There may be no more difficult task for a parent than recognizing when a child has become unstable. Yet that is the challenge Dr. Paul Allen faces in THE GOOD FATHER, Hawley’s psychological novel about a physician’s efforts to understand his son, who is suspected of shooting a presidential candidate. The story, told from the points of view of both father and son, is interesting... Read More

Narrator John Rubinstein is a man of many voices—so many that you might think Kellerman's latest is being delivered by a full cast. All the characters—veteran sleuth Alex Delaware, LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, and a cast of antagonists and minor characters—are distinctive. Delaware is called upon to investigate the dismemberment of Vita Berlin, who seemingly was despised by... Read More

This history of the FBI’s intelligence and counterintelligence operations—its battles against spies, sabotage, and terrorism—is often dramatic and, because of its scope, quick moving. Stefan Rudnicki’s rumbling bass hits the right note of seriousness, and his fluency and precision keep details clear while he moves the account at just the right quick pace. He varies his voice... Read More

Former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice narrates her memoir of eight years in the George W. Bush administration with the calm tone and professorial timbre one would expect. Rice uses her most authoritative tone when explaining what happened on 9/11 and the subsequent investigation into national security failures. (She wanted to apologize, but... Read More

This short book reminds us that the former president is still a master of packaging a political message that is cogent, expansive, and forceful. He’s essentially taken the responsibility for publicizing President Obama’s agenda in a way that is understandable and ready-made for public consumption. Clinton is a great communicator and seemingly always will be. He is also the... Read More

Narrator Arthur Morey starts off his reading with a pitch-perfect conversation between teens who are quarantined in a hospital. From there, the novel jumps forward to adulthood, revealing that the hospital stay led to a lifelong romantic triangle. The novel becomes one long conversation between two corners of that triangle during a hike across Israel. Morey enlivens a story... Read More

Gavin Dawson confronts his own demons when he returns to Hubbard's Point to solve the murder of the son of his lost love. This is a story about tragic loss and the power of faith and redemption. Blair Brown's narration is precise and clear, well paced and well acted. Although she offers little differentiation between the voices of the characters and the story drags in places,... Read More

Ruth Rendell is in top form in this intricately plotted and richly satisfying novel. It does feature crime, suspense, even, finally, murder, but it transcends genre; the mystery is that of human nature and its demons. A strange young man named Joel Roseman loses some money near the Portobello shops. Prosperous art dealer Eugene Wren, also strange but in an utterly different... Read More

Nurse Adrianna Blanc is found strangled at a construction site near the hospital where she worked. Mitchell Greenberg narrates at a steady pace with subtle characterizations. His gravelly voice draws listeners into the circuitous plot. LAPD Detective Peter Decker and his team are chasing Blanc’s killer across Southern California and Nevada. At the same time, Decker becomes the... Read More

As Rosalyn Landor describes the romantic encounters of Annabel Winslow and Sebastian Grey, her precise British accent and ironic tone suggest that listeners just sit back and enjoy the frothy story without taking it all too seriously. Lovely but impoverished Annabel, who must marry to save her family, is being courted by the old and repulsive Earl of Newbury, Sebastian's uncle.... Read More

Andrew provides a fascinating, exhaustive history of the preeminent British counterintelligence and security agency from its inception to the present day. Despite its length—the book covers a hundred years—the text will hold listeners’ attention, especially those interested in espionage and the preservation of national security. The audio production has the added advantage of... Read More

Accepting marital conflicts and dealing with them responsibly is the subject of this memorable lesson by two Christian personal growth authors. They alternate sharing advice, which is illustrated by stories of conflicts in their marriage and those of the couples they’ve counseled. John Eldredge’s dramatic delivery is distracting, while his wife’s speaking style makes her sound... Read More

Set in nineteenth-dynasty Egypt, THE HERETIC QUEEN is the love story of Nefertari, niece of Nefertiti, the heretic queen, and wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II. Cassandra Campbell brings this fictional history of palace and temple intrigue, political wrangling, warfare, and international relations to life with her soft steady voice. From Nefertari's perspective, listeners learn of... Read More

The Janvier family of four lives an idyllic life until 16-year-old Tally, a distant cousin, moves in. Hidden secrets are revealed when 17-year-old Chase, who feels responsible for a childhood tragedy, collaborates with Tally on a high school project that involves interviewing Holocaust survivors. The teens see similarities between the survivors and their own family members who... Read More

Scott Brick's glib reading keeps the listener engaged, but overall this police procedural is a mish-mash. It has too many plots going at the same time. Retired homicide detective Frank Quinn is called on by his old boss to assemble his former team of investigators to nab a killer of beautiful blonds who die in horrible ways. Meanwhile, someone is dispatching other victims of... Read More

Mark Bramhall does accents. He does the indomitable Peter Stuyvesant. He does eighteenth-century slaves. He does first-generation New York Irish and Albanian Italians on Long Island in the 1930s. Bramhall does these accents with a lighthearted style entirely suitable for Edward Rutherfurd's trek through the history of the city of New York from the arrival of the Dutch until... Read More

Jessie Ann Gaebele is a photographer's assistant in 1907. She struggles with her career, her responsibilities to her family, and her inappropriate feelings for her married employer, F.J. Bauer. Annmarie Lee is the perfect voice for the sensible Jessie. She gives Jessie an air of innocence that is fitting for a young woman coming of age in a small town. Lee portrays the object... Read More

Olivia Bevelstoke and Harry Valentine's melodramatic courtship falls flat in this audio performance. Rosalyn Landor fails to convincingly portray Olivia's scatterbrained idea to spy on Sir Harry during the London season. The romantic emotion is superficially delivered, making Olivia's behavior seem starched and silly while Sir Harry emerges as wooden. Landor does convey the... Read More

Narrator Mark Deakins tries to wrestle this aimless narrative about former child star Chase Insteadman into a compelling story that has some sort of meaning. Alas, he’s unsuccessful. Novelist Jonathan Lethem creates colorful characters with substantial problems, but listeners will have a hard time mustering empathy for a hero who doesn't know what he wants. Deakins’s portrayals... Read More

Gutsy 17-year-old Albert “Shoe” Horn is an apprentice plumber and part-time boxer whose story takes place in England in 1922. When his mother dies, he finds himself responsible for an abusive, alcoholic father and a younger brother with special needs. McLarty performs his marvelous novel about the indomitable Shoe’s day-to-day survival with poetic grit, cynical genius, respect,... Read More

In her latest novel, Brennan reprises security specialist Duke Rogan, from FATAL SECRETS. After domestic terrorists destroy a biotech lab, breaching the state-of-the-art security system Rogan installed there, he is paired with FBI Agent Nora English to help solve the arson-murder. While the voice Anne Marie Lee uses for Rogan is strained, her lonely, haunting portrayal of Nora... Read More

Doctorow examines the same types of intellectual property and technology issues that he explores in his popular blog, BoingBoing. This downbeat novel recounts the odyssey of two entrepreneurs who simply want to make cool stuff who are brought down by a stagnant corporate culture that sees their innovations as threats. Bernadette Dunne narrates with vigor, focus, and compassion.... Read More

Recently widowed, Lady Vernon is forced to rely on her self-serving brother-in-law to care for her and her lovely daughter, Frederica. In Regency England, where aristocratic life is centered upon securing a financially advantageous marriage, Lady Vernon seeks to make the best match for Freddy. Narrator Susan Duerden artfully navigates extensive character explications,... Read More

They were the new Huns of Wall Street—PhDs from the nation’s most prestigious schools, young geniuses in math, physics, and finance. Mike Chamberlain takes listeners on an exciting journey from their high schools and college dorm rooms to their boardrooms and yachts. His narrative power keeps listeners from empathizing too deeply with them when their house of cards comes... Read More

Brokaw steers close to Dan Brown in both plot and character with this story of world-famous Harvard professor, archaeologist, and linguist Thomas Lourds. He’s racing to outsmart evil members of the Catholic Church who are intent on keeping him from deciphering the riddles in ancient relics, in this case relating to Atlantis. Erik Davies’s narration, while smooth, tends towards... Read More

