Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Post for the Week of August 24th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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The Hungry Ones by Chris Sorensen
Narrated by Chris Sorensen
What do ghosts fear? The Hungry Ones….
At the outskirts of Maple City sits the Crossroads Motel, a throwback to the days when the motor lodge was king. Two years ago, the motel was the site of an act so brutal that its buildings were left to rot.
Jessie Voss, however, sees promise in the Crossroad’s bare bones and buys it up, determined to breathe new life into the place.
When the Larson family shows up on her doorstep, road-weary and desperate for a break, Jessie offers them lodging, even though her grand opening is still a week away.
But the arrival of guests awakens the motel, and Jessie soon finds herself host to both the living and the dead.
No Good Deed by James Swain
Narrated by Patrick Lawlor
A human-trafficking case hits dangerously close to home in a heart-racing thriller by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The King Tides.
A disturbing missing-person case reunites ex-Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster and FBI Agent Beth Daniels. Skye is just one of a dozen young women who have disappeared from Florida without a trace. Beth can do more than just imagine their fear. She was a victim herself – a trauma that’s strengthened her fight for justice.
Then Lancaster uncovers a scrap of evidence, and the mystery begins to unravel. But the lead comes with a personal sting: the involvement of his estranged brother, Logan, an ex-con recruited into the shepherding of human trade. The only way for Logan to shed his demons is to come clean. For Lancaster and Daniels, that means being drawn, secret by secret, into a dangerous underground world.
With time running out, three damaged pasts will collide; more secrets will spill; and Lancaster, Daniels, and Logan will have to fight to save themselves first if they ever hope to find the girls alive.
The Warehouse by Rob Hart
Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller, Jason Culp, Karissa Vacker
Cloud isn’t just a place to work. It’s a place to live. And when you’re here, you’ll never want to leave.
“On the surface, The Warehouse is a thrilling story of corporate espionage at the highest level, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a terrifying cautionary tale of the nightmare world we are making for ourselves.” (Blake Crouch, New York Times best-selling author of Dark Matter)
Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities.
But compared to what’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices, and vast warehouses…well, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s more than anyone else is offering.
Zinnia never thought she’d be infiltrating Cloud. But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company’s darkest secrets. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears? He just might make the perfect pawn. If she can bear to sacrifice him.
As the truth about Cloud unfolds, Zinnia must gamble everything on a desperate scheme – one that risks both their lives, even as it forces Paxton to question everything about the world he’s so carefully assembled here.
Together, they’ll learn just how far the company will go…to make the world a better place.
Set in the confines of a corporate panopticon that’s at once brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, The Warehouse is a near-future thriller about what happens when Big Brother meets Big Business – and who will pay the ultimate price.
The Whisper Man by Alex North
Narrated by Christopher Eccleston
This program is read by acclaimed British actor Christopher Eccleston.
In this psychological thriller, Alex North weaves a multi-generational tale of suspense, as a father and son are caught in the crosshairs of an investigation to catch a serial killer preying on a small town.
After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son, Jake, heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. Featherbank. But the town has a dark past.
Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed “The Whisper Man”, for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.
Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter’s crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man.
And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window….
Utopia 58 by Daniel Arenson
Narrated by Scott Brick
From one-million copy best-selling author Daniel Arenson comes Utopia 58, a dystopian novel as chilling as The Handmaid’s Tale and Black Mirror.
Imagine a perfect society. A world with no racism, sexism, or ageism. A utopia.
In Utopia 58, everyone is equal. Everyone must be equal.
Too beautiful? A mask will hide that pretty face. Too tall? We’ll saw your legs down to size. Too male or female? The surgeon’s knife will fix that. Too smart? A buzzer in your skull will drown out all that pesky thinking. You will be equal. Like it or not.
Utopia 58, built atop the ruins of North America, created perfect harmony. A society with no race, gender, or age. Pure equality.
KB209 was born into this utopia. He has no true name. No past. No future. He is one among millions. The same.
One day, at a propaganda rally, KB209 glimpses an act of startling defiance. A citizen with painted toenails. A woman in a genderless society. Color in a black and white world.
When KB209 confronts her, he is drawn into an underground rebellion. A movement that dares to dream. That dares to say: “We are unique. We are individuals. We will be free!”
Meet Me in the Future by Kameron Hurley
Narrated by Traci Odom, Eric Michael Summerer
When renegade author Kameron Hurley (The Light Brigade; The Stars Are Legion) takes you to the future, be prepared for the unexpected. Yes, it will be dangerous, frequently brutal, and often devastating. But it’s also savagely funny, deliriously strange, and absolutely brimming with adventure.
In these edgy, unexpected tales, a body-hopping mercenary avenges his pet elephant, and an orphan falls in love with a sentient starship. Fighters ally to power a reality-bending engine, and a swamp-dwelling introvert tries to save the world – from her plague-casting former wife.
So come meet Kameron Hurley in the future. The version she’s created here is weirder – and far more hopeful – than you could ever imagine.
The Study Circle by Haroun Khan
Narrated by David Ahmad
High up on the 17th floor of a South London council block, a study circle is being held. They are studying the Koran, and Ishaq has been attending for five years now, but official interest in the group is building. With an EDL march in just a few days’ time, some of them think they might be under surveillance.
Ishaq is secure in his identity as British and Muslim, but as papers discuss Asian sex gangs in the North and a European politician appears on television discussing a final solution, he wonders if Britain itself sees him the same way. When he runs into Shams, an old friend looking for work, Ishaq offers to help him out. And that’s all it takes to begin a chain reaction that will collide with extremism, nationalism, and MI5.
