David Colacci has narrated 235 audiobooks on Listento.it by 180 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 1,363 ratings. The most-rated is Road of the Patriarch.
Dark Tide Rising
Summary
When a ransom exchange turns violent in the latest mystery from New York Times best-selling author Anne Perry, Commander William Monk faces an unthinkable possibility: betrayal by his own men. Local businessman Harry Exeter doesn't want the aid of the Thames River Police in tracking down the men who kidnapped his wife, Kate. He only asks them to help him navigate Jacob's Island, a creepy mass of decrepit buildings where he will hand off a large sum of money in exchange for her life. But when they arrive at the meeting place, Commander Monk and five of his best men are attacked from all sides, and Monk is left wondering who could have given away their plans - and why anyone would want to harm Kate Exeter. As Monk follows leads from Kate's worried cousin and a crafty clerk at the bank where Exeter gathered the ransom money, it seems inevitable one of his own men has betrayed him. Delving into their pasts, he realizes how little he knows about the people he works with every day, including his trusted right-hand man, Hooper, the one colleague Monk has always been certain he can count on. Even as they identify one of the kidnappers, the case runs into hurdle after hurdle, causing Monk to choose between his own safety and the chance to solve the case - and figure out where his men's loyalty really lies.
©2018 Anne Perry (P)2018 Recorded Books
Dead Irish
Summary
In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss - but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and a round of darts. But when the news of Eddie Cochran's death reaches him, Hardy is propelled back into all the things he was trying to escape - and forced to untangle a web of old secrets and raw passions, for the sake of Eddie's pregnant widow, Frannie, and for the others whose lives may still be at risk.
©2007 John Lescroart (P)2007 Brilliance Audio
The Medusa Amulet
Summary
Benvenuto Cellini, master artisan of Renaissance Italy, once crafted a beautiful amulet prized for its unimaginable power - and untold menace. Now the quest to recover this legendary artifact depends upon one man: David Franco, a brilliant but skeptical young scholar at Chicago's world-renowned Newberry Library. What begins as a simple investigation spirals into a tale of dangerous intrigue as Franco races from the châteaux of France to the palazzos of Rome in a desperate search for the ultimate treasure and an answer to a riddle that has puzzled mankind since the beginning of time. Aided by a beautiful young Florentine harboring dark secrets, pursued by deadly assassins, and battling demons of his own, Franco must ultimately confront an evil greater than anything conjured in his worst nightmares.
©2011 Robert Masello (P)2016 Tantor
Friends in High Places
Summary
In Friends in High Places, Commissario Guido Brunetti is visited by a young bureaucrat investigating the lack of approval for the construction of Brunetti's apartment years before. What began as a red-tape headache ends in murder when the bureaucrat is later found dead after a mysterious fall from a scaffold. Brunetti starts an investigation that will take him into the unfamiliar and dangerous areas of drug abuse and loan-sharking, and will reveal, once again, what a difference it makes in Venice to have friends in high places.
©2000 Donna Leon and Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich (P)2012 AudioGO, Ltd.
White Lies
Summary
Relationships are challenging enough for most single, over-30 women. For level-10 parasensitive Clare Lancaster, they're a minefield. The elite few who know her secret call her a human lie detector, and any falsehood, no matter how subtle or well hidden, sets her blood racing.
Over the years, Clare has come to accept that someone with her extraordinary talents is unlikely to find a suitable mate. And she's even resigned herself to the fact that everyone, to one degree or another, hides behind a façade - including her recently deceased brother-in-law.
When Clare finds the body of Brad McAllister, the golden child of Stone Canyon, Arizona, the posh residents turn a suspicious eye in her direction. As Archer Glazebrook's daughter, Clare is shielded from the law, but not the gossip. It seems that meeting the half sister and family she did not know until seven months ago was a mistake. Now her father summons her from California to play a role in his business empire, and Clare doesn't intend on making the same mistake twice.
But after meeting Jake Salter, Archer's "business consultant", she is convinced that things aren't what they seem. Salter's careful conversation walks a delicate line between truth and deception, revealing and resisting. Something sparks and sizzles between them - something more than the usual electricity between a man and a woman.
Caught in a dizzying storm of secrets, lies, and half-truths, Jake and Clare will plunge into an investigation that demands every bit of their special gifts. Together, they must overcome their mutual distrust in order to unravel a web of conspiracy and murder.