For the first time in years, widow Maxie McNabb and her dachshund Stretch are staying home in Homer, Alaska, for the winter in this fourth installment of Sue Henry's charming series. When a tourist she befriends is found dead of an apparent suicide in his hotel room, Maxie’s curiosity leads her on a quest to learn his real identity and reasons for killing himself. Lee Adams... Read More

Andre Agassi hates tennis. Forced at a very young age by his father to make tennis his life's ambition, Agassi developed a hatred of tennis that was superseded only by his hatred of losing. This is just one of many contradictions that have helped to define one of the most gifted men to ever play the game. OPEN chronicles his life from his years as an unranked amateur through... Read More

The author was one of President George W. Bush's top speechwriters from March 2007 to October 2008 and chief speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for three years. This memoir is a humorous and candid take on life in Washington, DC, and the leaders of both major parties. The behind-the-scenes account boldly names the fools and scoundrels, and laments the... Read More

Listeners who may have wondered what ever happened to the angel Clarence Oddbody after IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE will soon fall under the sway of Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a newish member of Heaven's Department of Good Intentions. In this second book of her adventures she is sent to earth to protect a 4-year-old, solve a murder, and save Christmas. Narrator Ann Marie Lee has a jolly... Read More

Good writers know when to get out of the way of great subjects. Two of baseball's best—Bob Gibson the pitcher, Reggie Jackson the hitter—break down the game from the mound and batter's box. Narrators Mirron Willis and Dominic Hoffman give clear, distinctive voices to the Hall of Famers. Willis tells Gibson's story in a deep, authoritative tone while Hoffman’s rendition of... Read More

What better way to do an oral biography than with a full cast of voices, including those of some of the actual people who offered up biographical snippets of the late director Robert Altman? Zuckoff's work is a lengthy account by friends, family, colleagues, and even critics that crafts together the story of his life. Yet one feels that all one gets is fragments of the... Read More

This unusual and powerful story is set in a pre-Civil War resort town in Ohio, where free blacks came to take the waters, as did slave-owning Southern white men with their slave mistresses. Perkins-Valdez vividly imagines the tensions this anomalous situation created for the slaves and weaves a moving narrative about their bonds with each other, temptations, and disasters.... Read More

The "Dead Hand" alludes to a doomsday scheme in which a machine pulls the switch to launch a nuclear retaliation after all the human beings have been vaporized. Amid the governmental paranoia and posturing following WWII, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. armed themselves for a battle never to happen. The Cold War became a competition of colossal excess. Narrator Bob Walter... Read More

After his fortune is stolen by the KGB and he's falsely accused of multiple crimes, Russian building magnate Alex Konevitch and his wife flee to the U.S. and rebuild their lives. But eventually, patterns in Alex's old life in Russia resurface, and the pair find themselves caught in the American legal system. Scott Brick channels Mikhail Gorbachev, the Communist Party leader at... Read More

With the movie version of this book, originally titled PUSH, making the rounds at award ceremonies, it would be easy to overlook the outstanding performance given by narrator Bahni Turpin in this recorded version of the story. As Precious Jones, a teenage girl set to give birth to her father's child, Turpin is so deep in character that the production sounds as intensely real as... Read More

The Byzantine Empire is usually remembered for its striking religious icons, its Orthodox Christianity, and the glory that was Constantinople between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance of Western Europe. This book does a marvelous job of delving deeper into Byzantine history to show us how it endured and saved European culture. Author and narrator Lars Brownworth... Read More

Since audiobooks have no maps, understanding the American Civil War by ear can be difficult. However, author John Keegan gives his account more universal appeal with his inclusion of copious peripheral information about weaponry, supplies, transportation, and politics. His analyses of generalship and tactics come from an abundant curriculum vitae as a European war historian.... Read More

Author Sigmund Brouwer ventures into Cormac McCarthy territory with his latest thriller, set in a post-apocalyptic America, where a group of nomads led by the mysterious "Caitlyn" is on the run from ruthless bounty hunters in a territory known as Appalachia. Gifted narrator Kirsten Potter offers a simple yet compelling reading that mirrors the nomads' journey in its tone and... Read More

Set on a not-too-distant future Earth, among several dystopian realms, this conclusion to the Fourth Realm Trilogy reunites Maya, Gabriel, and Hollis as they battle against Nathan and The Brethren, who slowly strip away American and European democratic freedom under the guise of a crime-free society. Scott Brick's measured pace and robotic-sounding vocals lend a mechanical tone... Read More

Questioning the military's methods of doing things usually brings punishment; nevertheless, the four soldiers spotlighted in THE FOURTH STAR broke tradition. By standing up to the Army's status quo in constructive ways, Generals Abazaid, Casey, Chiarelli, and Petraeus all rose to the top. Understanding why they became so exceptional comes from hearing their service-related... Read More

The parable of the talents, in which a master gives his servants money to invest, expecting them to do so to the fullest of their ability, is the genesis of Bevere's book. The minister reads his own work with an evangelist's zeal, energetic and heartfelt, as he urges Christians to pursue an "extraordinary life" and reach their full potential. The message here, brought out... Read More

Kirsten Potter's robust interpretation of Beck DeForde, Carter's unforgettable heroine, is a virtuoso performance. Beck is the younger woman for whom Jericho Ainsley threw away his career in the CIA many years ago. Now she tells the story of the explosive secret that foreign governments and powerful corporations want to squeeze from her husband. This thriller takes place in an... Read More

Even Michele Santopietro's valiant narration effort cannot hide the weak plot, excessive medical details, and unlikely conclusion of this forensic mystery. While New York City’s Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Jake Rosen is investigating assaults by a villain who siphons blood from his unconscious victims, his lawyer girlfriend is defending two private school students charged... Read More

Feodor Chin is the listener’s guide into Chinatown's heart: the neighborhoods that tourists don't see, the inner workings of human trafficking from China to America in the 1980s and '90s, and the growing violence of the emerging gang culture. The perfect guide, Chin keeps his voice instructive and interesting, never preachy or accusative. This grim true crime involves "Sister... Read More

P.I. Frank Behr is big, tough, and hard as a rock—but he sometimes develops a soft spot. So when he learns that his martial arts mentor has been gunned down, he sets out on a relentless search for the killers. Additional story lines involve the hunt for two missing detectives and a family (a father and two sons) that kills and maims without mercy. Ultimately, all these plots... Read More

Johannes Cabal exchanged his soul for the secret to resurrecting the dead. As "pay day" draws near, he wants to renegotiate the terms, but they’re binding—unless he can recruit 100 souls in exchange for his. With an entertaining flair Christopher Cazenove delivers a darkly humorous tale of retribution. His alto pitch and British-accented English demonstrate expert storytelling... Read More

A fresh, lyrical narration by Lorna Raver enlivens this story of Depression-era Big Foley Mountain, Kentucky. Segregation reigns in this backwater country, where whites and blacks alike eke out a bare subsistence living. The mystery of the cruel wolf hunters, as well as another decades-old mystery, ignites a conflict that embroils the entire community. Wall's imaginative prose... Read More

Lara Lington's life isn’t going as planned—and that’s before she starts talking to ghosts! Rosalyn Landor brings life to Lara and to her late great-aunt Sadie, a drama queen if there ever was one. She’s a whirlwind who plots to recover a necklace that was stolen from her and constantly badgers her great-niece. Sadie was 105 when she died, but her ghost takes the form of her... Read More

Bestselling author Isabel Raine's perfect life is turned upside down when her husband of five years mysteriously disappears. She soon discovers that everything about him is a lie, including his name. Ann Marie Lee is a consummate narrator of novels driven by female characters. A gifted performer, she uses her vocal talents to convey a diverse range of emotions. Her pitch is... Read More

Pity the narrator who draws Oates's unrelievedly grim novel about the consequences of a murder on the daughter of the suspected killer and the son of his victim. The book is spare in dialogue, providing little opportunity for the reader to change tone from the bleakness that enwraps the book's two central characters in the wake of the brutal killing. Oates is not trying to... Read More