Based upon Haroun Khan’s own experiences with extremism and being brought up on a South London council estate, The Study Circle is a groundbreaking look into the state of modern Britain through the lives of urban Muslim youth.
After the Fall by Brad Graber
Narrated by Kebba Button
Rikki, a teenager being raised by her grandmother in Queens, has a secret. She can’t remember her mother. Whenever Rikki asks her grandmother about her mother’s death, the older woman refuses to answer. Desperate to learn the truth, Rikki finds a hidden album with family photographs. Can the boy in the picture with her mother be a long lost uncle? Determined to unlock the mystery, she embarks on a journey to meet Harry, a writer who is struggling with his own issues of identity.
From the award-winning writer of The Intersect comes After the Fall, a fast-paced, engaging listen, with twists and turns that will surely surprise. After the Fall: an emotional roller-coaster of a mystery packed with personality and charm. Once you start the journey you won’t be able to turn back.
Old Bones by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Narrated by Cynthia Farrell
Number one best-selling authors Preston & Child bring the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party to new life in a thrilling blend of archaeology, history, murder, and suspense.
Nora Kelly, a young curator at the Santa Fe Institute of Archaeology, is approached by historian Clive Benton with a once-in-a-lifetime proposal: to lead a team in search of the so-called “Lost Camp” of the tragic Donner Party. This was a group of pioneers who earned a terrible place in American history when they became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847, their fate unknown until the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the wilderness, raving about starvation, murder – and cannibalism.
Benton tells Kelly he has stumbled upon an amazing find: the long-sought diary of one of the victims, which has an enigmatic description of the Lost Camp. Nora agrees to lead an expedition to locate and excavate it-to reveal its long-buried secrets.
Once in the mountains, however, they learn that discovering the camp is only the first step in a mounting journey of fear. For as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism. And when those ancient horrors lead to present-day violence on a grand scale, rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned the case…only to find that her first investigation might very well be her last.
EXTRAORDINARY ACCLAIM FOR PRESTON & CHILD:
“There’s nothing else like them.” (Washington Post)
Stolen Things by R. H. Herron
Narrated by Xe Sands
When a 911 dispatcher picks up an emergency call to hear her daughter on the line, her worst nightmare becomes reality.
Laurie Ahmadi has worked as a 911 police dispatcher in her quiet Northern California town for nearly two decades. She considers the department her family; her husband, Omid, is its first Arab American chief, and their teenage daughter, Jojo, has grown up with the force. So when Laurie catches a 911 call and, to her horror, it’s Jojo, the whole department springs into action.
Jojo, drugged, disoriented, and in pain, doesn’t remember how she ended up at the home of Kevin Leeds, a pro football player famous for his on-the-field activism and his work with the CapB – “Citizens Against Police Brutality” – movement. She doesn’t know what happened to Kevin’s friend and trainer, whose beaten corpse is also discovered in the house. And she has no idea where her best friend Harper, who was with her earlier in the evening, could be.
But when Jojo begins to dive into Harper’s social media to look for clues to her whereabouts, Jojo uncovers a shocking secret that turns everything she knew about Harper – and the police department – on its head. With everything they thought they could rely on in question, Laurie and Jojo begin to realize that they can’t trust anyone to find Harper except themselves…and time is running out.
Repo Girl: A Novel by Jane Fenton
Narrated by Hayden Bishop
Debt, Dating, and a Dead body…. What’s a girl to do?
Twenty-five-year-old rookie Repo Agent, Andrea Sloan, doesn’t like accepting help from anyone – especially not arrogant musicians who are too charming for their own good. Even though she swore off men years ago, Andi finds herself drawn to handsome rockstar, Cooper Barnett, as he continually pops up in her life when she least expects it.
Their budding relationship becomes even more complicated when Cooper talks Andi into letting him ride-along on one of her repos, and they come across a very naked, very dead body. Being charged with murder and spending a night in jail is bad enough, but when the police don’t seem to be making any headway on finding the real killer, Andi begins to do her own investigation – much to the frustration of the homicide detective in charge.
The closer she gets to discovering the killer, the more her own life is in danger. Time is running out. Andi must figure out who the killer is before she goes to prison for a crime she didn’t commit, or worse, becomes the next dead body.
Never Nerida by Shane Drummy
Narrated by Rachel Fulginiti
Love shared is love divided.
When expectant mother Livia Karras spontaneously falls victim to aquagenic urticaria – an allergy where a single drop of water against her skin could be fatal – doctors determine her condition to be purely psychosomatic.
Psychologist Elliot Chiles is assigned to her case. He suspects she is subconsciously sabotaging her own pregnancy due to unresolved guilt over a traumatic childhood accident, but Livia believes she knows the real cause – she’s being preyed upon by a malevolent supernatural entity out for revenge.
With time running out and severe dehydration setting in, Livia must confront long-cherished delusions and reconcile with a past mistake – or risk losing her life and that of her unborn child.
Will Livia succumb or prevail? Find out in Never Nerida.
- No Rules of Engagement by Tracey Richardson (Narrated by Joana Garcia) - September 28, 2023
- Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan (Narrated Narrated by Lori Prince) - September 26, 2023
- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of September 23rd on Brian’s Book Blog - September 23, 2023
The Warehouse was so good! Hope you get to read it😁
It’s moving up on my list. Hopefully listening to it this week.