William F. Buckley Jr. has 13 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 9 narrators, with an average listener rating of 3.5★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is Nuremberg.
Nuremberg
Summary
Nuremberg's Palace of Justice, 1945, was the scene of a trial without precedent in history, a trial that continues to haunt the modern world. Leading the listener into the palace is Sebastian, a young German-American whose fate is entwined with the lives and deaths of some towering figures of 20th-century history, including Hermann Goering and Adolf Hitler. In a gripping account of war makers who must face the consequences of their actions, Nuremberg: The Reckoning flows through Warsaw, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, and finally Nuremberg, as Sebastian comes to terms with his family legacy and his national identity.
©2002 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks
Saving the Queen
Summary
President Truman is nearing the end of his term in office, and Great Britain has a new queen. It is 1952; the Cold War is beginning to heat up, and vital Western military secrets are falling into Soviet hands. The CIA is faced with a delicate dilemma, for the source of the leaks to the KGB has been traced directly to the Queen's chambers. The situation must be resolved, but the young Queen's self-confidence and public credibility must not be damaged. Thus young Blackford Oakes, handsome, debonaire, and audacious, a recent Yale graduate and ex-combat fighter pilot, is selected to penetrate the royal circle, win the Queen's confidence, and plug the leak. The action leads to an explosive showdown in the skies over London, one that could determine the future of the West.
©1976 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks
Tucker's Last Stand
Summary
William F. Buckley's best-selling Blackford Oakes novels have set a new standard for stylish espionage entertainment. Now Buckley sends Oakes on his most thrilling adventure yet. The year is 1964. Faced with a hard-hitting presidential campaign and a deteriorating situation in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson dispatches Oakes and a swashbuckling soldier of fortune named Tucker on secret missions to Southeast Asia. Tucker is to figure out how to interdict military traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Oakes is to supervise a secret operation in the Gulf of Tonkin, an operation that will give Johnson the excuse he needs for a greater U.S. military role in Vietnam. Filled with the intrigue, wit, and historical detail that have distinguished the previous novels of the series, Tucker's Last Stand is William F. Buckley, Jr. at his inimitable best.
©1990 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)1991 Blackstone Audiobooks
Who's on First
Summary
It's 1956, and the cold war is hot. Hungary has just fallen, and Blackford Oakes is back from Budapest, puzzling over a betrayal and mourning a tragedy he couldn't prevent. But in Washington, all attention is focused on the race to put the first satellite in space. Ironically, Russia and America each have the secrets the other needs to succeed. The solution: kidnap a pair of extraordinary Russian scientists who can put the U.S. in the lead. Blackford Oakes is in charge, unaware that KGB spymaster Bolgin and a trio of vengeful Hungarian freedom fighters are hot on his trail. Oakes' life and America's future are on the line in this fast-paced thriller that offers Buckley at his best.
©1980 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Last Call for Blackford Oakes
Summary
Over 20 years ago, William F. Buckley, Jr. launched the dashing character of Blackford Oakes like a missile over the literary landscape. This newly minted CIA agent - brainy, bold, and complex - began his career by saving the queen of England and quickly took his place in the pantheon of master spies drawn up by Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, and John le Carré. Against the backdrop of Cold War intrigue, in this, his 11th outing, Oakes crosses swords with Kim Philby, perhaps the highest ranking in the parade of defectors to the Soviet Union. Oakes is now himself a master spy, this time working outside the ambit of the director and around agency rules. His romance with an able and worldly Soviet doctor is consolation for the death of his beloved Sally. But after his return to Washington, he receives dismaying news. It is inevitable that the great Soviet spy and the renowned American agent will meet again - this time with deadly consequences.
©2005 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
How Is It Possible to Believe in God?
Summary
This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.
©2006 This I Believe Inc. (P)2006 This I Believe Inc., Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC
Stained Glass
Summary
A matter of some delicacy: finding the perfect blue to restore the windows of a 13th-century German chapel at the Palace of St. Anselm. Blackford Oakes, fresh from his daring exploits at Windsor Castle, is in charge. But Alex Wintergrin, owner of the chapel, is far more than a charming aristocrat and congenial companion. A charismatic hero, he is rising to power, rousing his countrymen to reunite Germany. As the Cold War turns hot, Oakes is thrown into the arms of a beautiful KGB agent and onto the horns of a dilemma. He must either pull the fatal switch on a friend, or find a way to change the rules.
