Johnny Heller has narrated 269 audiobooks on Listento.it by 196 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 1,406 ratings. The most-rated is The Good Girl.
When Corruption Was King
Summary
Bob Cooley was the Chicago Mafia's "mechanic" - a fixer of court cases. During the 1970s and '80s, Cooley bribed judges, court clerks, and cops to keep his Mob clients - hit men, bookies, racketeers, and crooked pols - out of jail. Paid handsomely for his services, he lived fast and enjoyed the protection of the men he served. He had enough money to blow on all the vices the Windy City could offer, and enough standing among mobsters to know he would never be caught. Yet, through the '90s, Cooley became the star witness in a series of trials that took down the Chicago outfit, arguably the most powerful Mafia family in the history of organized crime. This is the story of a Mob lawyer turned mole with a million-dollar contract on his head, a man who has clanged back and forth between sin and sainthood like a church bell clapper - a turbulent youth, a stint on Chicago's police force, law school, and then the inner sanctum of Chicago's leading mobsters and corrupt political officials. With wild abandon he chased crooked acquittals for the likes of Pat Marcy, an Al Capone protégé, who had become the Mob's key political operative; ruthless Mafia capo and gambling czar Marco D'Amico; and notorious hit man Harry Aleman. He dined with Mob bosses and shared "last suppers" with friends before their gangland executions. Cooley watched as Marcy and the Mob controlled the courts, the cops, and the politicians. Then, in a startling act of conscience, he walked into the office of the US Organized Crime Strike Force and, without a pending conviction or a hit man on his tail, agreed to wear a wire on the same Mafia overlords who had made him a player. Cooley's tapes and testimony would be at the center of nine landmark trials that together exposed and then broke the Mob's unprecedented stranglehold on Chicago's government and court system.
©2004 Robert Cooley and Hillel Levin (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Thomas Prescott Series Premium
Summary
This premium edition is a collection of the four Thomas Prescott books into a single volume. Unforeseen (Book 1) Retired homicide detective Thomas Prescott is reluctant to read the best-selling book Eight in October, a true-crime thriller based on a string of murders that he solved. The killer, Tristen Grayer, is allegedly dead, but only Prescott knows that Grayer is alive and lurking in the shadows. On the anniversary of the first murder, Grayer resurfaces, killing a women close to Prescott. With the help of the medical examiner and the book's author, Prescott must try stop Tristen from completing his encore. Gray Matter (Book 2) His love life in shambles, Thomas Prescott returns to Seattle. Just settling in, he sights the corpse of a woman floating in a cove. It's not just any woman - it is the governor of Washington. As Prescott is thrown into the middle of the biggest murder investigation in Washington state history, he is forced to confront the demons from his past while he unearths a new enemy. The Afrikaans (Book 3) Prescott is on a luxury cruise liner when the ship is taken over by African pirates who are demanding US medical relief for a village in South Africa. Prescott must protect the 400 hostages while racing against the clock to discover the truth behind the suspicious ransom request. Show Me (Book 4) Retired detective Thomas Prescott has inherited a farm in Missouri and is getting used to small-town living when he hears about a horrific crime in the town's past: a murder-suicide committed by a grocery-store employee who was fired. The crime is considered solved, but Prescott has his doubts.
©2018 Nick Pirog (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Foxbat Tales
Summary
From the Middle East to the Iron Curtain…the definitive combat history of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25. July 1967: At the Moscow Air Show, the Soviets unveiled six new state-of-the-art aircraft. From among this lineup of new fighters and interceptors stood the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 - purportedly capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering any aircraft in NATO’s inventory. Yet even before its public appearance in Moscow, the MiG-25 had been a grave concern for Western analysts. Indeed, this new interceptor could fly at speeds in excess of Mach 3 and cruise at altitudes heretofore deemed unreachable for a tactical fighter. Moreover, NATO’s intelligence community was baffled by how the Soviet Union had cobbled together such a “masterpiece” of modern engineering. The reality, however, was that this “interceptor” was a poorly designed airframe with an oversized motor. Although it excelled as a reconnaissance aircraft, it fared poorly as a dogfighter - and it was typically the loser when pitted against Western aircraft like the F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle. From the Sinai Peninsula...to the Soviet-Afghan War...to Operation Desert Storm, Foxbat Tales is the definitive operational and combat history of the MiG-25.
