Michael Kramer has narrated 173 audiobooks on Listento.it by 128 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 47,860 ratings. The most-rated is Never Split the Difference.
Astoria
Summary
At a time when the edge of American settlement barely reached beyond the Appalachian Mountains, two visionaries, President Thomas Jefferson and millionaire John Jacob Astor, foresaw that one day the Pacific would dominate world trade as much as the Atlantic did in their day. Just two years after the Lewis and Clark expedition concluded in 1806, Jefferson and Astor turned their sights westward once again. Thus began one of history's dramatic but largely forgotten turning points in the conquest of the North American continent. Astoria is the harrowing tale of the quest to settle a Jamestown-like colony on the Pacific coast. Astor set out to establish a global trade network based at the mouth of the Columbia River in what is now Oregon, while Jefferson envisioned a separate democracy on the western coast that would spread eastward to meet the young United States. Astor backed this ambitious enterprise with the vast fortune he'd made in the fur trade and in New York real estate since arriving in the United States as a near-penniless immigrant soon after the Revolutionary War. He dispatched two groups of men west: One by sea around the southern tip of South America and one by land over the Rockies. Unfolding from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship, drawing extensively on firsthand accounts of those who made the journey. Though the colony itself would be short-lived, its founders opened provincial American eyes to the remarkable potential of the western coast, discovered the route that became the Oregon Trail, and permanently altered the nation's landscape and global standing.
©2014 Peter Stark (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers
Endeavour
Summary
Since we first looked at the stars, there have been no signs of alien life - no one who has tried to speak to us, a mystery that a long-dead scientist called the Fermi paradox. "Where are they?" In 2118 the first daring mission to another star, Tau Ceti - 12 light-years away - is launched. Tom Hites and Harry Cosgrove command the starship Endeavour on an epic journey to solve the Fermi paradox. From the first nearly disastrous steps on a distant world, their quest takes them further than they ever imagined. Out amid the mysterious, long-abandoned worlds and ancient relics, they discover some strange, some wonderful, and some deadly. The question they seek to answer becomes: "Where are they now?"
©2015 Ralph Kern (P)2015 Tantor
Death Benefits
Summary
A careful, methodical young data analyst for a California insurance company, John Walker knows when people will marry, at what age they will most likely have children, and when they will die. All signs point to a long successful career---until Max Stillman, a gruff security consultant, appears without warning at the office. It seems a colleague with whom Walker once had an affair has disappeared after paying a very large death benefit to an impostor. Stillman wants to find and convict her; Walker is convinced the woman is innocent. Now Walker teams up with Stillman on an urgent north-by-northeast race---relentlessly leading to a pay-off that just might shock the life out of him.
©2008 Thomas Perry (P)2009 Tantor
The Death of the Banker
Summary
With the same breadth of vision and narrative élan he brought to his monumental biographies of the great financiers, Ron Chernow examines the forces that made dynasties like the Morgans, the Warburgs, and the Rothschilds the financial arbiters of the early 20th century and then rendered them virtually obsolete by the century's end. As he traces the shifting balance of power among investors, borrowers, and bankers, Chernow evokes both the grand theater of capital and the personal dramas of its most fascinating protagonists. Here is Siegmund Warburg, who dropped a client in the heat of a takeover deal because the man wore monogrammed shirt cuffs, as well as the imperious J. P. Morgan, who, when faced with a federal antitrust suit, admonished Theodore Roosevelt to "send your man to my man and they can fix it up". And here are the men who usurped their power, from the go-getters of the 1920s to the masters of the universe of the 1980s. Glittering with perception and anecdote, The Death of the Banker is at once a panorama of 20th-century finance and a guide to the new era of giant mutual funds on Wall Street.
©1997 Ron Chernow (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Remembering
Summary
It is 1976 and Andy Catlett, farmer and agricultural journalist, is walking the streets of San Francisco at dawn. In the eight months since losing his right hand to a corn-picking machine, he has also lost himself. Two thousand miles from his home in Kentucky, he begins to remember people, the land, and the comfort of knowing his place intimately. Andy's reveries evoke a membership governed by the principles of humanity and love. Inspiring and eye-opening, Remembering follows Andy's journey out of darkness and into the warm light of community.
