Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of September 25th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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Operation Brushfire by Rhett C. Bruno, James Wolanyk
Narrated by Lou Diamond Phillips
Podium Audio
Read my review of this Operation Brushfire here
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Rhett C. Bruno
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by R.C. Bray
He’ll do anything for the truth. They’ll do anything to bury it.
Henry Stasik, an Internal Affairs agent for the globe-spanning Coalition, is no stranger to crooked agents or scandals. He’s a truth-junkie. An addict. But when international celebrity Anastasia Danicheva specifically demands his presence at a police station, everything changes. The Coalition, which has brought peace through uniting the world under a single banner, wants her dead. But none of their case against her adds up.
Stasik can’t help but need to know why.
Hours after taking her under his department’s protection, a cybernetically enhanced hitman nips at Stasik’s heels. Witnesses disappear or turn up in pools of blood. And lurking above it all, guarded by a genocidal AI construct, is a secret that threatens to dismantle a perfect world and–Stasik himself.
Man in the High Castle meets Blade Runner with a dash of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in this breakneck sci-fi spy thriller set in a drug-fueled alternate history from the number one Audible best-selling author of Titanborn, Rhett C. Bruno, and James Wolanyk. Performed by award-winning actor Lou Diamond Phillips, star of Prodigal Son, Young Guns, and La Bamba.
The Stowaway by James S. Murray, Darren Wearmouth
Narrated by Barrie Kreinik
Macmillan Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Murray & Wearmouth
From the writer, producer, and actor best known as “Murr” on the hit television shows Impractical Jokers and The Misery Index, James S. Murray, and co-writer Darren Wearmouth comes The Stowaway, a suspenseful masterpiece that leaves a cruise ship stranded at sea with a serial killer hiding aboard.
Two years ago, Maria Fontana, the head of the psychology department at Columbia University, sat on a jury for one of the most depraved cases ever to pass through the hallowed halls of City Hall. Wyatt Butler, an antique watch restorer and alleged serial killer, was portrayed in the courtroom as a brutal monster. But Maria had to make the tough choice. In good conscience, she couldn’t convict him based purely on circumstantial evidence, and her deciding vote set Wyatt Butler free. The media soon outed her as the lone juror and her successful and quaint life was turned upside down. The victims of Wyatt’s ritualistic killings never forgave her either.
Now, she and her family have decided to take a vacation to get away from everything: a two-week-long transatlantic cruise. Nothing, and nobody should be able to bother her there. With her two twins and her fiancé, Steve, she is set to put the past behind her as soon as the ship leaves port. But when a passenger mysteriously disappears, Maria is left to wonder if maybe this was no coincidence. When another passenger is discovered brutally murdered in a similar way to Butler’s ritualistic MO, the ship goes on lockdown.
Maria, one of only twelve people in the world with intimate knowledge of the case, faces a perilous ticking clock. Is it a copycat? Or is she trapped on board with the bloodthirsty maniac she chose to set free?
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
“Murray and Wearmouth’s latest thriller The Stowaway is a riveting high-seas game of cat and mouse. It’s Agatha Christie crossed with James Patterson. If you’re nervous about taking a cruise now, you’ll be terrified after this read. Pick up a copy and enjoy the thrill ride.” (James Rollins, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Last Odyssey)
“Trapped on a cruise ship with a twisted murderer onboard. Intense horror. Frightening suspense. A true mystery. Lots of twists and turns. What more could you want? This is my kind of book!” (R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street)
The Scholars of Night by John M. Ford
Narrated by John Skelley
Recorded Books
An extraordinary novel of technological espionage and human betrayal, weaving past and present into a web of unbearable suspense.
Thomas Hansard is a brilliant historian at a small New England college. He specializes in Christopher Marlowe. But Hansard has a second secret career with The White Group, a “consulting agency” with shadowy government connections. There, he is a genius at teasing secrets out of documents old and new – to call him a code-breaker is an understatement.
When Hansard’s work exposes one of his closest friends as a Russian agent, and the friend then dies mysteriously, the connections seem all too clear. Shaken, Hansard turns away from his secret work to lose himself in an ancient Marlowe manuscript. Surely, a lost 400-year-old play is different enough from modern murder. He is very, very wrong.
When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting
Narrated by Jason Clarke, Stella Bloom
Macmillan Audio
Charming, hilarious, and emotional…When Sparks Fly is Helena Hunting at her very best!
Avery Spark is living her best life. Between her friends, her sisters, and Spark House, the event hotel her family owns, she doesn’t have much time for anything else, especially relationships. She’d rather hang out with her best friend and roommate, Declan McCormick, than deal with the dating scene. But everything changes when she is in a car accident and needs someone to care for her as she heals.