©2020 Mike Guardia (P)2021 Spoken Realms
There Was an Old Astronaut Who Swallowed the Moon!
Summary
Scholastic's best-selling Old Lady returns in this adventure series with a nonfiction twist that will make you laugh and learn! In this spin-off, the Old Lady turns into an Old Astronaut who travels through space, swallowing a moon...along with a star, a planet, a comet, a meteor, a rocket, and a satellite.... Why? Well, it went down just right, that bright satellite! Two new characters lead the listener through this hilarious adventure while exchanging some awesome facts about outer space for a light take on nonfiction that's perfect for this age. With expanded back matter about the solar system, this Old Astronaut definitely shoots for the stars!
©2020 Lucille Colandro (P)2020 Scholastic Inc.
The Polar Bear Expedition
Summary
An extraordinary lost chapter in the history of World War I: the story of America’s year-long invasion of Russia, in which a contingency of brave soldiers fought the Red Army and brutal conditions during the fall and winter of 1918-1919. In August 1918, the 339th regiment of the US Army - roughly 5,000 soldiers, most hailing from Michigan - sailed for Europe to fight in World War I. But instead of the Western Front, these troops were headed to Archangel, Russia, a vital port city 1,000 miles northeast of Moscow. There, in the frozen subarctic, amid the chaos of the Russian Civil War, one of the most extraordinary episodes of American history unfolded. The American North Russia Expeditionary Force - self-dubbed “The Polar Bear Expedition” - was sent to fight the Red Army and aid anti-Bolshevik forces in hopes of reopening the Eastern Front against Germany. On the 100th anniversary of the campaign, award-winning historian James Carl Nelson recreates this harrowing, dramatic military operation in which Americans and Bolsheviks fought a series of pitched battles throughout a punishing fall and winter. As the Great War officially ended in November 1918, American troops continued to battle the Red Army and an equally formidable enemy, “General Winter”. Subzero temperatures made machine guns and light artillery inoperable. In the blinding ice and snow, sentries suffered from frostbite while guarding against nearly invisible Bolos camouflaged by their white uniforms. Before the Polar Bears’ withdrawal in July 1919, more than 200 perished from battle, accidents, and the Spanish flu. But the Polar Bears’ story does not end there. Ten years later, a contingent of veterans returned to Russia to recover the remains of more than 100 of their fallen comrades and lay them to rest in Michigan, where a monument honoring their service still stands: a massive marble polar bear guarding a cross that marks the grave of a fallen soldier. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 James Carl Nelson (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
Bloodcircle
Summary
A vampire has a number of handy skills - he can walk through walls, shrug off bullets, and hypnotize mortals. But one thing this particular vampire cannot do is trace his mother - until now. His trail leads him to a 200-year-old gigolo with a taste for blood, who claims not to know where she is - but who would trust a vampire?
©1990 P. N. Elrod (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
A Common Struggle
Summary
In this New York Times best seller, Patrick J. Kennedy, the former congressman and youngest child of Senator Ted Kennedy, details his personal and political battle with mental illness and addiction, exploring mental health care's history in the country alongside his and every family's private struggles. On May 5, 2006, The New York Times ran two stories, “Patrick Kennedy Crashes Car into Capitol Barrier” and then, several hours later, “Patrick Kennedy Says He'll Seek Help for Addiction”. It was the first time that the popular Rhode Island congressman had publicly disclosed his addiction to prescription painkillers, the true extent of his struggle with bipolar disorder and his plan to immediately seek treatment. That could have been the end of his career, but instead it was the beginning. Since then, Kennedy has become the nation’s leading advocate for mental health and substance abuse care, research and policy both in and out of Congress. And ever since passing the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act - and after the death of his father, leaving Congress - he has been changing the dialogue that surrounds all brain diseases. A Common Struggle weaves together Kennedy's private and professional narratives, echoing Kennedy's philosophy that for him, the personal is political and the political personal. Focusing on the years from his "coming out" about suffering from bipolar disorder and addiction to the present day, the book examines Kennedy's journey toward recovery and reflects on Americans' propensity to treat mental illnesses as "family secrets". Beyond his own story, though, Kennedy creates a roadmap for equality in the mental health community and outlines a bold plan for the future of mental health policy. Written with award-winning healthcare journalist and best-selling author Stephen Fried, A Common Struggle is both a cry for empathy and a call to action.