©2007 Jayne Ann Krentz (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Consciousness Instinct
Summary
“The father of cognitive neuroscience” illuminates the past, present, and future of the mind-brain problem How do neurons turn into minds? How does physical “stuff” - atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells - create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness. The idea of the brain as a machine, first proposed centuries ago, has led to assumptions about the relationship between mind and brain that dog scientists and philosophers to this day. Gazzaniga asserts that this model has it backward - brains make machines, but they cannot be reduced to one. New research suggests the brain is actually a confederation of independent modules working together. Understanding how consciousness could emanate from such an organization will help define the future of brain science and artificial intelligence, and close the gap between brain and mind. Captivating and accessible, with insights drawn from a lifetime at the forefront of the field, The Consciousness Instinct sets the course for the neuroscience of tomorrow.
©2018 Michael S. Gazzaniga (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Through a Glass, Darkly
Summary
On a spring day in Venice, Commissario Brunetti and his assistant, Vianello, play hooky to help Vianello's friend Marco Ripetti, arrested during an environmental protest. They secure his release, only to be faced with the fury of the man's father-in-law, Giovanni De Cal, who has made violent threats against Ripetti. Brunetti's curiousity is peaked, and he finds himself drawn to investigate. Is De Cal the type of man to carry out his threats? When the body of De Cal's bookish night watchman is found in front of a blazing furnace, he wonders: Could the old man have killed him?
©2006 Donna Leon and Diogenes Verlag AG Zurich (P)2006 BBC Audiobooks America
The 13th Juror
Summary
In The 13th Juror, Dismas Hardy, lawyer/investigator, undertakes the defense of Jennifer Witt, accused of murdering her husband and their eight-year-old son as well as her first husband, who had died nine years earlier from an apparent drug overdose. While preparing his case, Hardy learns that both of Jennifer's husbands had physically abused her. But Jennifer refuses to allow a defense that presumes her guilt. She is not guilty, she claims. Hardy is now driven to seek an alternative truth a jury can believe. As the trial progresses, the complex truth itself begins to change, to bend, to fade in and out of focus as the clock keeps ticking on Jennifer's fate, until there seems only one person left to convince, and she is "the 13th juror" - the judge.
©2008 John Lescroart; 2008 Brilliance Audio
The Law of Peoples
Summary
This book consists of two parts: the essay "The Idea of Public Reason Revisited" and "The Law of Peoples", a major reworking of a much shorter article by the same name. Taken together, they are the culmination of more than 50 years of reflection on liberalism and on some of the most pressing problems of our times. "The Idea of Public Reason Revisited" is John Rawls' most detailed account of how a modern constitutional democracy, based on a liberal political conception, could and would be viewed as legitimate by reasonable citizens who, on religious, philosophical, or moral grounds, do not themselves accept a liberal comprehensive doctrine. The Law of Peoples lays out the general principles that can and should be accepted by both liberal and non-liberal societies as the standard for regulating their behavior toward one another. The print book is published by Harvard University Press.
©2012 Redwood Audiobooks (P)2012 Redwood Audiobooks
Death of a Stranger
Summary
For the prostitutes of Leather Lane, nurse Hester Monk's clinic is a lifeline, providing medicine, food, and a modicum of peace - especially since lately their ailments have escalated from bruises and fevers to broken bones and knife wounds. At the moment, however, the mysterious death of railway magnate Nolan Baltimore in a sleazy neighborhood brothel overshadows all else. Whether he fell or was pushed, the shocking question in everyone's mind is: What was such a pillar of respectability doing in a seedy place of sin?
Meanwhile, brilliant private investigator William Monk acquires a new client, a mysterious beauty who asks him to ascertain beyond a shadow of a doubt whether or not her fiance, an executive in Nolan Baltimore's thriving railway firm, has become enmeshed in fraudulent practices that could ruin him.
As Hester ventures into violent streets to learn who is responsible for the brutal abuse of her patients, Monk embarks upon a journey into the English countryside, where the last rails are being laid for a new line. But the sight of the tracks stretching into the distance revives memories once stripped from his consciousness by amnesia - as a past almost impossible to bear returns, eerily paralleling a fresh tragedy that has already begun its inexorable unfolding.