April and Oliver grew up as inseparable best friends whose lives took drastically different paths. The death of April's younger brother brings them back together, but long-buried family secrets and unresolved sexual tension complicate the reunion. In spite of the conflicts inherent in their unacknowledged attraction, complicated by Oliver's engagement to the saintly Bernadette,... Read More

It's surprising how easy it is to get drawn into the primeval world depicted in FRAGMENT. Narrator Robin Downes guides listeners to a desert island in the most desolate part of the Pacific. It's a place where a whole new form of evolution has developed, and where only the strongest survive. Downes’s tone alternates between scientific detachment and child-like awe as he paints a... Read More

Treated like chattel by incompetent officers, starving Confederate soldiers ate their shoelaces and died of thirst and dysentery. When their uniforms rotted, men were forced to replace them with pillaged carpet. Desertion meant prison or death. Led by a man named Newton Knight, a group of disillusioned Southerners from Jones County, Mississippi, banded together to thwart the... Read More

Gill's book covers the lives of the nineteenth-century English queen and her prince consort up to and through their marriage, going briefly beyond Albert's early death. Rosalyn Landor's almost-formidable British accent and her cool tone are appropriate to a history of British royalty, their relatives, and Europe at the time. Still, she conveys the emotions and judgments... Read More

The audio version of Duncan's companion volume to his and Ken Burns's film (which seems much the same as the film's narration) is both a history of the parks and an argument in their defense. Danny Campbell's slightly hoarse voice is likable, unpretentious, and effortlessly expressive. There's an occasional sloppy pronunciation, but more importantly, he's easy to listen to over... Read More

Satchel Paige has been called the best pitcher of his generation, and possibly of all time, but coming-of-age in a segregated nation delayed his entry into the major leagues until he was 42. Through dogged research, the author succeeds in telling us as much of the truth about Paige's life as is possible today. Narrator Dominic Hoffman has a pleasant, insistent voice that... Read More

Canedy's book is presented as the journal her son's late father, Sergeant Charles King, wrote while stationed in Iraq and awaiting Jordan's birth. Not quite! It is, more accurately, the story of a former "Army brat" who grew up swearing off Army life and then fell in love with a soldier. Bahni Turpin gives Canedy a little girl's voice that belies who she really is—a mature NEW... Read More

Bernadette Dunne's pleasing vocal personality comes through as she delivers Meyer's work on goal setting. With seamless narratives she illustrates the author’s use of the acronym SMART to remind listeners of important points: Be Specific, have Measurable and Attainable goals, be Realistic, and set a Timely completion date. Dunne captures the emotional tension in over 50... Read More

It's hard to know whether this audio sounds dry because of its focus on numbers or because of the flat narration by Cassandra Campbell. She speaks quickly as well, which contributes to the dispassionate quality of the production. The author's own experience with paying down $40,000 in consumer debt while supporting seven children adds credibility to her collection of... Read More

Grace Plantagenet, illegitimate daughter of King Edward IV, leads a quiet life until a mysterious stranger arrives, claiming to be the rightful heir to the English crown. If that's true, he would also be Grace's long-lost half-brother, Richard, who has been presumed dead. Thus, a convoluted storyline of politics and intrigue ensues. Narrator Rosalyn Landor's dispassionate... Read More

A novel of the early twentieth century combines historical characters, anchored by Charlie Chaplin, with a raft of whacky fictional ones. Robertson Dean is an excellent narrator with a range of vocal tools and capabilities. However, his sporadic attempts at voicing do little to serve this story. For example, when Charlie Chaplin does an impromptu monologue as Comrade Leon... Read More

"Commodore" Vanderbilt presided over the birth of the American steamboat and railway industries, as well as the development of the modern corporation. His long and active life deserves all of the 571 pages Stiles gives him—and the nearly 29 hours Mark Deakins takes to read them. But be forewarned. This is an excellent biography, and the story it tells—of the building of modern... Read More

This audio presentation is vastly entertaining in a cool and gentle way. Author and film critic Shawn Levy provides a behind-the-scenes examination of the ruggedly handsome stage and film actor Paul Newman. Marc Cashman delivers the details of Newman's life, adventures, and creative achievements with a vocal steadiness and warmth. There are no attempts at characterization or... Read More

This debut thriller by Jamie Freveletti will soon have her running with the big-name writers. A trial lawyer and marathon runner, Freveletti weaves a fast listen. Adding narrator Bernadette Dunne to the mix ensures that listeners will come away completely satisfied. While enroute to Colombia, heroine Emma escapes from a plane hijacking while her fellow passengers are held... Read More

Lady Calvary is horrified when her stubborn, inquisitive red-haired daughter, Nell, joins the royal court. In an intriguing twist by Chase, 16-year-old Nell is actually the illegitimate daughter of Queen Elizabeth I. Nell quickly learns that only her death can protect the crown. Will the queen kill her own child? English narrator Rosalyn Landor does an admirable job with young... Read More

Wry, unsettling, romantic, and always crossing genres—these 21 never-before-published stories and a patriotic poem find Ray Bradbury very much a working author at the age of 89. Bradbury's poetic style and rich prose have always been tailor-made for being read aloud, and four seasoned voice talents, Jesse Bernstein, Mark Bramhall, Marc Cashman, and Kirsten Potter, take on the... Read More

Fearless Vincent D'Agosta and quirky Aloysius Pendergast are front and center in this thriller involving urban terror. William Smithback, a NEW YORK TIMES reporter, and his wife, Nora Kelly, an anthropologist at the Museum of Natural History, are attacked in their apartment, seemingly by their creepy neighbor, Colin Fearing. However, Fearing's body was found floating in the... Read More

This final title in the Bourne Trilogy weaves together all the major components that have made this series so popular: intense action; familiar characters, including Jason Bourne and his alter ego David Webb as well as Carlos the Jackal; the revival of the Medusa organization; and intricate plot threads. Scott Brick, in essence the voice of the series, having now narrated all... Read More

What begins as a murder investigation turns into a tale of two cities—Beszel and Ul Qoma—which overlap the same physical space, separated by different reality realms. John Lee guides listeners through the intricate urban structures, cultures and taboos, and the "crosshatch" areas where citizens catch sight of—but scrupulously "unsee"—one another, and even "unsmell" tantalizing... Read More

In the first book of a "faith-based" series, ex-CIA agent Paige Rogers wonders if her old job was consistent with a Christian life. When she’s called back to duty because her former team leader, Keary, is running for governor, she’s challenged to examine her past life once again. Renée Raudman is earnest in creating the image of a small-town librarian with a secret. She... Read More

Tragic and ethereal, THE STORY SISTERS charts the fates of three close sisters—dominated by charismatic Elv—and their imaginary fairy kingdom, Arnelle. As Hoffman’s dark, lyrical story reflects the sisters’ rapidly shifting power, they even communicate a bit in Arnish, a Celtic-like language they invented. Nancy Travis's Arnish pronunciation is impressive, and she envelopes... Read More

Judith Orloff skillfully teaches listeners how to turn negative emotions into a newfound sense of emotional freedom. Orloff's approach to emotional freedom involves combining Western psychological concepts with mindfulness training and yoga breathing techniques. Her direct and accessible writing style is reflected in Kirsten Potter's narration. Potter's performance is a... Read More

Mirron Willis's strong voice and thoughtful phrasing are wonderful vehicles for unfolding this back-to-basics guide to living one's best life. His calm reading and connection with Chris Gardner's story are sure to promote listening with an open heart. With the author's recovery from homelessness never far from view, this work is an inspiring invitation to engage with life's... Read More

The author, who is used to lecturing to the general public on scientific matters, attempts to explain the difficult subjects of relativity, gravity, small-particle physics, and string theory. His goal of making these ideas understandable to most readers is a lofty one, when even experts in mathematical physics find the obtuse concepts challenging. The author narrates the... Read More

Barack Obama's impressive 2008 presidential campaign is one of the watershed moments in recent political history. Against all odds, Obama ran a bottom-up campaign, getting grassroots support to carry him to the White House. Narrator Arthur Morey delivers an insider's narrative of the campaign, from the early days through the election itself. Morey tells this story in a... Read More