©2015 Patrick J. Kennedy (P)2015 Penguin Audio
Knocked for a Loop
Summary
Being framed for murder is the least of a Chicago attorney’s problems in this dizzying thriller. Attorney John J. Malone, steadfast, barfly, and proud defender of the guilty, has a lot of enemies, but few more formidable than Chicago financier and anti-vice crusader Leonard Estapole. So it doesn’t look good when Estapole’s corpse turns up in Malone’s office, liberated from this life by a bronze Buddha to the skull. But when the stiff’s stepdaughter is kidnapped and Malone is implicated, it’s a frame job gone too far. Especially when Malone is suddenly saddled with the obnoxious abductee - a dimpled little extortionist who refuses to go home. If only Malone could count on his friends, Jake and Helene Justus. Unfortunately, Helene’s disappeared from a Wyoming dude ranch, and her friendship with Estapole’s trophy-wife widow is too coincidental for comfort. Now, with every blindsiding twist of the case, Malone is starting to feel more and more like a hostage himself. The first mystery writer to ever make the cover of Time magazine, Craig Rice is a “composite of Agatha Christie’s ingenuity, Dashiell Hammett’s speed, and Dorothy Sayers’s wit” (Louis Untermeyer). And in Knocked for a Loop, she’s in “top form” (Jon L. Breen, Edgar Award-winning author).
©1957 by Craig Rice (P)2020 by Blackstone Publishing
The Thursday Turkey Murders
Summary
This Thanksgiving, two birds of a feather are about to get plucked. Former con-artist photographers Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak are en route from the grit of New York City to the glitter of Sunset Boulevard when their dreams are waylaid in a tragic roadside accident with an errant turkey. But getting stuck in the off-the-map community of Thursday County, Iowa, has an upside: a blushing farmer’s daughter with a promising sob story. To help her ailing grandma, the Halvorsen family turkey farm is up for grabs. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Bingo and Handsome plan to make a bundle off the gobbling herd. But these two city slickers should’ve known that small towns hide big secrets - and Thursday’s secrets go back more than a decade. Before long, Bingo and Handsome get tangled up in a bank robbery, face off with an escaped convict, follow the trail of a buried fortune, are wrangled into a fowl conspiracy, and come to a dead end when they become suspects in a murder. As turkey day nears, it could very well be their heads on the chopping block.
©1943 Craig Rice (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing
Spring's Gentle Promise
Summary
Janette Oke is a pioneering author of inspirational fiction. Her novels are international best-sellers that entertain as they refresh the soul. Spring's Gentle Promise is the fourth and final book of the Seasons of the Heart series that follows Joshua Chadwick on his journey into adulthood. Josh is as happy as a clam now that Grandpa and Uncle Charlie have signed over the family farm to him. But soon the serious responsibility of managing the farm has him looking for help, and maybe even a family of his own.
©2000 Janette Oke
Third Grade Angels
Summary
George, aka "Suds", has just entered third grade, and he's heard the rhyme about "first grade babies/second grade cats/third grade angels/fourth grade rats," but what does this mean for his school year? It means that his teacher, Mrs. Simms, will hold a competition every month to see which student deserves to be awarded "the halo" which student is best behaved, kindest to others, and, in short, perfect. Suds is determined to be the first to earn the halo, but he's finding the challenge of always being good to be more stressful than he had anticipated. Does he have to be good even outside of school? (Does he have to be nice to his annoying little sister?) And if Mrs. Simms doesn't actually see him doing a good deed, does it even count? A warm, funny return to elementary school from master storyteller Spinelli.