©2004 Anne Perry (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
An Echo of Murder
Summary
A string of gruesome, ritualistic murders of Hungarian immigrants has the Thames River police commander stuck on solving the pattern in the latest installment of the New York Times best-selling William Monk series. When a Hungarian immigrant is dismembered near London's River Thames, Commander Monk is called to the eerie scene, where 16 candles surround the corpse. As identical murders pop up around the city, Monk confronts the unsettling options: could it be the work of a secret society? A serial madman? Or is a xenophobic Brit targeting foreigners? A local doctor who speaks Hungarian from his days on the battlefield may be able to help, but his own struggles with post-traumatic stress have left his memory in shambles: could he have committed the crimes without remembering? Fighting both local prejudice and the weight of the past, Monk and his wife Hester - herself a battlefield nurse familiar with horror - are in a race to find the killer and stop the echo of these repeated murders for good.
©2017 Anne Perry (P)2017 Recorded Books
Imbibe! Updated and Revised Edition
Summary
Cocktail writer and historian David Wondrich presents the colorful, little-known history of classic American drinks - and the ultimate mixologist's guide - in this engaging homage to Jerry Thomas, father of the American bar. The first edition, published in 2007, won a James Beard Award. Now updated with newly discovered recipes and historical information, this updated edition includes the origins of the first American drink, the mint julep (which Wondrich places before the American Revolution) and those of the cocktail itself. It also provides more detail about 19th-century spirits, many new and colorful anecdotes and details about Thomas' life, and a number of particularly notable, delicious, and influential cocktails not covered in the original edition, rounding out the picture of pre-Prohibition tippling. This colorful and good-humored volume is a must-listen for anyone who appreciates the timeless appeal of a well-made drink - and the uniquely American history behind it. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2015 David Wondrich (P)2017 Tantor
The Waters of Eternal Youth
Summary
In Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series, the Venetian inspector has been called on to investigate many things, from shocking to petty crimes. But in The Waters of Eternal Youth, the 25th novel in this celebrated series, Brunetti finds himself drawn into a case that may not be a case at all. Fifteen years ago a teenage girl fell into a canal late at night. Unable to swim, she went under and started to drown, surviving only thanks to a nearby man, an alcoholic, who heard her splashes and pulled her out, though not before she suffered irreparable brain damage that left her in a state of permanent childhood, unable to learn or mature. The drunk man claimed he saw her thrown into the canal by another man, but the following day he couldn't remember a thing. Now, at a fundraising dinner for a Venetian charity, a wealthy and aristocratic patroness - the girl's grandmother - asks Brunetti if he will investigate. Brunetti's not sure what to do. If a crime was committed, it would surely have passed the statute of limitations. But out of a mixture of curiosity, pity, and a willingness to fulfill the wishes of a guilt-wracked older woman who happens to be his mother-in-law's best friend, he agrees. Brunetti soon finds himself unable to let the case rest, if indeed there is a case. Awash in the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation to housing to new waves of African migrants, and the haunting story of a woman trapped in a damaged perpetual childhood, The Waters of Eternal Youth is another wonderful addition to this series.
©2016 Donna Leon and Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich (P)2016 Recorded Books
Wild Things
Summary
Playing off the themes in the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book Where the Wild Things Are, this informative, practical, and encouraging guide will help parents guide boys down the path to healthy and authentic manhood. Wild Things addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual parts of a boy, written by two therapists who are currently engaged in clinical work with boys and their parents and who are also fathers raising five sons. This book contains chapters such as "Sit Still! Pay Attention!", "Deficits and Disappointments", and "Rituals, Ceremonies, and Rites of Passage".
©2009 Stephen James and David Thomas (P)2016 Tantor
A Noble Radiance
Summary
A macabre grave is found at the foot of the Italian Dolomites. The body is found to be Roberto Lorenzoni's, only son and heir of one Venice's oldest, most aristocratic families. Commissario Guido Brunetti must move in the highest circles of power and corruption to unravel the mystery behind the young man's disappearance and murder.
©1998 Donna Leon and Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich (P)2018 Recorded Books
Dark Assassin
Summary
On a patrol boat near Waterloo Bridge, police superintendent William Monk notices a young couple engaged in an intense discussion. Seconds later, the two plunge to their deaths in the icy waters of the Thames. Was it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? Ever the investigator, Monk learns that the woman, Mary Havilland, had planned to marry the fair-haired man who shared her fate. He also discovers that Mary's father had recently died in a supposed suicide. But Mary's friends share their own darks suspicions with Monk, who now faces the mysteries surrounding three deaths. Aided by his intrepid wife, Hester, Monk searches for answers. From luxurious drawing rooms where powerful men hatch their unscrupulous plots, to the sewers beneath the city where poor folk fight crippling poverty, Monk must connect the clues before death strikes again.