Napoleon's unseen enemy during his invasion of Russia in 1812 was typhus, a bacterial infection transmitted by body lice. Thousands of his men died of it, contributing as much to the French emperor's failure to conquer Czar Alexander's vast empire as the opposing army. Narrator Stephen Hoye's mastery of Russian and French names and places adds authenticity to a sad and... Read More

For the generations that pass through this novel, life seems short indeed, and peppered with as much hardship as happiness. In Wideman, Oklahoma, people come and go, love and lose, succeed and fail, with predictable regularity. Adenrele Ojo's performance shines brightest when she engages in dialogue between any of the myriad characters herein, creating a zest and personality... Read More

A basketball icon becomes an entrepreneur and community activist in this touching account of how a celebrity can make money and impact people’s lives. Cut from his endorsement contracts when he contracted HIV in 1991, Johnson still had enough basketball money to build Starbucks and movie theaters in underserved urban communities. He humbled himself along the way, accepting the... Read More

Few novels are more suited to the listening experience than those of the late John Updike, whose gifts as a storyteller were unsurpassed. Arthur Morey narrates the fourth and final volume of Updike's novels about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom with an almost-incantatory style that perfectly suits the large canvas of its setting—America in 1989. Morey's nuanced reading makes Rabbit... Read More

This new recording of John Updike’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel replaces cassette editions of the early 1980s. As captivating in audio as in print, the book features Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom and provides a glimpse into American life in the early 1980s—including lines at gas stations and hostages in Iran. Narrator Arthur Morey's performance is an ideal complement to Updike's... Read More

An entertaining and informative study of the physiological and psychological causes of human error is laced with breezy humor. Hallinan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, cites numerous studies that try to answer why people forget their keys, nurses administer wrong doses of medications, and handicappers pick the wrong horses and CEOs the wrong strategies. Along the way, we... Read More

Vanessa Hart's tawny voice embodies the surprisingly sensual story of Sima, the frumpy 60-year-old proprietor of a lingerie shop in the basement of her Brooklyn brownstone, and Temna, a beautiful, free-spirited Israeli who comes to work for her as a seamstress. Through long conversations they become entwined in each other's lives, and, though their temperaments often collide,... Read More

Opening with the violent murder of Oliver Mercer, venture capitalist, CUT TO THE QUICK weaves the police investigation with a cold case involving the attempted murder of Pasadena Homicide Detective Nanette Vining. Carrington MacDuffie's melodious voice is perfect for Vining as she manipulates suspects and witnesses while seeking murderers and psychopaths. As Vining and her... Read More

Scott Brick fights the urge to apply a Bogart-like tone to this prequel to Dashiell Hammett's classic, THE MALTESE FALCON. It’s 1920s San Francisco. Brick's perfect pacing draws the listener into the world of antihero gumshoe Sam Spade, before he hired his secretary and joined forces with Miles Archer. This time, instead of a jewel-encrusted statue of a falcon, it's a treasure... Read More

"Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance, of justice." So begins the first in Allison Brennan's proposed Sacramento FBI trilogy. Former Delta Force veterans are being tortured and murdered. These are not random killings, and Special Agent Megan Elliot and ex-Army Ranger Jack Kincaid join forces to identify the serial killers. Narrator Ann Marie Lee is especially chilling when... Read More

Rob Shapiro narrates a mystery involving a conspiracy in Silicon Valley. His portrayal of attorney Alex Treven and his brother, Ben, a black-ops assassin, makes their seven-year estrangement fully believable. After a client of Alex’s is murdered, he discovers that an innovative encryption program has been compromised. When a patent clerk involved with the product dies and Alex... Read More

David Bach's tenth book on personal finance is an encyclopedia of financial action steps combined with strong motivational encouragement. He covers the major spending categories such as banking, insurance, tax savings, retirement, buying or renovating a home, travel, credit cards, and buying cell-phone, Internet, cable, and health-club plans. It's clear that Bach's practical... Read More

Lincoln Hoppe brings a smooth flow to a true story full of struggles. With even tones and seemingly effortless pronunciations, Hoppe introduces the various young immigrants who come together from all over the world, from a multitude of traumatic backgrounds, to form the Fugees soccer team. Hoppe also voices the dreams and disappointments of Coach Luma Mufleh, herself a refugee... Read More

This engaging whodunit takes place in Broward's Rock, South Carolina, where Max and Annie Darling are staying at Nightingale Court while their antebellum mansion, the Franklin House, is being renovated. The gifted Kate Reading delivers an engaging performance that keeps listeners focused despite the leisurely pace of the plot. Accents for natives of the idyllic island are... Read More

Fans of Nan Vining will rejoice in the Pasadena detective's return in the conclusion of Emley’s trilogy. Vining is now hunting down T.B. Mann ("The Bad Mann"), a psychotic serial killer who left her for dead earlier in the series and is now engaging her in a bloody game of cat-and-mouse. Carrington MacDuffie's resonant voice enhances this crisp narrative. However, her... Read More

Haley Corbin refuses to believe that her son is the only child to have died in the explosion of the school gym, so she hires ex-FBI agent Randall Shane. His investigation leads to a cult in the remote Rocky Mountains that has split into two factions in a dangerous power struggle. The voices of Coleen Marlo and Sean Runnette work well here, alternating the narration. Marlo's... Read More

Narrator John Lee puts everything he's got into his performance of DROOD, a gothic fantasy that takes place during the final few years of Charles Dickens's life. Reading with crisp precision, Lee morphs into narrator Wilkie Collins, Dickens's jealous collaborator and competitor. Sounding, by turns, breathy or raspy or agitated, and always condescending, Lee captures Collins's... Read More

After fleeing the Nazi occupation of Paris, Max Berenzon, son of a prominent art dealer, returns in 1944 to discover that his father's fabulous collection of fine art has been looted by the Germans. Max visits notable dealers, artists, and collectors in an attempt to locate the vanished treasures, and to find Rose Clément, the woman he loves. Max uncovers secrets that shake his... Read More

Narrator Barbara Rosenblat has a legacy to live up to. She's won numerous Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones. How does this latest performance measure up? It’s great! In fact, her performance clearly outshines the plot of this eleventh novel featuring Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper. The ADA, who prosecutes sex crimes in New York City, is called in when a librarian is... Read More

Disdaining the stereotype of guts, gore, and little more by which many people identify horror, Peter Straub probes some of the best of today's work in the genre. This collection presents 23 stories of varying length, from novella-long to very short, written by both popular and little-known writers. Each performer imparts a sense of graveness to his or her work, as well as a... Read More

In FIDEL'S LAST DAYS, a baroque assortment of plotters from Havana to Virginia seeks to end Castro's rule or to be sure he governs forever, and it is almost impossible to guess which is which, since the parties to the plot are constantly lying to each other to test each others' courage and loyalty. While the story has all the hallmarks of a conventional thriller, the Cuban... Read More

This kitchen romance has many characters; it's good to have the talented Bernadette Dunne helping listeners keep track of them with skillful presentations of their quirks and interior lives. Dunne serves up characters as diverse as celebrity restaurateur Julian Liswood and his adolescent daughter, Portia—though they're just appetizers compared to the main course: chef Elena... Read More

The Battle of Britain in late summer of 1940 is one of modern history's great stories, one of a handful of times in history when the fate of nations and whole peoples rested on the actions and decisions of a few. Korda's background history of the politicians, military personnel, and technology that shaped and decided the battle takes up the first parts of this production; those... Read More

The generation that tuned in, turned on, and dropped out is revisited by the ever-popular news and current affairs personality Tom Brokaw. Whether or not you lived through it, tripped through it, grooved through it, or perhaps have completely forgotten it, BOOM! offers something of interest with its collection of significant and prominent voices—from Arlo Guthrie to Richard... Read More

Widely considered to be among the top spy thrillers ever, this is the first of Ludlum's exciting Bourne trilogy. Written in 1980, it has some amusingly dated details—the spies desperately searching for pay phones in the heat of a chase, for example—but it definitely stands the test of time. Scott Brick upholds his reputation as a master voice of spy thrillers. Brick portrays... Read More

