Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of October 10th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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The Bar in the Middle of Nowhere by Tom Abrahams
Narrated by Jonathan Davis
Audible Studios
Reviews for the first two books in the series
An icy wasteland. A walled Metropolis. Two worlds. One mission.
Zeke Watson has the weight of every world on his shoulders. A mysterious threat endangers all of existence, and he is tasked with rescuing the past, the present, and the future.
While he leads a team onto a frozen tundra, Adaliah Bancroft sets out for a gleaming metropolis. Both of them are tasked with the same goal. Two tips of the same spear, at least one of them will fail.
But can the other succeed and reapply balance to the universe?
Ride along for the high-octane finale of the Watchers series. It’s perfect for fans of A.G. Riddle, High Howey, and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.
Agent G: Assassin by C.T. Phipps
Narrated by Jeffrey Kafer
Crossroad Press
Reviews for the first two books in the series
Check out my review of this book
From the best-selling author of The Rules of Supervillainy.
Agent G, now going by the name Case, thought he’d won. He’d exposed his former employers, shared black technology with the world, and killed the man who’d started it all.
Unfortunately, history slows for no man. After a volcanic eruption decimates the United States, G spends the next decade witnessing humanity rebuild itself into a corporate-run dystopia.
Preferring to the be the boot rather than the ant, Case has become a powerful executive in the new cyberpunk world. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean he’s immune to his past. Contacted by the only woman he ever loved, Case finds himself, once more, embroiled in a conspiracy to take what little the public has left. Now, he has to decide whether to save what remains of the world or rule it.
Elsewhere by Dean Koontz
Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, Imani Parks, Josh Bloomberg, Brian Holden, Kevin T. Collins, Soneela Nankani, Alexander Cendese, Amanda Leigh Cobb
Brilliance Publishing
The fate of the world is in the hands of a father and daughter in an epic novel of wonder and terror by Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.
Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It’s a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep.
Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous object – something he calls “the key to everything” – and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and discovering an extraordinary truth. The device allows them to jump between parallel planes at once familiar and bizarre, wondrous and terrifying. And Jeffy and Amity can’t help but wonder, could Michelle be just a click away?
Jeffy and Amity aren’t the only ones interested in the device. A man with a dark purpose is in pursuit, determined to use its grand potential for profound evil. Unless Amity and Jeffy can outwit him, the place they call home may never be safe again.
Includes an audio-only short story, “Parlor Trick,” a kind of karmic coda to the novel.
The Six by Anni Taylor
Narrated by Barrie Kreinik
Podium Audio
Evie is in the grip of a gambling addiction.
She’s terrified she’ll destroy the lives of her husband and two small daughters, especially with her rising debt. She grabs onto a lifeline – the offer of a program that promises to heal addictions and give her a fresh start.
Evie and 27 others from around the world travel to a monastery on a tiny Greek island to begin the program. There are six days and six challenges on the path to healing. Ten thousand dollars per challenge. Sixty thousand on completion. Enough to pay off debts and start anew.
But who is the one watching and waiting behind the walls?
Evie’s husband, Gray, is gutted to find the note that Evie left behind. Why did she leave, and where did she go? When Evie’s car is found burned out in woodland, the police suspect him of murdering Evie.
Gray has one chance to fly to Greece to try to find Evie before he’s arrested for something he didn’t do.
Too late, Evie discovers the chilling truth about the monastery and the island. And the closer she gets to finding an escape, the closer the danger gets to her.
A slow-burn psychological thriller. High adventure, dark games and chilling horror set in a monastery on a remote Greek island.
Once Again by Catherine Wallace Hope
Narrated by Lauren Fortgang, Neil Hellegers
Dreamscape Media
Isolated in the aftermath of tragedy, Erin Fullarton has felt barely alive since the loss of her young daughter, Korrie. She tries to mark the milestones her therapist suggests – like today, the 500th day without Korrie – but moving through grief is like swimming against a dark current.
Her estranged husband, Zac, a brilliant astrophysicist, seems to be coping better. Lost in his work, he’s perfecting his model of a stunning cosmological phenomenon, one he predicts will occur today – an event so rare, it keeps him from being able to acknowledge Erin’s coinciding milestone.
But when Erin receives a phone call from her daughter’s school, the same call she received 500 days earlier when Korrie was still alive, Erin realizes something is happening. Or happening again. Struggling to understand the sudden shifts in time, she pieces together that the phenomenon Zac is tracking may have presented her with the gift of a lifetime: the chance to save her daughter.
Unable to reach Zac or convince the authorities of what is happening, Erin is forced to find the answer on her own, Erin must battle to keep the past from repeating – or risk losing her daughter for good.
