Kevin Kenerly has narrated 65 audiobooks on Listento.it by 70 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 761 ratings. The most-rated is The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
Two Worlds and In Between
Summary
Two Worlds and in Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan presents a stunning retrospective of the first 10 years of the author’s work. It is a compilation of more than 200,000 words of short fiction, including many of her most acclaimed stories as well as some of the author’s personal favorites; several previously uncollected, hard-to-find pieces; her sci-fi novella, The Dry Salvages; and a rare collaboration with Poppy Z. Brite.
©2011 Caitlin R. Kiernan (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
The Talented Ribkins
Summary
At 72, Johnny Ribkins shouldn't have such problems: he's got one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it's curtains. What may or may not be useful to Johnny as he flees is that he comes from an African American family that has been gifted with superpowers that are a bit, well, odd. Okay, very odd. For example, Johnny's father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin belches fire. And Johnny himself can make precise maps of any space you name, whether he's been there or not. In the old days, the Ribkins family tried to apply their gifts to the civil rights effort, calling themselves the Justice Committee. But when their, eh, superpowers proved insufficient, the group fell apart. Out of frustration, Johnny and his brother used their talents to stage a series of burglaries, each more daring than the last. Fast forward a couple of decades and Johnny's in a race against the clock to dig up loot he's stashed all over Florida. His brother is gone, but he has an unexpected sidekick: his brother's daughter, Eloise, who has a special superpower of her own. Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois' famous essay "The Talented Tenth" and fueled by Ladee Hubbard's marvelously original imagination, The Talented Ribkins is a big-hearted debut novel about race, class, politics, and the unique gifts that, while they may cause some problems from time to time, bind a family together.
©2017 Ladee Hubbard (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Blood & Ivy
Summary
A delectable true-crime story of scandal and murder at America's most celebrated university On November 23, 1849, in the heart of Boston, one of the city's richest men vanished. Dr. George Parkman, a Brahmin who owned much of Boston's West End, was last seen that afternoon visiting his alma mater, Harvard Medical School. Police scoured city tenements and the harbor - some leads put Parkman at sea or in Manhattan - but a Harvard janitor held a much darker suspicion: that their ruthless benefactor had never even left the Medical School building. His shocking discovery engulfed America in one of its most infamous trials, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. John White Webster, Harvard's professor of chemistry. A baffling case of red herrings, grave robbing, and dismemberment, it became a landmark in the use of medical forensics. Rich in characters and atmosphere, Blood & Ivy explores the fatal entanglement of new science and old money in one of America's greatest murder mysteries.
©2018 Paul Collins (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Trailerpark
Summary
Get to know the colorful cast of characters at the Granite State Trailerpark, where Flora in number 11 keeps more than 100 guinea pigs and screams at people to stay away from her babies, Claudel in number five thinks he is lucky until his wife burns down their trailer and runs off with Howie Leeke, and Noni in number seven has telephone conversations with Jesus and tells the police about them. In this series of related short stories, Russell Banks offers gripping, realistic portrayals of individual Americans and paints a portrait of New England life that is at once dark, witty, and revealing.
©2013 Russell Banks (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Dear Sweet Filthy World
Summary
What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Treading the grim places where desire and destruction, longing and horror intersect, the author rises once again to meet the high expectations she set with such celebrated collections as Tales of Pain and Wonder, To Charles Fort, with Love, and the World Fantasy Award-winning The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories. In these chapters you’ll meet a dragon’s lover, a drowned vampire cursed always to ride the tides, a wardrobe that grants wishes, and a lunatic artist’s marriage of the Black Dahlia and the Beast of Gévaudan. You’ll visit a ruined post-industrial Faerie, travel back to tropical Paleozoic seas and ahead to the far-flung future, and you’ll meet a desperate writer forced to sell her memories for new ideas. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse. The stories in Dear Sweet Filthy World were first published in the subscription-only Sirenia Digest, run by Caitlin for her most devoted listeners. This publication marks the first availability to the general public for most of these rare tales.
