Jim Yoakum has 5 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 5 narrators. The most-rated is Down and Dirty in Detroit.
The Bloviator
Summary
1923: Faced with impending personal and political scandals (corrupt cabinet members, drinking, gambling, failing health made worse by a quack physician, blackmailers attempting to exploit his numerous affairs and bastard children, murders, and suicides), President Warren G. Harding embarks on a cross-country train trip, from Washington D.C. to Alaska, in an effort to rehabilitate his chances for re-election - something he is unsure he even wants. But the GOP have lost faith in Warren. However, they have taken a liking to the idea of running the first-ever female president: Florence, his smart, and ambitious wife. After all, it had been Florence who had spearheaded the innovations that not only got Warren elected in 1920, but which are still used today: the creation of solicitation-telephone calls, celebrity endorsements, photo-ops, news reels, radio ads, direct marketing...and it was Florence who is both the brains of the outfit, and the star of this show. Harding is simply the handsome, good-natured, overly-trusting, face. Based on the true, last (and unbelievably bizarre) six months in the life of America's 29th President, The Bloviator tells the story of sex, drugs, scandals, blackmail, murder, suicides - and the presidency. The Bloviator is a "fiction fueled by fact" in that while some elements are constructions, they are well with-in the plausible, and probable, range of the facts. The Bloviator is an epic; a massive and sprawling work; history as absurdity, as if it were being filtered through a cracked prism - but the prism is not cracked. Most of the story told here is unbelievably, incredibly, based on true events.
©2012 Jim Yoakum (P)2019 Jim Yoakum
The Greatest Living Englishman
Summary
Set in 1919, The Greatest Living Englishman tells the comedic adventures of "England's Worst Poet" Colin Gilfeather Millaney: an egotistical - though loveable - rhymer who is wholly untouched with even the faintest speck of talent. He is so awful that people throw rotten produce at him on the streets. They buy his books, just to throw at him. But that does not stop him from penning his doggerel, or inflicting it upon what he claims is the "misguided" public. When a letter arrives inviting him to come to New York and tour, reading his "runaway bestselling" book of poetry, he is off like a shot. But, his unlikely rise to fame is due to a clerical error at the US publishing house - it is the work of the budding young poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, they have published, not Millaney. But it is too late to repair the mistake, as Colin is on his way. Troubles, and hilarity, soon follow. The Greatest Living Englishman satirizes the commodification of the arts, while roasting people who are more than eager for the banquet.
©2012 Jim Yoakum (P)2017 Jim Yoakum
The Bettor's Club
Summary
A playboy gets mixed-up with a depraved gambling club. He soon finds himself in over his head with debt. In order to save himself, he's talked into committing a heinous murder that goes askew.
©2013 Jim Yoakum (P)2017 Jim Yoakum
The Banana Massacre
Summary
Wilt Fusarium, a clueless American ad executive, unwittingly finds himself in the middle of political intrigue and revolution on the tiny island of Costa San Rica, while trying to save the ad agency's Choad Banana account. Complications and misunderstandings abound, as the island's despot leader thinks Wilt is a revolutionary, the revolutionaries think he's a government agent, the banana company thinks he's CIA, and the CIA, well, they don't know what to think. As the dead bodies begin to pile up around him, and with his ad agency breathing down his neck, Wilt is forced to take extreme action to save his life, his job, and the Choad Banana account.
© 2012 Jim Yoakum (P)2016 Jim Yoakum
Down and Dirty in Detroit
Summary
A federal agent goes rogue in 1970s-era Detroit and becomes its number one heroin distributor. But also among his crimes are extortion, illegal gun sales and explosives to gangs and the Detroit Mafia, fraud, blackmail, attempt to rob an armored car, threat to bomb the airport, and more. He was a dirty fed who operated under the noses of both his agency and the police for years, but a simple mistake brought his attention to his superiors, and it took two cunning and relentless internal affairs agents to hunt him down and bring him and his gang to justice. A gripping true story of a very bad man who got down and dirty in Detroit.
©2020 Jim Yoakum (P)2020 Jim Yoakum