Stage Fright by Garrett Boatman
Narrated by Joe Hempel
Valancourt Books
Out of the darkness of the fetid Hudson River, the undead rose to eat their victims alive….
Horror-movie monsters burst from late-night TV screens – to turn their viewers into victims.
Biker gangs of decomposing corpses rode the highways of America, on the hunt for unsuspecting motorists….
Take a front seat in the baddest nightmare in town. Superstar Izzy Stark has the power to make your dreams – and nightmares – come true. He’s the master of disaster, the guru of gore, the doctor of doom, the duke of death and destruction – and you can’t escape this command performance.
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Narrated by Marin Ireland
Harper Audio
A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.
Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple – it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area – with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service – it’s hard to know what to believe.
Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple – and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?
Suspenseful and provocative, Rumaan Alam’s third novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped – and unexpected new ones are forged – in moments of crisis.
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
Narrated by Hillary Huber
Simon & Schuster
A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel from the author of the “innovative, unexpected, and absolutely chilling” (Mira Grant, Nebula Award-winning author) The Twisted Ones.
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker – only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
With her distinctive “delightfully fresh and subversive” (SF Bluestocking) prose and the strange, sinister wonder found in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, The Hollow Places is another compelling and white-knuckled horror novel that you won’t be able to pause.
Rough Around the Edges by Crystal Chard
Narrated by Katheryn Siggers
Crystal Chard
“Fresh, fab, and funny. The characters leap off the page and swear at you until you love them while the sweet romance quietly captures your heart.” (Clare Ashton)
Roxanne Mackenzie is not exactly living her best life. After moving to London to follow her dream of becoming a writer, she thought things would be different – better. Instead, they’re a whole lot worse.
Meeting Josie Calhoun – the woman who has everything together, including the top button of her shirt – makes Roxy question how she’s been living her life.
Josie can’t bear lies and values trust above all else, so what will she make of Roxy’s scandalous truth?
Crystal Chard’s debut romance takes us on a crazy ride of laughs and tears with many mojitos along the way.
Flying Solo by Zoe May
Narrated by Kim Bretton
Self Published
Rachel Watson has it all worked out. By the age of thirty, she’s ticked off most of the goals on her Life List. She’s a home owner, a partner at her law firm, she has a gorgeous boyfriend, lots of hobbies and loads of good friends. The only thing that’s missing is a ring on her finger.
According to her Life List, Rachel should be getting hitched around now, so when her boyfriend, Paul, plans a romantic date, Rachel’s pretty confident he’s going to propose. Except Paul has other ideas. He’s jetting off to India to find himself.
Distraught, Rachel doesn’t know what to do. Not one to easily admit defeat, she embarks on a mission to win him back.
Flying solo to India is definitely not part of Rachel’s plans, but could her trip teach her unexpected lessons about love, life and herself? Could she realize that perhaps her life list wasn’t exactly what she wanted, after all?
The Searcher by Tana French
Narrated by Roger Clark
Penguin Audio
“This hushed suspense tale about thwarted dreams of escape may be her best one yet…its own kind of masterpiece.” (Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post)
A “taut, chiseled and propulsive” (Vogue) new novel from the best-selling mystery writer who “is in a class by herself.” (The New York Times)
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After 25 years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
“One of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (Vox) weaves a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense, asking what we sacrifice in our search for truth and justice, and what we risk if we don’t.
Apprentice to Master by James Eggebeen
Narrated by Joe Hempel
Aethon Audio
Three Books. Filled with dark magic, sinister villains, and nonstop adventure. Fans of D.K. Holmberg, Will Wight, and K.F. Breene will love this complete trilogy, bundled into one epic omnibus edition.
Book one: Foundling Wizard
For more than a hundred years, the Temple of Ran has been sacrificing young wizards in order to steal their power. When Lorit discovers that he holds the rare ability to use magic, he becomes their next target.
Book two: Wizard’s Education
When Lorit’s friend and mentor goes missing, he has no choice but to seize the leadership of the Wizards’ Council to win their support. He must undertake the life and death challenges on his own, to become a Master Wizard even though the trials have been subverted by the Temple.
Book three: Master Wizard
The last dragon’s egg is discovered in the treasury of Veldwaite, launching Lorit and Chihon into a battle with the Temple Priests. They rescue a young Wizard and enlist his help in the fight to stop the Temple from harnessing the power of the last dragon.
Do Lorit and Chihon have what it takes to become masters of magic and wizardry? Grab this special edition collection today and join the adventure of a lifetime.
Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld
Narrated by Jerry Seinfeld
Simon & Schuster
The first book in 25 years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy.
Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a 21-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from 45 years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”
For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In minute after hilarious minute, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, listeners will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.