©2008 Wendell Berry (P)2009 christianaudio.com
Sidney Sheldon's The Tides of Memory
Summary
An addictive, edge-of-your-seat thriller filled with the hallmark elements that made New York Times best-selling author Sidney Sheldon - "the master of the story-telling game" (People) - an international legend: shocking twists, money, power, and betrayal involving an influential family and the beautiful and formidable woman at its center whose dark secrets can destroy them all. The conservative party's newest superstar, Alexia De Vere has worked hard to realize her political ambitions. The brilliant and ruthless wife of wealthy aristocrat Teddy De Vere, Alexia relishes her power and the control it gives her to shape and destroy lives. Yet success has also demanded sacrifice. Her daughter, Roxie, a bitter young woman confined to a wheelchair after a failed suicide attempt, blames Alexia for ruining her life. Alexia's dashing son, Michael, is risking the family's good name to jump-start his entrepreneurial dreams. Thankfully, Alexia has Teddy, her devoted husband who will stop at nothing to protect her. But beneath Alexia De Vere's gilded life and formidable facade lie secrets that are ugly, dirty, and deadly. When long-buried mistakes of her youth begin to resurface, old hatreds are rekindled and Alexia finds herself on the brink of losing everything - her power, her family, and even her own life. Now the woman who rose so high is on the brink of a perilous fall. For when the tides of memory rise, the only thing that might save her is the truth....
©2013 Sheldon Family Limited Partnership, successor to the rights and interests of Sidney Sheldon (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers
Treason
Summary
In Rick Campbell’s newest thriller, a military coup in Russia leads to a swift invasion of former Soviet territories - while the US has been rendered powerless to respond. In Russia, the military is anxious to assert its military strength and regain its role as a superpower. The Russian president refuses to greenlight a bold plan to disable American strategic nuclear capability and retake Ukraine and the Baltic States, fearing the potential consequences of involving nuclear weapons. But the generals won't have it and at the first opportunity, they overthrow the president in a military coup. Then they use a narrow window to initiate their bold plan - the Zolotov option - which will render all of America's B2 bombers and ballistic missiles useless. With the US off the board, they swiftly invade Ukraine with an overwhelming force, an invading Army that even NATO can't hope to resist. Now, it's game on. Without their primary weapons, the US has to find a way to fight back on multiple fronts. If they're to have any chance, they'll have to overcome the malware that has grounded their ballistic missiles and planes, as well as secretly land a SEAL team to help rescue the imprisoned Russian president, and help retake control from the forces that are driving Europe into a continental war. Rick Campbell, one of the finest young military thriller writers, returns with his biggest and boldest audiobook to date.
©2019 Rick Campbell (P)2019 Macmillan Audio
Mythborn II: Bane of the Warforged
Summary
Set against the epic backdrop of a world at war with myths and legends brought to life, Mythborn 2 continues the sweeping saga of Arek Winterthorn, wayward apprentice of the eldritch Way as he struggles to survive in the demon realm of Arcadia. Accompanied by Prince Niall Galadine, he searches for his father, unaware he is the prize in a war between Highlord Valarius Galadine’s warforged elves and Lady Lilyth’s demonic Furies. One seeks to possess him, the other to use him as a weapon as something dark and sinister within him grows, something called - blackfire. Behind all this lies Sovereign, the maker and unmaker of worlds, waiting to see who will win, and who will die.
©2018 Vijay Lakshman (P)2019 Vijay Lakshman
Santa Fe Rules
Summary
Successful movie producer Wolf Willett is stunned when he sees his own death reported in a major newspaper. It says he was a victim in a triple homicide during a sordid tryst with his wife and a friend. But who is the unidentified corpse? Why can't Wolf remember anything about the night in question? And who wants him dead? Wolf had the means and motive - and his inexplicable memory loss seems far too suspicious to suit Sante Fe's crusading DA, who promptly has Wolf arrested. And when another murder complicates the scenario, he turns to hotshot criminal attorney Ed Eagle to help clear his name - and stop a killer who's determined to finish the job.
©1992 Stuart Woods (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
The Vatican Prophecies
Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Vatican Diaries comes a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the Vatican investigates claims of miraculous events. Apocalyptic prophecies and miraculous apparitions are headline-grabbing events that often put the Catholic Church's doctrine of "rational faith" at odds with the passion of its more zealous followers. To some, these claims teeter on the edge of absurdity. Others see them as evidence of a private connection with God. For the Vatican, the issue is much more nuanced, as each supposed miraculous event could have serious theological and political consequences. In response, the Vatican has developed a highly secretive and complex evaluation system to judge the authenticity of supernatural phenomena. Former journalist John Thavis uses his 30 years' experience covering the Vatican to shed light on this little-known process, revealing deep internal debates on the power of religious relics, private revelations, exorcisms, and more. Enlightening and accessible to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, the book illustrates the church's struggle to balance the tension between traditional beliefs and contemporary skepticism.