Zephyr Zuckerman, the 27-year-old heroine of Uviller's debut novel, is a sexy cross between a slacker Nancy Drew and Walter Mitty. She's a hopeless romantic, a self-conscious daydreamer, and a habitual party-crasher. When the superintendent of her parents' apartment building is arrested, Zephyr becomes the new super, and chaos ensues. Emily Janice Card, daughter of author Orson... Read More

A Maeve Binchy audiobook is a bit like a beloved family television drama: charming and absorbing, alive with appealing imagery and voices, and neatly stitched up by the end. Sile Bermingham's performance is impressive. She negotiates the considerable cast of characters with aplomb, changing accents and personalities effortlessly to add to the listening experience. As the title... Read More

Mark Deakins’s portrayal of famous lawman Eliot Ness is almost untouchable. It's glib, agile, and sometimes stilted. But so was Ness. Deakins plays Ness as moody, publicity seeking, and detached; the story’s evildoer he depicts as dark and menacing. William Bernhardt, who writes legal thrillers, has switched gears to produce a book about an actual series of grotesque... Read More

The stories of Joyce Carol Oates plumb the cracks and crevices of the American psyche with a shining scalpel. This audiobook, read by three talented and empathetic narrators, mirrors the emotionally wrenching tales of unthinkable violence that permeate Oates's universe. Two stories, written as letters, are most affecting. First, "Dear Joyce Carol Oates" spotlights narrator... Read More

When an illegal Mexican immigrant is shot by a Texas senator, his body cremated, and his wife hastily deported—attorney Casey Jordan must discover why. In doing so, she must fight local police, bureaucrats, and the senator and his minions. Bernadette Dunne's performance is masterful as she smoothly slips from character to character. Her portrayal of Jordan is particularly... Read More

The first thing that strikes you about THE YANKEE YEARS is that, despite being ostensibly cowritten by legendary manager Joe Torre, it's narrated in the third person: a biography rather than memoir. While the book has become known for what it reveals about baseball giants such as Alex Rodriquez, as well as life under the ornery George Steinbrenner, Michael Kramer's narration... Read More

Narrator Dominic Hoffman doubles the enjoyment one might feel from the printed version of this book. His articulate, soft voice with sibilant s’s could credibly be the author telling of his extensive research into the genealogies of the 19 African-Americans he chose as subjects. Most are celebrities—Maya Angelou, Morgan Freeman, Oprah Winfrey—but the research methods, such as... Read More

Attorney Joel Litvinoff, described by the NEW YORK POST as "a rent-a-radical with a long history of un-Americanism," has a stroke and is left in a coma. Wife Audrey, a sharp-tongued harridan, makes some shocking discoveries that cause her to reconsider their marriage. Joel's stroke causes further upheaval in their family. Everyone is caught in a tangle of deceit, trapped in... Read More

While rushing home to the capital to visit his dying mother, nobleman Sugawara Akitada stumbles upon a gruesome mutilation and murder. Compelled to investigate, Akitada follows a trail of clues while struggling with evolving familial relationships. Roy Vongtama portrays Akitada with a stark subtlety that mirrors the cold winter landscape of Parker's eleventh-century Japan. His... Read More

The only person ever elected to four terms as president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression, and extended his reign well into WWII. Mark Deakins presents the detailed biographical material with a mixture of scholarly detachment and involved interest. When quoting dialogue or speeches by the president, he convincingly conveys... Read More

If a book ever called out to be turned into a movie, it's this one. Bernadette Dunne excels as the narrator of this engaging novel about a television reporter who investigates a series of murders of women named Susan, which take place every year on a specific day. Dunne's faithful performance captures the back-stabbing intrigue of the newsroom, the political wrangling of police... Read More

This collection of 25 short stories and three novellas represents the apprenticeship years of Edgar-winner Lawrence Block, written, as the author explains in the introduction, when "my typewriter still had training wheels." The first half of the collection, stories written between 1958 and 1961, are cliché-ridden samples of pulp writing composed by a still-maturing writer.... Read More

As we bid a sad farewell to an American master, one of Updike's finest works is released in audio format. Arthur Morey gives a nimble and precise performance as Rabbit, a 20-something mired in a new brand of suburban unhappiness endemic in midcentury America. Lost Rabbit runs from everything—an unhappy marriage, his child, and his unfulfilling job—in search of anything that... Read More

Updike wrote this sequel to RABBIT, RUN in 1971. Harry Angstrom, otherwise known as Rabbit, finds his life crashing down around him after he discovers his wife is having an affair. Written in classic Updike prose—replete with rousing descriptions and true-to-form dialogue—the story is the perfect medium for narrator Arthur Morey to demonstrate his storytelling ability. Morey's... Read More

If you want to know everything (and that means EVERYTHING) about the notorious media magnate Rupert Murdoch, check out this book. Like a good journalist, narrator Don Leslie delivers the story with perfect dispassion. This is exactly what the book calls for, and the approach only underlines the sad life of one of the richest men in the world. Most journalists hold Murdoch in... Read More

Tony Curtis's early reflections on his life as a poor kid growing up on the streets of the Bronx ring true and are laced with colorful anecdotes and observations, creating a strong sense of time and place. He remembers the Depression—when his parents put him and his younger bother into an orphanage—being bullied and beaten because he was Jewish, and the untimely death of his... Read More

Cassandra Campbell's voice drips with Southern charm, and her acting abilities shine in this fast-paced romp. Campbell is endearing and just a little naughty as beautiful Carlotta Wren, who goes from not being able to get a date to being overrun with eligible bachelors as she tries to solve the mystery of who killed her ex-fiancé's wife, a woman who also happened to be... Read More

Azar Nafisi (READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN) is unquestionably a unique literary voice. In this memoir we learn that as a rebellious child her relationship with her mother was stormy, that her North Star was her attentive, literature-loving father, and that between them they created a world apart from the bitter, self-absorbed woman her mother became. Memory is, at best, an... Read More

Richard McGonagle's warm baritone does much to improve this sometimes chatty and unabashedly pro-Jackson history which focuses, almost exclusively, on the White House from 1829 to 1837. The Jackson presidency, it seems, can be characterized as a series of personal feuds, more or less connected to policy conflict. To his credit, McGonagle makes no attempt to bring to life the... Read More

Scott Brick, who almost always gets high marks for narration, is at his best when he's a serial killer. He's plotting, maniacal, creepy, and just plain evil. That's what's called for in this latest from Richard Montanari. As it develops, this is the story of a relentless search by two Philadelphia detectives for the killer of several young women. The cops are charged with... Read More

To call A PARTISAN'S DAUGHTER simply a love story might discourage the wider interest it deserves. It is, rather, a meditation on the search for love in a weary world—graphic, profound, affecting, yet so plainly written and transparently narrated that the characters live and breathe and feel, and persist in memory. The book’s language and structure are ideally suited to audio.... Read More

The November 2006 poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko in London drew headlines around the world as investigators tried to learn what was slowly killing the 44-year-old former Russian agent. Cowell's story digs deeply—sometimes almost too deeply—into the background of Litvinenko and assorted associates. Simon Vance has a clear British accent, and he varies his voice ever so... Read More

THE WALK-IN opens with an assassination and a suspect's flight from a hostile Middle Eastern nation. The pace ratchets even higher after that. Former CIA operative Gary Berntsen recruited author Ralph Pezzullo to help concoct a tale of espionage in a world in which anyone could be a terrorist bent on destruction. Berntsen's credentials make the book a little too real for... Read More

Justine Eyre gives a wonderful reading of the fourth book in Patterson's series featuring a band of winged children on the run, although the book itself is a weak link in an otherwise entertaining series. THE FINAL WARNING lacks the strong stories of the previous three novels and overly dwells on the threat of global warming. At times, the book comes off as more of a public... Read More

Imagine a world in which businesses work together to create a greener society, one with an almost invisible carbon footprint, and one that also protects its citizens and ensures high standards for workers in every country. The authors have compiled this collection of essays, which highlight the ways in which the world is already changing to meet new demands and standards. As... Read More

In the genre of legal thriller, patent infringement might seem like rather dry fare. Paul Goldstein, however, mixes enough action, intrigue, romance, and drama, along with appealing characters, to make his story captivating and satisfying. Narrator Paul Michael propels the listener through all the intricacies of the plot as well as the details of patent law. His brisk, clear... Read More