©2017 Caitlín R. Kiernan (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing
Hard Landing
Summary
A science fiction adventure told from the point of view of aliens who crash-land on Earth and must assimilate in secret - until their human cover is blown Budrys's final novel opens with the report of a man found electrocuted on suburban train tracks in Shoreview, Illinois. Neville Sealman appeared to be just another commuter, but after his tragic death, no one comes forward to claim his body. And a routine autopsy reveals some disturbing physiological anomalies. Then a spaceship is unearthed in a New Jersey swamp. It's the stuff of tabloids - except it's all true. Years earlier, a starship crash-landed on Earth. Its passengers, human in appearance, were forced to go their separate ways in an alien world. No one knows that these otherworldly visitors have been living among the human race - but now their cover could be blown. Told in the form of an investigation reconstructed through direct and indirect witness testimony, Hard Landing takes the listener into the minds of its four protagonists as they struggle with the far-reaching ramifications of discovery. This is a suspenseful and revelatory novel about the elusive, ever-changing nature of identity.
©2016 Algis Budrys (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
A Simple Act of Violence
Summary
Washington, embroiled in midterm elections, did not want to hear the truth about an unsettling series of murders. But when the newspapers reported a fourth killing, when they gave the killer a name and details of his horrendous crimes, few people could ignore it. Detective Robert Miller is assigned to the case and rapidly uncovers a complication: the victims do not officially exist. Their personal details do not register on any known systems, and as Miller unearths ever more disturbing facts, he starts to face truths about the corrupt world he lives in—truths so far removed from his own reality that he begins to fear for his life. In the tradition of the masters of suspense, R. J. Ellory has written a shocking and tense narrative of politics and violence in the nerve center of America. As Detective Miller becomes more and more embroiled in the shifting realities of the case, the reader is irresistibly propelled through the intrigues and betrayals of Washington’s elite. This controversial and timely novel explores the notions of identity and hidden government dealings, and it is sure to stay with the reader long after the final page.
©2008 R. J. Ellory Publications, Ltd. (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Spaceport Earth
Summary
Is there a future in orbit? This timely book reveals the state of spaceflight at a crucial juncture in the industry's history. It's the 21st century, and everything about the space industry is changing. Rather than despair over the end of American manned missions and a moribund commercial launch market, private sector companies are now changing the way humanity accesses orbit. Upstarts including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are building a dizzying array of new spacecraft and rockets, not just for government use, but for any paying customer. At the heart of this space revolution are spaceports, the center and literal launching pads of spaceflight. Spaceports cost hundreds of millions of dollars, face extreme competition, and host operations that do not tolerate failures - which can often be fatal. Aerospace journalist Joe Pappalardo has witnessed space rocket launches around the world, from the jungle of French Guiana to the coastline of California. In his comprehensive work Spaceport Earth, Pappalardo describes the rise of private companies in the United States and how they are reshaping the way the world is using space for industry and science. Spaceport Earth is a travelogue through modern space history as it is being made, offering space enthusiasts, futurists, and technology buffs a close perspective of rockets and launch sites, and chronicling the stories of industrial titans, engineers, government officials, billionaires, schemers, and politicians who are redefining what it means for humans to be a space-faring species. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Joe Pappalardo (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
Houses Under the Sea
Summary
Since H. P. Lovecraft first invited colleagues such as Frank Belknap Long and Robert Bloch (among others) to join in his creation of what has come to be known as “The Cthulhu Mythos” (over Lovecraft’s less invocative name of “Yog-Sothery”), dozens of authors have tried their hand at adding to this vast tapestry with varying degrees of success. Some, like the then-teenage Ramsey Campbell, used the Mythos as a starting point to his own career while still finding his own authorial voice. Others, like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, did so at the height of their careers, paying homage to an author who had been such a tremendous inspiration to them. But no one, absolutely no one, has contributed such a body of brilliant and profoundly original work to the Mythos as has Caitlín R. Kiernan. In this remarkable collection the author has selected over two dozen of her best Lovecraftian tales ranging from 2000s “Valentia” to her more recent classic “A Mountain Walked” as well as including the complete Dandridge Cycle, as well as a new story, “M Is for Mars.” In short, this is a cornerstone volume for Kiernan fans and Mythos devotees alike.
©2018 Caitlín R. Kiernan (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing
Slave in the White House
Summary
Paul Jennings was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolley Madison in Virginia, later becoming part of the Madison household staff at the White House. Once finally emancipated by Senator Daniel Webster later in life, he would give an aged and impoverished Dolley Madison, his former owner, money from his own pocket, write the first White House memoir, and see his sons fight with the Union Army in the Civil War. Based on correspondence, legal documents, and journal entries rarely seen before, this amazing portrait reveals the mores and attitudes toward slavery in the 19th century, and sheds new light on famous characters such as James Madison, French General Lafayette, Dolley Madison, and many other long-forgotten slaves, abolitionists, and civil rights activists.