©2012 Jerry Spinelli (P)2012 Scholastic Audio
The Paintbrush Kid
Summary
Uncle Pancho isn't really anybody’' uncle, but he's everybody's friend. He is also a good storyteller. All the neighborhood children love to hear him talk about growing up in a beautiful place called Mexico. Now Uncle Pancho is about to lose his house. The state wants to tear it down to make room for a new freeway. As Gregory and his friends search for a way to help him, Uncle Pancho's stories give Gregory a good idea. If he uses his artistic talent to paint the old man's house, maybe it will be too beautiful to destroy. As Gregory and the neighborhood kids create a beautiful mural, news cameras gather in front of the house. Maybe his idea will work, after all. As Gregory's idea leads to an unexpected conclusion, realistic characters and situations move the story along at a pleasant pace. Johnny Heller's narration captures the poignancy of this moving story for young listeners.
©1999 Clyde Robert Bulla (P)2000 Recorded Books
Tyrone Powers: The Last Idol
Summary
Tyrone Power was as versatile in life as he was on the screen. He was a multifaceted man and was the last idol created by the vast star-making machine 20th Century Fox. Coming from a family of multi-generational actors, Tyrone Power broke the proverbial mold. His on-screen charisma in the 30s and 40s propelled him to the forefront of must-have actors. His on-screen accomplishments were many, yet he did not hesitate to enter the military when his country went to war. After the war, he continued in his career, but the years took their toll. This look into the actor's life by one of the most renowned Hollywood biographers of all time is a must-have for everyone interested in film, old Hollywood, or acting. Please note: A supplemental PDF is included with this audiobook.
©1979 Fred Lawrence Guiles (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC
DRYP: The Final Pandemic
Summary
An old world killer is back. The race is on to stop a catastrophic pandemic. After an exchange student with bubonic plague turns up in a Reno hospital, a contractor with identical symptoms dies in Los Angeles. The government‘s official stance is that the cases are isolated and the outbreak is under control. But George Mack, a 30-year public health veteran, quickly realizes this is no ordinary plague. The death toll is too high, and the spread pattern make no sense. As Reno’s hospitals fill with plague victims, Mack begins to believe that there is more to the epidemic than the CDC is letting on - and that he must take drastic steps if he hopes to save his city. Medical resident Dr. Susan Barry just wants to finish her training and get a real job. But when plague patients start showing up in her Los Angeles hospital, her plans for the future suddenly go off the rails. Faced with a growing crisis, Susan teams up with an old research mentor to determine the unthinkable: Is the rapidly spreading plague an act of bioterrorism? Racing against the clock, Susan must also confront another disturbing possibility. She may be one of the plague’s few survivors. In eastern Oregon, John Harr makes a pact with his fellow ranchers to keep the “California” plague out of the high desert where they live. Using roadblocks and quarantine, Harr and his neighbors think they’ve secured their home - until a mysterious and heavily armed convoy comes to town, and Harr must use training from his past life in the military to protect the people he loves.
©2021 R.A. Scheuring (P)2021 Podium Audio
Deadbomb Bingo Ray
Summary
Crime. Vengeance. Love. Physics. The infamous Deadbomb Bingo Ray is a high-level fixer in the City of Brotherly Love. He's the man you call when you've crossed the line into hopeless and there's no way back to anywhere. Three years have passed since Ray burned a hedge fund manager on behalf of a pool of retirees, and now the money man is back for revenge. While Ray unravels the plot and orchestrates some payback of his own, he unwittingly steps into the ultimate high-stakes game. Falling in love with the beautiful physicist trapped at the edge of the burn was just bad timing. When the fuse is finally lit, getting killed isn't high on the list of the worst that could happen in this dark and stylish noir.