©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2015 Blackstone Audiobooks
Mythborn III: Dark Ascension
Summary
Continuing the award-winning epic of a world where faith and dreams become reality, Mythborn Three follows Masters Silbane and Kisan, the young blade-master Ash, and Princess Yetteje as they journey into the ethereal realm Arcadia, home to the Celestial Lilyth and her Aeris demons. They search for Silbane's apprentice, Arek, and the lost prince of Bara'cor, Niall, as the two explore Arcadia for clues to the mystery of Arek's origin. Is he the son of the demon queen Lilyth, as she claims? Arrayed against Lilyth and her Aeris forces are the warforged elves of the ancient archmage, Valarius Galadine. Because of the beliefs of the people of Edyn, Valarius has become more elven god than man, and prepares to wage a cataclysmic war to eradicate the demon-kind once and for all. Silbane uses his gift of dragon-sight, hoping to find his apprentice before it's too late. Kisan has other orders - kill Arek before he can destroy the world with his dark gift, even if that means killing Silbane too. Who does Arek trust? The demon queen claiming to be his mother? The masters ordered to kill him? The elven archmage who would use Arek's body as a way to escape Arcadia and wreak havoc upon Edyn? Arek must uncover the truth from beneath the lies and unlock his full potential as an adept, or he and his friends will perish.
©2018 Mythborn Media, LLC (P)2019 Vijay Lakshman
Dead City
Summary
Texas? Toast. Battered by five cataclysmic hurricanes in three weeks, the Texas Gulf Coast and half of the Lone Star State is reeling from the worst devastation in history. Thousands are dead or dying - but the worst is only beginning. Amid the wreckage, something unimaginable is happening: a deadly virus has broken out, returning the dead to life - with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. The nightmare begins.... Within hours, the plague has spread all over Texas. San Antonio police officer Eddie Hudson finds his city overrun by a voracious army of the living dead. Along with a small group of survivors, Eddie must fight off the savage horde in a race to save his family. Hell on Earth. There's no place to run. No place to hide. The zombie horde is growing as the virus runs more rampant. Eddie knows he has to find a way to destroy these walking horrors... but he doesn't know the price he will have to pay.
©2006, 2010 Joe McKinney (P)2011 Tantor
A World Lost
Summary
It is the summer of 1944, and nine-year-old Andy Catlett is engrossed in the wide easy countryside near Port William, Kentucky. But sadness, loss, and mystery invade Andy's world on a hot July afternoon when his Uncle Andrew is murdered.
©2008 Wendell Berry (P)2009 christianaudio.com
Slipping into Darkness
Summary
Twenty years ago Detective Francis X. Loughlin solved his first huge case. He pushed a 17-year-old boy to the breaking point and sent him up for murder. But now there’s been another death, another pretty, young doctor viciously killed in her pristine Manhattan apartment - and a startling link to that long-ago conviction. All fingers point to the convict Julian Vega, no longer so young, out of jail on a technicality, and no longer the eager-to-please youth Loughlin first met in the interrogation room. But this is no open-and-shut case. When Loughlin arranges for a DNA test, the results blow up in his face. Soon there are bulldozers in the graveyard, exhuming 20-year-old remains and renewing a family’s deep-seated mourning. Because there’s one thing in this case that Loughlin’s now sure of - the blood under the latest victim’s fingernails definitely doesn’t belong to Julian Vega. It doesn’t even belong to a man. It belongs to Allison Wallis, the woman murdered 20 years before. Two men circle each other from opposite sides of the law. Both have something to prove, both are only too aware of their own limitations. Once again, Peter Blauner plunges his listeners into the murky territory where right bleeds into wrong, and truth finds the most unexpected hiding place. Keenly observant, carefully crafted, and shatteringly suspenseful, this is a spellbinding new work from the best-selling author of The Intruder.
©2006 Peter Blauner (P)2006 Books on Tape
Tell Me You're Sorry
Summary
A family is wiped out after a burglary gone wrong. An executive accused of embezzling kills himself and his loved ones. A house fire claims the lives of all its inhabitants. Separate incidents with two common threads - a first wife who took her own life, and a secret the victims took to their graves. Stephanie Coburn has barely recovered from her sister's mysterious suicide before her brother-in-law and his new wife are murdered, her face disfigured beyond recognition. Stephanie never met the bride, has never even seen a clear photograph. But she knew her sister, and she knows something is desperately wrong. The police won't listen. Her only ally is another victim's son. Step by step, they're uncovering a trail of brutal vengeance and a killer who will never relent-and whose forgiveness can only be earned in death.
