Nicholas Nicastro has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 3.5★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is The Isle of Stone.
The Isle of Stone
Summary
It is a tale of two cities - the legendary duel between haughty, democratic Athens and brutal, unbeaten Sparta. After seven years of bloody conflict, a barren island in a remote corner of Greece becomes the stage for what promises to become a second Thermopylae. Four hundred Spartan soldiers are cut off by enemy ships on a narrow strip of land, starving, without supplies, yet sworn to uphold their indomitable heritage. Meanwhile, all around them, the powerful Athenian Navy masses for the inevitable assault.
As the war of nerves wears on, Spartan nobles and Athenian demagogues maneuver in the background - and two estranged Spartan brothers serve together for the first time. The eldest, Antalcidas, is a legendary warrior hobbled by a damaging secret. His brother Epitadas is envied, popular, and cruel. Together they must overcome a lifetime of hostility to survive the battle of their lives.
"With The Isle of Stone, Nicholas Nicastro joins the illustrious pedigree of Mary Renault, Valerio Massimo Manfredi and Steven Pressfield with great style and enormous panache. His hero's checkered life story is used to frame a dark and darkening history of Sparta between a hugely destructive natural disaster, a great earthquake in 464 BC, and a self-inflicted, man-made debacle during the prolonged and even more destructive Peloponnesian War. Nicastro knows his ancient sources intimately, but also has the born novelist's instinct to flesh out their bare bones all too plausibly. Nicastro's antiheroes of the isle of Sphacteria are the dark side of Pressfield's heroes in Gates of Fire. Both demand and repay the attention of all lovers of expert historical fiction." (Paul Cartledge, Professor of Greek History, University of Cambridge, and author of Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past)
©2005 Nicholas Nicastro (P)2018 Nicholas Nicastro
Ella Maud
Summary
A beautiful girl of 19 disappears from her home after bidding a fateful goodnight to her sweetheart. She is found dead in the Pasquotank River, 36 days later. He is convicted twice for her murder - but is innocent. So what really happened? Ella Maud Cropsey, known to her friends and family as Nell, was born in July 1882 in Brooklyn, New York. She is the second of nine children, and especially close to her older sister Olive, nicknamed Ollie. In 1898, the family moves from New York to Elizabeth City in North Carolina. They live in a large, rambling house called Seven Pines, and her father grows potatoes. Nell starts seeing Jim Wilcox, son of the local sheriff. They are an odd couple: Nell is beautiful, independent, and eager for new experiences; Jim is short, stolid, and five years older than Nell, but content with his lot. Nell is restless, ambitious, and willful, outgrowing parochial confines. On the night of November 20, 1901, Jim and other guests are there, calling on Nell and Ollie. Around 11 p.m., Jim rises and bids the group good-bye. Then asks Nell to accompany him to the porch. She is never seen alive again. In Ella Maud, Nicholas Nicastro revisits a haunting mystery that still fascinates a nation a century later. His masterly re-imagining of these tragic events sees beyond the prejudices that destroys families and taints small communities but corrodes civilization itself. Nicastro’s simple storytelling style with its kaleidoscopic perspectives is moving, beautiful, and profound. "This is a splendid novel, meticulously researched and beautifully written....The ending is a tour-de-force." (Joy Martin, author of A Wrong to Sweeten and Seeking Clemency) "There is a great sense of time and place, fascinating historical details of dress, manners, and American family life... An excellent read." (A. V. Denham, author of The Czar's Man)
©2018 Nicholas Nicastro (P)2018 Nicholas Nicastro
Hell's Half-Acre
Summary
Welcome to the bloody end of bleeding Kansas.... Based on true events, this unforgettable novel tells the story of the Bloody Benders, a family of grifters and thieves running an isolated feed store on the Kansas plains, boarding travelers along the Great Osage Trail. Beautiful Kate Bender was mysterious and well-versed in the dark arts; Ma and Pa were quiet and foreboding, speaking in guttural tones; and young John Bender was thought to be insane. On land soaked with the blood of conflict, the Benders made their home. And one by one, prairie travelers began to disappear.... Rooted in history, this is a vivid tale of the Benders's origins and how they became some of the most horrific figures in early post-Civil War America.
©2015 Nicholas Nicastro (P)2017 Nicholas Nicastro
The Passion of the Ripper
Summary
In the chilly summer of 1888, the city of London is introduced to an innovation in evil. A brutal series of murders of London’s most vulnerable women casts the city into a frenzy of fear and suspicion, pushing it to a state of panic not seen in centuries. Jack the Ripper has arrived. When Scotland Yard begins to find traces of Jack’s handiwork in a string of seemingly unrelated killings, will the world’s most notorious serial killer be caught at last? This is a different kind of Ripper story. Not just a whodunit, but an unflinching exploration of the killer, his city, and his times. It tells this well-known mystery from the inside out, from the points of view of the police, his final victim, and the man who - years later - became the prime suspect. For, Jack’s career didn’t end with the horrific murder of Mary Jane Kelly. With something wicked lurking around every corner, The Passion of the Ripper is a devilishly dark thriller, perfect for Ripperologists and mystery fans, alike. Praise for The Passion of the Ripper: "More than a grisly murder thriller. The story Nicastro tells is a poignant romance...turning bloody legend into heart-aching tragedy. Nicastro has written an engaging page-turner that lays bare the minds of Victorian London." (Tompkins Weekly) "A strong new entry in the world of Ripper fiction." (Ripperologist) Nicholas Nicastro was born in Astoria, New York, in 1963. He has a BA in English from Cornell, an MFA in film-making from New York University, an MA in archaeology, and a PhD in psychology from Cornell. His writings include short fiction and travel and science articles. Among his published novels are The Isle of Stone: A Novel of Ancient Sparta, Ella Maud, and Empire of Ashes.
©2010 Nicholas Nicastro (P)2020 Nicholas Nicastro