©2019 Jeff Johnson (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans
Summary
DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans uncovers the truth about how corporations have bought the American electoral and legislative process through the power of lobbyists, campaign contributions, and political action committees. Using historical details, such as the development of the two-party system and the advent of third-party candidates throughout U.S. history, DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans exposes how the two major parties have allowed corporations, businesses, and politically-motivated wealthy individuals to manipulate elections, bribe elected officials, and silence the average American voter. Exposing the ineptitude and ganglike mentalities of both parties, Ventura advocates the replacement of the two-party system with a no-party system based on the ideals of our Founding Fathers. As election time rolls around, this is most certainly the book that should be looked to for reforming our electoral system.
©2012 Jesse Ventura and Dick Russell (P)2012 Tantor
The Fourth Postman
Summary
One postman! Two postmen! Three postmen! All murdered! John J. Malone sticks his nose into the case of the dead postmen and picks up a crack on the head, an Australian beer hound, and six redheaded twins. It all begins when he takes on a new client, Rodney Fairfaxx. Rodney was tabbed for the postmen murders because he hadn’t received a letter from a dead girl for more than 30 years. Malone doesn’t think that this is enough reason to kill, but he can’t prove it.
©1948 by Georgiana A. R. Craig (P)2020 by Blackstone Publishing
Alexander, Who's Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going to Move
Summary
Alexander’s dad has a new job 1,000 miles away, so now his family has to move. Alexander would rather have poison ivy. Maybe he could live with the Baldwins and their dog. He’s always wanted a dog. How can he leave Rachel, his favorite baby-sitter, who taught him to stand on his head and whistle with two fingers (but not at the same time)? And his best friend Paul, who’s like a brother, except that he doesn’t call Alexander "puke-face" like his real brother does? Just as Alexander is ready to hide from his parents, Dad decides that a boy might need a dog to make the move easier. And Mom says he can call Paul long distance. He’s already memorized the number. Johnny Heller’s interpretation of this popular best seller is a fun listening experience for children of all ages. Judith Viorst’s remarkable empathy for children shines brilliantly once again.
©1995 Judith Viorst (P)1999 Recorded Books
Greetings from Afghanistan, Send More Ammo
Summary
Captain Benjamin Tupper spent a year in Afghanistan in an Embedded Training Team, tasked with training, leading in combat, and mentoring the Afghan Army to victory against the brutal Taliban. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Tupper's dispatches were posted on the blog The Sandbox and broadcast on NPR, bringing vivid snapshots of America's longest ongoing war to a wide audience back home. Here, he takes us inside the intricacies of the war, opening up a unique and multifaceted view of both Afghan culture and the daily life of an American soldier. From the rush of gunfire to surreal, euphoric moments of cross-cultural understanding, this emotional and thought-provoking narrative is rich with humor, eloquence, and contradiction. Deeply personal and darkly funny, Tupper illuminates the challenges of the war, vividly bringing to life both the mundane and the extraordinary and seeking a way forward.
©2010 Benjamin Tupper (P)2010 Tantor
Kansas City Noir
Summary
Brand-new stories by: Daniel Woodrell, Matthew Eck, Catherine Browder, Nancy Pickard, John Lutz, J. Malcolm Garcia, Kevin Prufer, Linda Rodriguez, Nadia Pflaum, Phong Nguyen, Andres Rodriguez, and others. Kansas City: where East and West collide, where naked ambition meets broken dreams, where blues and the night go together like rye whiskey, vermouth, and bitters. Yes, Kansas City is a surprising place of grit, gore, and betrayal, at least in the imaginations of our diverse lineup of contributors. Kansas City Noir, another in Akashic's series of geographically specific anthologies, peels back the aura of civility and captures the raw truths of the human condition as lived in this heartland, third-coast city. Among the collection's contributors are Daniel Woodrell, author of the modern classic Winter's Bone and the recent, much lauded story collection, The Outlaw Album; Matthew Eck, author of the noted war novel The Farther Shore; veteran short-fiction writer Catherine Browder; Edgar Award-winning mystery novelists Nancy Pickard and John Lutz; and J. Malcolm Garcia, whose reporting from the war in Afghanistan informs a disturbing tale of restless angst and dislocation. Kansas City Noir takes a compelling tour of the streets of a vibrant American city, complete with accents of jazz, barbecue, and the deeply rooted blues.
©2012 Akashic Books (P)2014 Audible Inc.