was born in Washington, D.C. in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, shoe salesman, electronics salesman, and construction worker before publishing his first novel in 1992.
George Pelecanos is the author of ten crime/noir novels set in and around Washington, D.C.: A Firing Offense, Nick’s Trip, Shoedog, Down By the River Where the Dead Men Go, The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman (shortlisted for the 1998 Crime Writers' Association Golden Dagger Award), The Sweet Forever, Shame the Devil, Right as Rain and Hell to Pay. The Big Blowdown was the recipient of the International Crime Novel of the Year award in France, Germany, and Japan. His short fiction has-appeared in Esquire and the collections Unusual Suspects and Best American Mystery Stories of 1997. He is an award-winning journalist and pop-culture essayist who has written for The Washington Post, GQ, and numerous other publications. Esquire magazine called Pelecanos `the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world.’
George Pelecanos served as producer on the feature films Caught (1996), Whatever (1998) and Blackmale (1999). He was the U.S. distributor of John Woo’s cult classic, The Killer. As a screenwriter, he has written an -adaptation of King Suckerman for Dimension Films, and was co-writer on the recently completed feature Paid in Full, also for Dimension. Most recently, he has written a script based on a team in the American Basketball Association, The Spirits of St. Louis, for HBO Films.
George Pelecanos lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and three children. He is currently at work on his next novel.

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Ian Rankin Resurrection Men Published June 2002 by ISIS at Ł19.99 Buy direct from ISIS: freephone order number (UK) 0800 731 5637 or click on the Order button to visit their website N.B. P&P Ł2.50 or Ł3.50 for two or more titles
Read by Joe Dunlop
Rebus is off the case - literally. In the early stages of an inquiry into the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer, Rebus blows up at his superior, DCS Gill Templer, and is sent into purdah. Which means the Scottish Police College, sited on the edge of a village in central Scotland. He is there for ‘retraining’.
Rebus joins a group of similar officers - people with problems. They are given an old unsolved case to work on, hopefully to teach them the merits of teamwork, while allowing professionals to assess this unholy ‘wild bunch’. But some people in the team have secrets.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Scottish Crime squad has a favour to ask. They’ve found someone to deliver the inside info on the East coast’s biggest gangster, ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty. All they need is a go-between. They’ve decided on Rebus - whether he likes it or not.
Joe Dunlop’s many TV appearances include Brookside, Take the High Road, Taggart, Keeping Up Appearances and In Suspicious Circumstances. His theatre work includes One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Wild Oats, and Last Resort. He is also a highly experienced broadcaster and has been a member of the BBC Radio Drama Rep. He continues to perform in many radio plays as well as writing plays for the BBC.
12 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 14 hrs 25 mins
About The Author
In His Own Words…

Born in Cardenden, Fife, Scotland In 1960. Attended local comprehensive school, then went on to University of Edinburgh. MA in English Literature (specialising in US Literature). Then started studying towards a PhD in the Modern Scottish Novel, but wrote my own stuff instead. Early "successes" were with poetry and the short story. One story raged out of control and became, my first novel, The Flood.
Married in 1986 and moved to London. Worked as a secretary at the National Folktale Centre, then as a journalist (rising to acting editor) on monthly music magazine hi-fi Review. Dropped out in 1990 and moved to the French countryside. This pastoral idyll failed to stop me writing dark, dark fictions.
Was elected a Hawthornden Fellow in 1988. Won Chandler-Fullbright Award in 1992. Won CWA Short Story Dagger in 1994 (or was it '95?); same story shortlisted for 1995 Anthony award. Won the Short Story 'Dagger' again in 1996, and celebrated by moving back to Scotland.
Two sons, Jack and Kit. Er.....that's it.

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