©2014 Kevin O’Brien (P)2014 Tantor
Mission of Honor: Tom Clancy's Op-Center #9
Summary
In the latest riveting adventure in the bestselling Op-Center series, this crack team of operatives uses their defense, intelligence, and crisis management technology to bring down the opposition. When a job is too dirty or too dangerous, Op-Center is the only place the government can turn. Follow the circuitous path as the agents negotiate the most devious threats to the peace and prosperity of America - including those within. As with all Clancy's work, this series reminds us that true heroes are hard to come by, that even the best of us have compromising motives, and even the worst have dreams of honor. Filled with the suspense, intensity, and attention to military detail that listeners have come to expect from Tom Clancy, Mission of Honor more than delivers.
©2002 Tom Clancy, Steve Pieczenik, Jeff Rovin (P)2011 Random House Audio
Altar of Influence: The Orsarian War
Summary
Altar of Influence is the anticipated prequel to the Amazon and Audible number one best seller Circle of Reign. Sacrifice. The single act capable of bringing both death and life simultaneously. Thannuel Kerr is handsome, young, and brash, fumbling through childhood toward his inevitable inheritance: the next Lord of the Western Province. He struggles to accept his arranged marriage and to grow into the man he must become. The journey toward that end, however, is fraught with more peril than he could possibly imagine. In the remote reaches of the Realm, an unknown, silent threat is growing. The Thoulden-sha of Mari-shaden is gathering his disciples: those who have relinquished their bloodlines to the Ancients and embraced Those Not Remembered, a forgotten race that inhabited Våleira long before the Age of the Ancients. As Thannuel learns more about his heritage, he begins to understand why powers that seem greater than anything the world of Våleira has ever seen are targeting him. He is a young man, and he and his beloved intended, Moira, will face assassination attempts, civil war, and foreign invasions that could tear the Realm - and Våleira itself - apart. Sacrifice. It is what the Thoulden-sha demands. It is what the world desperately needs. To save all he loves, Thannuel will be called upon to lay himself upon the Altar of Influence.
©2016 Jacob Cooper (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Balance of Power
Summary
The Op-Center team heads for Spain, where ethnic conflicts threaten to break out into a conflagration. As the novel's intelligence chief Bob Herbert puts it, this clash "will make the Spanish Civil War look like a brawl." The intelligence team's efforts to defuse the crisis are foiled when an Op-Center representative is assassinated in Madrid on her way to a high-level diplomatic meeting. Someone very powerful wants another Spanish War - no matter what the cost. Now the crew must delicately navigate the treacherous shoals of a planned insurrection by a popular Spanish general and his troops. As usual, Clancy delivers a memorable cast of characters, and he welcomes us into the byways of little-traveled territory in this action-packed intrigue.
©1998 Tom Clancy, Steve Pieczenik, Jeff Rovin (P)2011 Random House Audio
War Echoes
Summary
The echoes of war are sounding. The kingdom is on the verge of breaking. Owyn and Zara, having saved the rangers and the Conclave from certain destruction, return to the capital city by royal summons. The king has a plan to unite his fractured kingdom... and the young heroes of Forest Hill are going to help him. However, when Owyn's master, Elias, returns in a most unexpected way, he brings a troubling message - a secret that's been held for more than 20 years. Time is running out. Together, Owyn and Zara must convince the rebels to lay down their swords for the good of the realm. If they fail, the kingdom may very well tear itself apart... leaving them vulnerable to the ravages of the R'Laar. The third book in the Fall of Radiance series is here. Perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir, Sarah J. Maas, and Brandon Sanderson.
©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Aethon Audio
Games of State
Summary
In the newly unified Germany, old horrors are reborn. It is the beginning of Chaos Days, a time when neo-Nazi groups gather to spread violence and resurrect dead dreams. But this year Germany isn't the only target. Plans are afoot to destabilize Europe and cause turmoil throughout the United States. Paul Hood and his team, already in Germany to buy technology for the new Regional Op-Center, become entangled in the crisis. They uncover a shocking force behind the chaos - a group that uses cutting-edge technology to promote hate and to influence world events. A powerful profile of America's defense, intelligence, and crisis management technology, Tom Clancy's Op-Center is the creation of Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik.
©2011 Random House Audio; 2011 Tom Clancy, Steve Pieczenik