©2012 Elizabeth Dowling Taylor. Recorded by arrangement with Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC. (P)2012 HighBridge Company.
Weapons
Summary
Jason King and Will Slater, the two most lethal operatives in government history, are out on their own. They’ve been through their personal journeys into hell, but they unite in New York City as brothers in arms. So begins a vigilante crusade against the city’s morally bankrupt inhabitants. But their private war doesn’t last long. Sometimes you can’t escape the past, no matter how hard you try. They’re revisited by old government contacts with an agenda, and soon enough they’re fighting tooth and nail to prevent the destabilization of the entire country. Outnumbered, overwhelmed, beat down, battered, broken - it's just another day at the office.
©2019 Matt Rogers (P)2020 Podium Audio
The Hungry Blade
Summary
The new, fast-paced WWII-era spy thriller from the author of New York Station... Forty modern masterpieces are found concealed on a neutral ship in international waters 16 months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Their provenance is sketchy and their final destination unknown. The Royal Navy suspects the works are “degenerate art” seized by the Nazis and shipped across the Atlantic to create cash for their covert operations. But how to prove it? There’s only one man for the job - Roy Hawkins. The British Secret Intelligence Service has put their half-American star agent in tough spots before, and he’s always come out on top. But this time Hawkins is headed to Mexico, where the vibrant art scene and tight-knit German expatriate community obscure the paintings’ ultimate purpose. As he tracks the art from Veracruz to Mexico City, Hawkins struggles to see the Nazis’ endgame. For the first time, he doesn’t speak the language and he doesn’t know the players - but he does know how to fight Fascists. Problem is, in the “get along and go along” culture of wartime profiteering, distinguishing between the true believers and the opportunists is no easy task. Can Hawkins untangle the false leads and double crosses before the Nazis realize their sinister plan?
©2020 Lawrence Dudley (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
St. Louis Noir
Summary
Edited by the best-selling author of The Ice Harvest, St. Louis Noir thickens the Midwest quotient for the Akashic Noir series. Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. In the wake of Chicago Noir, Twin Cities Noir, and Kansas City Noir - all popular volumes in the Akashic Noir Series - comes the latest Midwest installment, St. Louis Noir. Masterfully curated by Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest (adapted for film, starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton), this volume will chill the listener with heartland menace. Featuring brand new stories by: Calvin Wilson, LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn, John Lutz, Paul D. Marks, Colleen J. McElroy, Jason Makansi, S. L. Coney, Michael Castro, Laura Benedict, Jedidiah Ayres, Umar Lee, Chris Barsanti, L. J. Smith, and Scott Phillips.
©2016 Scott Phillips (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Come and Get These Memories
Summary
Brian Holland, Edward Holland, and Lamont Dozier, known as Holland-Dozier-Holland or H-D-H, were the greatest songwriting team in American pop music history. Seventy of the songs they wrote reached the Billboard Top 40, with 15 of these reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. No other songwriting team or individual has come close to equaling - let alone surpassing - this record. They’ve been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. As tunesmiths for the legendary Motown Record Corporation, and for their own corporations, Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records, they wrote and produced hits for Diana Ross and the Supremes, including “Baby Love”, “Stop! In the Name of Love”, “Where Did Our Love Go”, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”, “You Can’t Hurry Love”, “I Hear a Symphony”, “Come See About Me”, “Back in My Arms Again”, and “Reflections”. Now the legendary composers are ready to reveal the inspirations and stories behind their chart-topping hits, providing millions of fans with the first complete history of their songwriting process, and detail the real-life experiences that led them to write each of their most famous tunes. They will also reveal their creative and intimate relationships with Motown’s biggest stars.
©2019 Omnibus Press (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
Dopefiend
Summary
The shocking nightmare story of a black heroin addict Trapped in the festering sore of a major American ghetto, a young man and his girlfriend - both attractive, talented, and full of promise - are inexorably pulled into the living death of the hardcore junkie. It is a horrifying world where addicts will do anything to get their next fix. For 23 years of his young life, Donald Goines lived in the dark, despair-ridden world of the junkie. It started while he was doing military service in Korea and ended with his murder in his late 30s. He had worked up to a hundred-dollars-a-day habit - and out of the agonizing hell came Dopefiend.