©1978 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
See You Later, Alligator
Summary
The year is 1961, the setting Havana. CIA super-secret agent Blackford Oakes has been sent there on a mission, only to find himself in the eye of an international political hurricane. President Kennedy has selected Oakes to meet with Che Guevara inside Castro's Cuba as part of his Operation Alligator, a daring plan to bring about an era of détente in East-West relations. The communists, however, have another agenda in mind: a double-cross with terrifying consequences. Soon, Oakes is trapped in Cuba, and the heat is on. Warming the climate greatly is the sultry beauty Catalina. The weather forecast: betrayal, power politics, and sudden death.
©1985 William F. Buckley Jr. (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Story of Henri Tod
Summary
It is 1961 in Berlin, and the Cold War is at its most chilling. Suave CIA agent Blackford Oakes has come to investigate. Brilliant, charismatic, and with a tragic past, Henri Tod is head of Bruderschaft, the underground anti-Communist organization. Oakes will need his help in cracking the dark plots the Eastern bloc powers are hatching. And the KGB have found the one chink in Tod's armor.
©1976 William F. Buckley, Jr., Published by arrangement with Wallace Literary Agency, Inc. (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks
Marco Polo, If You Can
Summary
When a shadowy Russian mole threatens to undermine the free world's defenses by infiltrating President Eisenhower's National Security Counsel, CIA super-secret agent Blackford Oakes is called in to unmask the imposter. Oakes turns the tables on the Communists by piloting a U-2 spy plane on a Gary Powers-style one-way mission behind the Iron Curtain. Sentenced to death and trapped in the depths of the Lubyanka prison, Oakes may have turned his last trick. Or has he? Master of espionage fiction and National Book Award-winner, William F. Buckley Jr. brings us another in his series of best-selling novels starring the intrepid C.I.A. agent Blackford Oakes. Set in the Cold War years of the 1950s and '60s, this politically sophisticated series takes readers behind the scenes of the major political crises of the time.
©1982 William F. Buckley Jr. (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
A Very Private Plot
Summary
The year is 1995, and an energetic senator wants to disarm, perhaps even eliminate, the CIA. To accumulate the evidence necessary to persuade the Senate, he needs the cooperation of Blackford Oakes, now retired. He wants from Oakes an account of his covert activity 10 years earlier, when Oakes served as chief of covert activities for the CIA. But, what will the frustrated senator do to compel cooperation from Blackford Oakes? A Very Private Plot takes the listener inside the Kremlin and the Reagan White House, exhibiting a detailed knowledge and savoir-faire characteristic of the author. The forces unleashed in 1985 threaten any resolution between the United States and the Soviet Union and threaten the lives of a very small unit of young Russians who remain in the memory as the tale reaches a climax.
©1994 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)1995 Blackstone Audiobooks
The Reagan I Knew
Summary
In The Reagan I Knew, the late William F. Buckley Jr. offers a reminiscence of 30 years of friendship with the man who brought the American conservative movement out of the political wilderness and into the White House. Reagan and Buckley were political allies and close friends throughout Reagan's political career. They went on vacations together and shared inside jokes. For all the words that have been written about him, Ronald Reagan remains an enigma. His former speechwriter Peggy Noonan called him "paradox all the way down," and even his son despaired of ever truly knowing him. But Reagan was not an enigma to William F. Buckley Jr. They understood and taught each other for decades, and together they changed history.
©2008 The Estate of William F. Buckley Jr. (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Mongoose, R.I.P.
Summary
Blackford Oakes launches a wild attempt to kill Castro on behalf of the CIA. Ever since the botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro has run amok. He has executed thousands of his enemies, driven his countrymen to emigrate, and done everything possible to run Cuba into the ground - all in a deliberate attempt to humiliate the White House. At least, that's how the situation looks from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where hatred of Castro has grown into an obsession. Under orders from John and Bobby Kennedy, the CIA will do anything necessary to kill Castro - no matter how ridiculous. Even-tempered CIA agent Blackford Oakes is dismayed at the agency's wild schemes, which include everything from poisoned wet suits to Mafia hit men. But the evil of Castro's regime is not a joke, and Oakes won't be laughing when he tries to knock the dictator off his throne.
©2015 William F. Buckley (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.