Kerouac's Buddhist gospel is based on scriptures about the Buddha's life and teachings. Danny Campbell's slightly smoky voice—intelligent but unpretentious—fits this complex book by a sometimes difficult writer who, nevertheless, aims at appealing to the average listener. Campbell’s expressive, clear, yet soft and intimate, delivery befits Kerouac’s take on the Buddha, who... Read More

Karen Maitland's novel, set in medieval England, features a motley cast—including a one-eyed relics dealer, a musician and his apprentice, and a young girl who reads runes—each of whom has something to hide. While much of the writing suffers from clichés and pretensions, the characters are richly drawn, and Maxwell Caulfield gives each one a uniquely magnificent voice, whatever... Read More

In the latest Kinsey Millhone mystery, Kinsey is hired by an aged, wealthy man to retrieve his daughter from prison, where she has served time for embezzlement. Kinsey quickly figures out that the girl isn’t an embezzler but instead has done time for her money-laundering boss. All heck breaks loose. Judy Kaye has a warm, rich voice that seems just right for Grafton’s P.I. Her... Read More

Simon Vance brings unusual range and unerring precision to Max Hastings's saga of the last days of WWII. This vivid history draws from letters, memoirs, and interviews; the details Hastings highlights are exquisite. In Japan at the end of the war, "women were forbidden to style their hair or wear smart clothes." Malnutrition was common as the diet dropped to 1,680 calories. By... Read More

The right narrator can make a good book into an outstanding audiobook. However, a great performance can also magnify a weak novel's flaws. The latter is true with this work. Despite Mark Deakins's skill, the story remains clichéd: poor artist meets rich lingerie model, saves her life, marries her despite her parents' disapproval, and later helps her achieve her last wishes when... Read More

Arthur C. Clarke's final book, cowritten with Frederick Pohl, takes place in the nation of Sri Lanka, where the respected science fiction author spent the final years of his life. The love Clarke had for this tiny nation and its people comes through in his work. Mark Bramhall’s outstanding performance is the perfect complement for the novel. Bramhall pronounces the... Read More

Private investigator Michael Kelly, a former Chicago cop, takes on what he believes is a simple domestic violence case that is really a grisly murder with roots in a decades-old political scandal, and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Stephen Hoye narrates in a vintage noir style to provide visceral shading to complex characters and events that lead to a stunning climax. Hoye... Read More

Former U.S. Marshall and independently wealthy Mike Venturi creates new identities for people who need to disappear. Then someone finds out where the "legally dead" are and starts killing or threatening them. Helping the widowed Venturi stop the violence are his old Marine pal, Danny; Danny's wife, Luz; his mother-in-law; and a female obstetrician Mike romances. Mark Deakins... Read More

This sprawling (read repetitive if you want to) saga of two Brazilian sisters is an old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure. Young orphans Emilia and Luzia are taught the sewing trade by their beloved Aunt Sofia. When Luzia, whose crooked arm causes classmates to call her Victrola, is kidnapped by Hawk, the leader of a group of rebel bandits, the sisters' lives diverge. Shades of... Read More

Listeners can expect a mixture of folksy aphorisms, Pickens's grandmother's advice, and abundant doses of self-aggrandizement. Here and there the author shares pearls of business wisdom he calls "Boonisms." There are even some lessons for CEOs, for those who need them. Narrator Arthur Morey hardly sounds like the rural Texas tycoon whose story he tells. Rather, his sandy voice... Read More

THE FOREVER WAR reads like a reporter's notebook as author Dexter Filkins gives listeners the small, intimate stories of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps because of its human scale, the graphic sections depicting the impact of war on real people can be difficult to listen to. The overall series of vignettes is perfect for audiobook presentation as the listener can dip... Read More

The well-known author and lecturer on spiritual matters presents his views on who Jesus is. A student of the Christian Brothers in his native India, he considers Jesus as someone quite different from the two Jesuses known by most: the "sketchy, historical" Jesus (the first Jesus) and the Christ of the institutional Christian Church (the second Jesus). Chopra's Jesus, the third... Read More

With its echoes of the JonBenet Ramsay case, Oates’s new novel delves into the intimate lives of those affected by the murder of tot figure-skating champion Bliss Rampike. Boldly satirical, this cautionary tale exposes Mummy and Daddy's misguided ambitions and acts as an elegy for the murdered Bliss and her brother Skyler's lost childhood. Through Mike Chamberlain's expert... Read More

Lucie Whitehouse knows her BRIDESHEAD REVISITED and has here reused some of its parts, yet created something with a memorable life of its own. Lucas Heathfield, a 20-something Oxford graduate, inherits a grand country house after his charismatic Uncle Patrick's bewildering suicide. He invites his tight circle of college pals to share the house with him. Soon they are all... Read More

The story of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 has been told many times, but this edition includes new research and documents that make it the most up-to-date book on the subject. Narrator Bob Walter has a steady, authoritative voice that he uses effectively to move this taut nonfiction thriller forward. To emphasize the key points in the narrative, he pauses effectively, a... Read More

In a world in which novels about serial killers vastly outnumber the real thing (fortunately), Raffi Yassayan has come up with a fascinating twist: a serial killer who takes the body and leaves behind only a bathtub full of blood. Stephen Hoye builds the suspense with his articulate delivery, occasionally dropping verbal cues to the observant listener about particularly... Read More

Dame Stella Remington, the first female director general of MI5, provides a peek at the workings of British counterespionage through the character of Liz Carlisle. The covert operator becomes ensnared in a convoluted plot of implanted spies targeting Russian oligarchs— millionaires living the high life in London. Landor's Russian accents vary nicely with the array of ex-pat... Read More

There have been a few classical musicians who've attained rock-star status: Liberace, Pavarotti, perhaps Yo-Yo Ma. But they've all been surpassed by Chinese pianist Lang Lang, whose youth—and incredible tradition-defying musical ascendance—seems to reflect the spirit of the times. At a time when China has emerged as one of the dominant world powers, all the while masking a poor... Read More

When talk-show host Don Imus made racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team, many American didn’t know who their gifted coach Vivian Stringer was. To be clear, Stringer’s book is not a basketball memoir. It’s about personal and professional integrity, about life as a team sport, and about the role of family, friends, and communities who share in its... Read More

Twenty years after THE EIGHT, Katherine Neville leads listeners on a merry chase in her sequel as heroine Alexandra Solarin searches for a chess set that holds the secret to immortality. Narrator Susan Denaker navigates the maze of mysterious puzzles, which draw on philosophical and mathematical theories, with clear diction, an affinity for accents, well-placed pauses, and... Read More

Pete Sampras enjoyed a stint as the world's top-ranked men's tennis player for more than five years. He shied away from the limelight and rarely came close to controversy, on or off the court. So this memoir offered a glimmer of hope for fans to learn more. But steady and straight, Sampras is deliberate in what information he reveals. Narrator Mark Deakins has just the right... Read More

It's hard to picture anyone but George and Laura Bush in Charlie and Alice, but if listeners can get past the "eeuw" factor, Sittenfeld writes an absorbing account of a liberal, thoughtful young woman who falls for a privileged, charismatic buffoon. Kimberly Farr's voice is cultured and charming as Alice Lindgren tells of her journey from well-read Wisconsin high school girl to... Read More

Narrator Kirsten Potter begins this novel in the voice of quirky vegetarian and aura-seeing Mara, who stumbles into a new life as a tenant on a farm. Potter depicts Mara with just the right touch of new-age modernity. Charmed by Mara's oddness are grandparents Earl and Edith, who are believably voiced by Arthur Morey and Kimberly Farr. When grandson Daniel returns home from... Read More

Margaret of York comes of age during the 1460s when her brother Edward IV is crowned king. DAUGHTER OF YORK follows the young Margaret's romances and passions against a backdrop of loosely interpreted British history, court intrigue, suspenseful alliances, and political strategy. After her marriage to Charles of Burgundy, Margaret develops into one of the fifteenth century's... Read More