©2007 Donald Goines (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
Really the Blues
Summary
Eddie Piron thinks that performing in jazz clubs in Nazi-occupied Paris is bad enough, but when the drummer in his band is found face down in the Seine and the police start asking questions, he realizes that his trouble is just beginning. Paris, 1941. American jazz musician Eddie Piron has lived in the City of Light since before the war began. But Paris under occupation is not what it once was, and things are looking a lot darker for a man like Eddie. The great jazz artists of the day, like Django Reinhardt, are lying low or being swept away under the racial policies of the Nazis. But the SS has a paradoxical taste for the "Negermusik," and their favorite gathering place is La Caverne Negre, where Eddie leads the band. One night the drummer for "Eddie et Ses Anges" disappears. When his body is found in the Seine the next day, Eddie becomes entangled in the murder investigation. He soon himself in the clutches of a mercenary intelligence broker who discovers why Eddie Piron is really in Paris - and what he's really hiding.
©2014 Joseph Koenig (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
Ciphers
Summary
What happens when the lights go out? King and Slater have fought and warred all over the globe, from the desolate plains of the Russian Far East to the extreme altitudes of Nepal. Now, chaos strikes them at home. New York goes dark as malicious code infects the power grid in a devastating cyberattack. More than eight million people across the five boroughs. No power, no running water, no sanitation. Food supplies will be exhausted within two days, and there’s no one to restock the shelves. The government has no solution to the myriad of problems that come with a major city losing electricity for a prolonged period. All King and Slater know is the code used to knock out critical substations initiated in the heart of Manhattan...and so begins a harrowing race against the clock to get the lights back on before the city plunges into anarchy. They don’t have much time; it doesn’t take long for people to panic. As they fight their way deeper into the bowels of the city, they realize there was a reason New York was targeted. Make as many enemies as they do, and it’s bound to catch up with you eventually.
©2021 Matt Rogers (P)2021 Podium Audio
America's First Freedom Rider
Summary
In 1854, traveling was full of danger. Omnibus accidents were commonplace. Pedestrians were regularly attacked by the Five Points’ gangs. Rival police forces watched and argued over who should help. Pickpockets, drunks, and kidnappers were all part of the daily street scene in old New York. Yet somehow, they endured and transformed a trading post into the Empire City. None of this was on Elizabeth Jennings’ mind as she climbed the platform onto the Chatham Street horse-car. But her destination and that of the country took a sudden turn when the conductor told her to wait for the next car because it had “her people” in it. When she refused to step off the bus, she was assaulted by the conductor who was aided by a New York police officer. On February 22, 1855, the Elizabeth Jennings v. Third Avenue Rail Road case was settled: The jury stunned the courtroom with a $250 verdict in Lizzie’s favor. Future US president Chester A. Arthur was Jennings’ attorney, and their lives would be forever onward intertwined. This is the story of what happened that day. It’s also the story of Jennings and Arthur’s families, the struggle for equality, and race relations. It’s the history of America at its most despicable and most exhilarating. Yet few historians know of Elizabeth Jennings or the impact she had on desegregating public transit.
©2019 Jerry Mikorenda (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
Contracts
Summary
Two trained killers at a staggering altitude.... Raya Parker, the 14-year-old daughter of a senior US black-ops official, has vanished along the trail to Everest. Also unaccounted for are one of the loyal bodyguards assigned to protect her and an unassuming Nepali porter. After a prolonged wait for their first contracted assignment, Jason King and Will Slater touch down in Nepal. They’re not exactly thrilled by the task - they assume it’s a routine opportunistic kidnapping. But Raya’s father, Aidan, has done brilliant work for his country, and if his family is at risk, he deserves the best. Then their grip on the situation spirals violently out of control. Soon enough they’re deep in the throes of terror, battling savage hostiles and the brutality of the terrain itself, and they can’t figure out who the hell is behind any of it. As they ascend higher and higher on the long trail to Gokyo Ri, their energy saps, their bodies crumble, and panic intensifies.... What use is elite combat training when you can hardly breathe?
©2019 Matt Rogers (P)2021 Podium Audio
The Hynek UFO Report
Summary
An expert on UFOs, American astronomer professor Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910-April 27, 1986) explains why the Air Force's Project Blue Book was kept secret and why it was recently declassified and investigates sightings reported in its files. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Dr. J. Allen Hynek (P)2020 Blackstone Audio, Inc.