James L. Swanson has 6 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is Manhunt.

6 audiobooks
Cover art for Manhunt

Manhunt

2 ratings

Summary

The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history, the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild 12-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness. At the very center of this story is John Wilkes Booth, America's notorious villain. A Confederate sympathizer and a member of a celebrated acting family, Booth threw away his fame and wealth for a chance to avenge the South's defeat. For almost two weeks, he confounded the manhunters, slipping away from their every move and denying them the justice they sought. Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln's own blood relics, Manhunt is a fully documented work, but it is also a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.

©2006 James L. Swanson (P)2006 HarperCollinsPublishers

Narrator: Richard Thomas
Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Chasing King's Killer

Chasing King's Killer

Summary

An astonishing account of the assassination of America's most beloved and celebrated civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., by New York Times best-selling author, James L. Swanson. In his meteoric, 13-year rise to fame, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a mass movement for civil rights - with his relentless peaceful, non-violent protests, public demonstrations, and eloquent speeches. But as violent threats cast a dark shadow over Dr. King's life, Swanson hones in on James Earl Ray, a bizarre, racist prison escapee who tragically ends King's life. As he did in his best-selling Scholastic MG/YA books Chasing Lincoln's Killer and "The President Has Been Shot!", Swanson transports listeners back to one of the most shocking, sad, and terrifying events in American history.

©2018 James L. Swanson (P)2018 Scholastic Inc.

Narrator: Kim Staunton
Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The President Has Been Shot!

The President Has Been Shot!

Summary

A breathtaking and dramatic account of the JFK assassination by the New York Times best-selling author. Swanson transports listeners back to one of the most shocking, sad, and terrifying events in American history. As he did in his best-selling Chasing Lincoln's Killer, he deploys his signature "you are there" style to tell the story of the JFK assassination as it has never been told before.

©2013 James L. Swanson (P)2013 Scholastic, Inc.

Narrator: Will Patton
Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Second Best Thing

Second Best Thing

Summary

President John F. Kennedy. Marilyn Monroe. A probing nonfiction short story that reconstructs an enchanting night in history by the New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. On the night of May 19, 1962, the marquee of the old Madison Square Garden boasted: “BEST THING TODAY...JOHN F. KENNEDY / 2ND BEST THING...MARILYN MONROE.” Few things illustrate the magnetism of the Kennedy era like Marilyn Monroe co-headlining the President's massive birthday fundraiser, and suggestively crooning "Happy Birthday." But only a privileged few know what happened months earlier, when the two icons spent a weekend at a private summit hosted by Bing Crosby, and later, after the New York extravaganza, at the top secret, invitation-only midnight affair at a millionaire's Manhattan town house. For more than half a century, this exclusive, no-press-allowed after-party has been shrouded in rumor and myth. Lot 6191 in the 2010 auction of White House photographer Cecil Stoughton's archive - "Marilyn Monroe at JFK Party" - included twenty-three prints. Their negatives, marked in Stoughton's hand with "Sensitive material, Do not file," were seized by the National Archives. Among the collection: the sole existing photograph of Marilyn and the president. Spellbound by the intimacy of the image and the force of public imagination, bestselling historian James Swanson masterfully reconstructs the fabled soiree, bringing alive a night that history nearly left behind.

©2020 James L. Swanson (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Narrator: Arthur Morey
Length: 1 hr and 12 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Chasing Lincoln's Killer

Chasing Lincoln's Killer

Summary

This fast-paced thriller tells the story of the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth and gives a day-by-day account of the wild chase to find this killer and his accomplices. Based on James L. Swanson's best-selling adult book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, this version, written especially for young people, is a fascinating look at the assassination of the 16th president of the United States. But there's more to the story. Here, listeners will meet Abraham Lincoln the man, the father, the husband, the friend. And they will get a firsthand sense of t how Lincoln's death impacted those closest to him.

©2009 James L. Swanson (P)2009 Scholastic Inc.

Narrator: Will Patton
Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for End of Days

End of Days

Summary

Here, for the first time in decades, is a gripping, minute-by-minute account of the day President John F. Kennedy was shot. In End of Days, James Swanson reveals Lee Harvey Oswald's bizarre history of violence and follows John and Jacqueline Kennedy on their fateful Dallas motorcade ride. Swanson takes us to the sixth-floor Texas Book Depository window to look through Oswald's rifle sights, re-creates the last hours of the doomed assassin, and the day of national mourning for the president that followed, culminating in a funeral that united the country. Combining extensive research with his unparalleled storytelling abilities, Swanson turns the events of one of the darkest days of the twentieth century into a pulse-pounding thriller that will remain the definitive account of the assassination for years to come.

©2013 James L. Swanson (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

Narrator: Richard Thomas
Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
Available on Audible