Stephen L. Carter (THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK, 2002; NEW ENGLAND WHITE, 2007) offers a fascinating new political thriller spanning the years 1954-1974. From the opening words, narrator Mirron Willis makes listeners sit up and take notice. His insistent tone gives seemingly ordinary events an air of importance. Eddie Wesley, an African-American writer, uncovers a secret... Read More

Two determined women trapped in male-dominated worlds come alive in this novel about the controversial "Elgin marbles." Aspasia, mistress of Pericles, influences the creation of the sculptures. Mary Nisbet, rich and pretty Scottish wife of the Earl of Elgin, charms the Turks into letting the treasures go to England centuries later. Kudos to Susan Denaker for making each of... Read More

Kirby Heyborne expertly renders the isolation of a teenager who is falling apart in the midst of an icy winter landscape. In this reworking of HAMLET, Jesse Matson's father dies on a deer hunting trip in the snowy woods of Minnesota, and the death is ruled a suicide. After a ghostly visit, Jesse believes his Uncle Clay murdered his father and is in love with his mother. He vows... Read More

Alice Schroeder's authorized biography of the “Oracle of Omaha” is a loving portrait of a complex man. Kirsten Potter is as comfortable describing corporate takeovers and market theory as she is describing family relationships. Engaging throughout, the recording never drags or gets bogged down. Author Schroeder introduces the audiobook, giving listeners insights into the... Read More

Management guru Ram Charan teams up with Procter & Gamble's legendary CEO, A.G. Lafley, to explain the importance of innovation in today's challenging business climate. Marc Cashman's relaxed interpretation holds the listener’s attention and captures every idea in this seminal program. He does it with his crisp documentary-style voice and intellectual engagement, rather than... Read More

Coleen Marlo is especially believable as geneticist Dr. Alexandra Blake. In a cold voice and staccato rhythm she captures Homeland Security's indifference to Blake’s alarm over multiple unexplained deaths in the southwest U.S. When the agency learns that one of the deaths was that of a DEA agent on a Mob stakeout, Marlo manipulates her tone to depict their disdain. With... Read More

An exiled prince is murdered while serving his term in the dreaded penal colony on Sado, the Island of Exiles. Our hero, Sugawara Akitada, must pose as a prisoner himself to get to the bottom of the crime. Sounds like a good premise, and it may be a good read (despite the rampant use of anachronistic clichés), but Roy Vongtama does little to engage, enthrall, or entertain. His... Read More

After being gang-raped in high school, having a stillborn baby, and being shamed by her grandmother, the adult Clara Marsh becomes an undertaker who relates only to the dead. She's haunted by the memory of an unidentified murdered child, "Precious Doe," whose body she prepared for burial three years earlier. Another child looks to Clara for affection and is later seen in a... Read More

Two corpses turn up in rapid succession in an English village, and Chief Inspector Wexford must unravel the mystery of how they got there, whether they're related, and who did what to whom. Simon Vance performs this latest Ruth Rendell mystery with a blend of spirited adventure and subdued reverence. Vance imparts enough variation to the story's heroes and villains that a... Read More

Can Julia, a high-strung Manhattanite who gave up her free-spirited lifestyle to marry a struggling actor, find happiness (two children and many years later) as the wife of handsome Joe Ferraro, now a popular TV star and Golden Globe nominee? Julia thinks so--until she accidentally hears one of Joe's voice mails and discovers a message from a filthy-mouthed sex kitten.... Read More

I.J. Parker's mysteries, set in ancient Japan, follow the adventures of Sugawara Akitada, who was born into nobility, but due to a reversal of the family fortunes, works at the Ministry of Justice. In this, the first of the series, Akitada vies with court nobles as he investigates blackmail and murder. The story drags occasionally, but in general this is a fun blend of police... Read More

The story is set at a time when humans had not yet established themselves as the dominant creatures on earth and illustrates many commonalities between the social structure of humans and wolves. Justine Eyre is sympathetic to Kaala, who is trying to maintain her place at the fringe of the wolf pack and from whose point of view the story is told. Eyre deftly expresses the... Read More

Grace Eversleigh, long-suffering companion to the Dowager Duchess of Wyndham, falls in love with the highwayman who robs the coach carrying her and the duchess. The duchess is convinced that the robber is her long-lost grandson, and the true Duke of Wyndham. Grace is not the only one suffering--the listener suffers right along with her. Kate Reading valiantly tries to breathe... Read More

The backdrop for this detective story is 1938 Berlin, where private eye Bernie Gunther has been shanghaied back into police work to catch a brutal serial killer. (Wait...aren't all serial killers brutal?) In the second installment of Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy, Gunther's assignment leads him into the darker, clinical side of prewar Germany, and you can almost hear the scalpels... Read More

As RIVER OF HEAVEN unfolds, author Lee Martin reveals the aged Sam Brady's life by giving us brief glimpses of his past. Arthur Morey's narration embarks on a long, nostalgic path, full of humility and feeling. Morey's depth of sincerity and haunting tone reveal the elusive tension in Martin's writing. Morey's ability to create characters is seamless, thereby allowing... Read More

Historical fiction and gothic suspense at its best, Rowland's novel tells a story that also dramatizes the classic author's true literary trials and tribulations. After a chance encounter on the train to London with a mysterious young woman who is later murdered, Charlotte becomes ensnared in an investigation full of Victorian-era British settings and sensibilities. As the... Read More

Why has a Cleveland socialite been strangled, raped, and taped into a chair? With no possible entrance or escape route for the killer, how exactly was she killed? When forensic specialist Evelyn James is called to the crime scene, listeners are immediately pulled into the suspense. The case becomes personal when Evelyn's best friend is threatened. With a perfect amount of... Read More

Coaching perfectionists is a difficult task, but Karen White captures the listener's ear in her delivery of the authors' recommendations. Like a good friend with the best intentions, White cajoles the perfectionist to rethink, re-evaluate, and use other strategies presented here to let go of the quest for a faultless existence. Although some of the quizzes are difficult to... Read More

This audiobook has the feel of an epic--it spans years, rattles social structures, and explores personal trials. Janet Song's sedate performance only emphasizes the drama of this historical novel. With her calmly measured pace and careful enunciation, Song's dramatization of Haruko's journey from typical girl to wife of the Crown Prince of Japan seems even larger and more real.... Read More

Wouldn't you act badly if you were one of a group of forgotten Greek gods now trying to make a living and maintain a dilapidated flat in London? Rosalyn Landor gives each god the respect he deserves and endows them all with varying shades of arrogance. Apollo, star of a TV show on psychics, is furious at the injustice of being spurned by Alice, a mortal, and of being robbed of... Read More

John Elder Robison's memoir of growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome, high-functioning autism, is a fascinating story of unexpected successes. To add to his troubles, Robison's mother was mentally ill, and his father was an abusive alcoholic. Failing in junior high, Robison was encouraged by his teachers to repair broken audiovisual equipment. His surprising abilities... Read More

The assignment Professor Williams gives his students in his Logic and Reasoning course is like no other they have ever experienced in college. They're to use logic to find a hypothetical girl, "Polly," who has been abducted and will be murdered by the end of the semester if they fail to save her. This mystery begins to obsess three students, in particular, and before long the... Read More

Starting with his rescue from an Atlanta crack house in 1994, the son of PBS journalist Bill Moyers shares the moving narrative of his struggle with lifelong discomfort and an almost unmanageable addictive disorder. His sophisticated story goes well beyond the clichés and melodrama often found in recovery memoirs. Hellish crises and relentless internal conflicts challenge the... Read More

The reliable Kate Reading does her best with this material, giving the characters warmth and believability. It's the characters themselves who don't engage in this latest in the series about mystery bookstore owner and part-time sleuth Annie Darling of South Carolina. This time the mystery comes right to her when she discovers a gunshot victim and learns that rare coins from a... Read More

FRANKLIN AND LUCY offers a window onto Franklin Delano Roosevelt's relationships with the women in his life. Behind his public role as a heroic presidential figure, Roosevelt was a very human, and thus a flawed, son, husband, and father. The behind-the-scenes glimpses of these well-known people and events offer enough drama, excitement, and historical detail to give this... Read More