©2006 Anne Perry (P)2014 Recorded Books
The Shifting Tide
Summary
William Monk knows London's streets like the back of his hand; after all, they are where he earns his living. But the river Thames and its teeming docks - where towering schooners and clipper ships unload their fabulous cargoes and wharf rats and night plunderers ply their trades - is unknown territory. Only dire need persuades him to accept an assignment from shipping magnate Clement Louvain to investigate the theft of a cargo of African ivory from Louvain's recently docked schooner, the Maude Idris. Monk is desperate for work, not only to feed himself and his wife, Hester, but to keep open the doors of her clinic, a last resort for sick and starving street women. But he wonders: Why didn't Louvain report the ivory theft directly to the River Police? Why did he warn Monk not to investigate the murder of one of the Maude Idris crew? Even more mysterious, why has Louvain brought to Hester's clinic a desperately ill woman who, he claims, is the discarded mistress of an old friend? Neither Hester nor Monk anticipates the nightmare answers to these questions...nor the trap that soon so fatefully ensnares them.
©2004 Anne Perry (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Mount Dragon
Summary
Guy Carson is a brilliant scientist at GeneDyne, one of the world's foremost biochemical companies. When he is transferred to Mount Dragon, GeneDyne's high-security genetic engineering lab, his good fortune seems too good to be true.Carson soon finds that it is. He learns that GeneDyne geneticists are tinkering with a common virus with an eye on the enormous profit to be had from a cure for the flu. Their cure involves permanently altering DNA in humans, and Carson's job is to stabilize the virus. But Carson starts to wonder if this is justifiable, even for the most noble medical cause. Altering genes is a risky job, and the possibility of creating another killer virus is very real. What's more, Mount Dragon harbors another secret that puts the world at horrifying risk.
©2008 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (P)2008 B00FO6WK0S
The Saboteurs
Summary
If coincidence had thrown these men together in any normal military organization, and if, improbably, they had become buddies there, any commanding officer with enough sense would have broken up the gang as threats to "good military order and discipline." But they weren't in any normal military organization. They were in the Office of Strategic Services. The Battle of the Atlantic is at its peak. Packs of German U-boats are hunting and sinking U.S. supply ships. Ships are burning at their moorings in U.S. ports, and a series of explosions has afflicted trains and train stations around the country - is it all accidental or is it sabotage? Meanwhile, Allied forces are secretly preparing to invade first Sicily and then Italy, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done beforehand, some with the most unlikely of helping hands. As the war heats up, "Wild Bill" Donovan's agents - Dick Canidy, Eric Fulmar, Stan Fine, and the rest of the crew, answerable only to Donovan and the president - suddenly find themselves battling on two fronts at once...and fate is just about to deal them a few surprises.
©2006 William E. Butterworth IV (P)2006 Brilliance Audio
Paradise Lost
Summary
Pigeonholed in popular memory as a Jazz Age epicurean, a playboy, and an emblem of the Lost Generation, F. Scott Fitzgerald was at heart a moralist struck by the nation's shifting mood and manners after World War I. In Paradise Lost, David Brown contends that Fitzgerald's deepest allegiances were to a fading antebellum world he associated with his father's Chesapeake Bay roots. Yet as a midwesterner, an Irish Catholic, and a perpetually in-debt author, he felt like an outsider in the haute bourgeoisie haunts of Lake Forest, Princeton, and Hollywood - places that left an indelible mark on his worldview. In this comprehensive biography, Brown reexamines Fitzgerald's childhood, first loves, and difficult marriage to Zelda Sayre. He looks at Fitzgerald's friendship with Hemingway, the golden years that culminated with Gatsby, and his increasing alcohol abuse and declining fortunes which coincided with Zelda's institutionalization and the nation's economic collapse. In doing so, he reveals Fitzgerald as a writer with an encompassing historical imagination not suggested by his reputation as "the chronicler of the Jazz Age." Fitzgerald wrote powerfully about change in America, Brown shows, because he saw it as the dominant theme in his own family history and life.
©2017 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2017 Tantor