"March violets" is a derogatory term used by the Nazis to refer to those who converted "late." In this first of three novels written with wonderful historical detail about Berlin in the 1930s, called the Berlin Noir Triliogy, ex-policeman Bernie Gunther, who is reminiscent of a hard-boiled gumshoe, has to work hard not to reveal his disgust at what is being done to his Jewish... Read More

A tumultuous family life forces Isadora Lugo to flee to India to become a nun. Ten years later, she learns that her father, Don Maximiato Lugo, a prominent businessman, has been convicted of murdering a local prostitute. Honoring a promise she made as a child to her dying mother, Sister Ria returns to care for her eccentric father. Once home, she takes it upon herself to... Read More

Moving from the past to the present, Scott's story recounts the quest for a crystal skull with magical healing powers. In the past, Cedric Owen has to find a place of safekeeping for the skull so that, hundreds of years in the future, Stella Cody can find it and keep it safe from the forces that wish to unleash doomsday. Susan Duerden narrates in a light, crisp English accent... Read More

Delinksky's new chick-lit novel makes a good beach listen. The story delves into the bonds that unite families and, conversely, can lead good people to make bad decisions. Cassandra Campbell presents vivid vocal portraits of a mother and daughter who carry out a deception following a car accident. Campbell's rendition of daughter Grace's teenaged angst is spot-on. Some of the... Read More

Bestselling reporter and adventurer Tony Horwitz loves to pull back the curtain on neglected stories. In CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC he wrote about men and women who like to dress up in uniforms and reenact the Civil War. Horwitz stumbled upon his latest quest with a chance visit to Plymouth Rock. The underwhelming exhibit there got Horwitz thinking about the time between... Read More

The late, great David Halberstam has written a virtuoso tribute to "the forgotten war": Korea, early 1950s. This is much more than a history of the year in which the Chinese entered the war and almost pushed the South Koreans and Americans into the sea. Personalities and events parade across the narrative: generals, presidents, common soldiers, politics, and battles. And herein... Read More

A hybrid of a vintage detective novel and breezy chick-lit, this production is a pleasant diversion. Allyson Ryan is a confident narrator whose voice easily handles the shifts in the novel's tone, which varies widely from mysterious to humorous. Protagonist Valerie Vane plays the roles of both a spoiled gossip columnist and an old-school detective. When she's demoted to... Read More

This tearjerker will appeal to fans of Nicholas Sparks and the Lifetime Network. When Doctor Meg Powell discovers she's suffering from a debilitating disease, she's forced to slow down and reflect for the first time in years. Soon the flaws in her marriage and her relationship with her daughter come glaringly into focus, and she sets out to reconnect with family and an old love... Read More

A breathtaking race to find a rumored cache of sacred clay tablets inscribed with the story of Creation as told by Abraham--this is a contemporary biblical mystery that rivals THE DA VINCI CODE. An archaeological epic spanning the globe from pre-biblical history to Iraq to the Vatican to Washington, DC, the story goes beyond the suspense surrounding the religious artifact to... Read More

CHASING WINDMILLS is saved from being a conventional love story by its two unconventional lovers. Sebastian is an isolated teenager just beginning to venture into the adult world. Maria is a young mother trapped in an abusive relationship. They begin their affair during middle-of-the-night rides on New York City subway trains. In alternating chapters, these two main characters... Read More

"You won't really understand your times until you understand mine," says Agnes, a 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio, who speaks from the afterlife as she looks back at her first trip to Egypt in 1921. Narrator Ann Marie Lee's cheerful, friendly tones help listeners suspend disbelief when the déclassée Agnes is welcomed into the rarified world of T. E. Lawrence, Winston... Read More

First published in 1991, this title concludes Philip Kerr's masterful Berlin Noir trilogy. (THE ONE FROM THE OTHER, 2006, added a fourth to the series.) P.I. Bernie Gunther takes a case that allows him to leave his personal miseries behind in war-torn Berlin and to head to Vienna in order to prove the innocence of a black marketeer. John Lee uses his handsome voice to excellent... Read More

Rosalyn Landor is a sympathetic narrator who mirrors Nagel's admiration of Marie Therese, daughter of Marie Antoinette. The book recounts the initial journey of Marie Antoinette to the French court and explores the political underpinnings and ramifications of the French Revolution, including the deaths of the king and queen and the imprisonment of their daughter and her younger... Read More

After a two-year stint in prison, Lewis Aldridge finds himself on the long road home, literally and metaphorically. Kate Reading matches the tone of this book perfectly, dramatizing the dark outlook and quiet demeanor of both Lewis and his father as they try to piece together a relationship despite the difficulties of the past and the present. As events unfold at a snail's... Read More

Michio Kaku ignites the mind with the topic of his new book, which explores how time travel, invisibility, teleportation, and other science-fiction adventures could be achieved in the real world without breaking the laws of physics. Kaku provides a thrilling romp through physics and the imagination, but it falls flat due to Feodor Chin's extremely slow narration. Chin's... Read More

Don't let the title fool you. This latest from John Ramsey Miller is a straightforward story about how greed can destroy good people and those around them. Former U.S. Marshal Winter Massey is back to investigate the shooting deaths of a 19-year-old and an ex-lawman. Before long the body count grows, and Massey finds himself pitted against an old enemy. Scott Brick plays the... Read More

Lee Adams gives a serviceable narration of Henry's latest Alaska Mystery, featuring sled- dog driver Jessie Arnold, her state trooper boyfriend, Alex, and her clever friend, Maxie. It all starts when Jessie's sled runs over a body, which turns out to be that of a local young man who's been shot. Identifying his killer takes some time, surveillance, interviews, conjecture, and a... Read More

On a trek to find her son, a partisan who is on the run in WWII-ravaged Italy, Lucia Fantini, opera singer and restaurateur, revisits her life in a series of vignettes that will have listeners feeling as though they're looking through a 1940s photograph album whose pictures are sepia and slightly faded. Cassandra Campbell narrates, giving the first-person voice of Lucia the... Read More

This well-researched and informative look at the globalization of organized crime is a remarkable feat. Such criminal activity includes the growing sex trade in Eastern Europe and the Internet scams originating in Nigeria, as well as the trading of commodities ranging from untaxed cigarettes to nuclear materials. Narrator John Lee reads with an impassioned voice. He sounds as... Read More

After burning out from the debate team, these twin teenaged authors got turned on by an intense summer reading program suggested by their father. It wasn't long before they started a "rebelution," rebelling against the idea that adolescence has to be characterized by ennui and consumerism. Their blog, therebelution.com, garnered 12 million hits and sparked conferences around... Read More

Oates pays homage to some of American literature's best authors. Using Poe, James, Dickinson, Twain, and Hemingway as her characters, Oates creates fictionalized death scenes in writing styles that mimic them. So Poe lingers in an island lighthouse while Twain forms a relationship with a young girl. The Hemingway piece depicts the great writer in a state of psychosis. Mark... Read More

A fetus that has opinions and tells its own story is one of the characters in this novel. Its mother is 15-year-old Shivana Montgomery, of Chicago’s South Side, who babysits for the couple upstairs and has sex with the husband. As she considers whether or not to have an abortion, she falls in love with a neighborhood boy—and with her own unborn baby. The emotional changes... Read More

This stunning story of a child's disappearance--and its effect on his loving yet flawed parents--is a remarkable tale of intrigue eerily played out under the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip. Narrator Mark Deakins offers a simple yet layered performance that will surely engage listeners. Deakins portrays a variety of characters--including a troubled young artist and an... Read More

It's how it happens. One moment a couple is eating breakfast and talking about mundane matters, and the next their lives are destroyed when their only son disappears. David Levien vividly puts the listener in the place of the couple. We know no more than the parents or the private detective, a desperate, damaged man who needs to solve the case for his own sanity. Then there's... Read More

Climbing Mount Everest has always been an imposing prospect for the intrepid souls who brave its peaks, but, as author Michael Kodas makes clear, nowadays the thing to fear the most may not be the mountain's aloof and forbidding precipices, but the opportunistic shysters and outright criminals exploiting the legions of mountaineers making the climb. Kodas--who joined a diverse... Read More