Declan avoids relationships, giving him a playboy reputation that he lives up to when he puts a one-night stand ahead of a promise he made to Avery. While he may not have been the one driving the car, he feels responsible for Avery’s injuries and is determined to make it up to her by stepping into the role of caretaker.
Little did they know that the more time they spend in compromising positions, the attraction they’ve been refusing to acknowledge becomes impossible to ignore. When they finally give in to the spark between them, neither is prepared for the consequences. Their love is fragile, and all it will take is a blow from the past to shatter it all.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Griffin.
The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel
Narrated by Greg Chun
Orbit
Diamond-sharp and savagely wry, The Body Scout is a timely science-fiction thriller debut set in an all-too-possible future, perfect for fans of William Gibson.
In the future you can have any body you want – as long as you can afford it.
But in a New York ravaged by climate change and repeat pandemics, Kobo is barely scraping by. He scouts the latest in gene-edited talent for Big Pharma-owned baseball teams, but his own cybernetics are a decade out of date, and twin sister loan sharks are banging down his door. Things couldn’t get much worse.
Then his brother – Monsanto Mets slugger J.J. Zunz – is murdered at home plate.
Determined to find the killer, Kobo plunges into a world of genetically modified CEOs, philosophical Neanderthals, and back-alley body modification, only to quickly find he’s in a game far bigger and more corrupt than he imagined. To keep himself together while the world is falling apart, he’ll have to navigate a time where both body and soul are sold to the highest bidder.
“I devoured it.” (Jonathan Lethem)
All These Bodies by Kendare Blake
Narrated by Matt Godfrey
Harper Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Matt Godfrey
Sixteen bloodless bodies. Two teenagers. One impossible explanation. In this edge-of-your-seat mystery from number one New York Times best-selling author Kendare Blake, the truth is as hard to believe as it is to find.
Summer 1958. A gruesome killer plagues the Midwest, leaving behind a trail of bodies completely drained of blood.
Michael Jensen, an aspiring journalist whose father happens to be the town sheriff, never imagined that the Bloodless Murders would come to his backyard. Not until the night the Carlson family was found murdered in their home. Marie Catherine Hale, a diminutive 15-year-old, was discovered at the scene – covered in blood. She is the sole suspect in custody.
Michael didn’t think that he would be part of the investigation, but he is pulled in when Marie decides that he is the only one she will confess to. As Marie recounts her version of the story, it falls to Michael to find the truth: What really happened the night that the Carlsons were killed? And how did one girl wind up in the middle of all these bodies?
An Indie Next List pick
Demon Mind by Anthony J. Melchiorri
Narrated by Peter Berkrot
Podium Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Peter Berkrot
A CIA field officer monitoring chemical weapon smuggling in Jordan is missing and with him, the trail for those deadly weapons.
Skilled Vector operatives Alex Wolfe and Skylar Cruz are deployed to find them before they fall into the wrong hands. But they’re not the only ones on the chase. When Vector is ambushed, they find themselves at the mercy of the strange chemical weapon they were sent to track. A weapon based on technology far more insidious and dangerous than they ever could have imagined…one that affects their very perception of reality.
Demon Mind is book two in the Vector series, where high-octane action and suspense collide with real science and technology.
The Rift by Rachel Lynch
Narrated by Olivia Mace
Self Published
To save one life, she risks many others.
Working for the Royal Military Police, Major Helen Scott is used to rapid change. On a posting to Paris she oversees security for a NATO summit in the city, yet has barely begun before her presence is demanded at Interpol headquarters in Lyon.
Helen’s orders are to locate a kidnapping victim – the eldest son of oil magnate Khalil Dalmani. The main suspect is Fawaz bin Nabil, whose fortune has been made from illegal trade familiar to the intelligence agencies.
Helen knows the pain of loss and won’t rest until Khalil’s child is found. Along the way, she crosses paths with old faces and forms new alliances. But who will betray her trust?
A stunning new thriller from the author of the acclaimed DI Kelly Porter novels and a rising star in British crime fiction.
The Islanders by S. V. Leonard
Narrated by Lisa Druett-Arundale
Self Published
Her dream escape is about to become a nightmare…
Kimberley King has spent the last five years trying to outrun the reason she left the police force. Her life is a mess and she’s desperate for change. So when she is randomly selected for the new series of the hit show LoveWrecked, she can’t pass up the chance to win the £100,000 prize. All Kimberley needs to do is couple up with one of her fellow contestants, win the infamous LoveWrecked challenges, and she will have enough cash for a fresh start.
But the island isn’t the paradise she was promised and within hours, one of the contestants is dead. Then the announcement comes: one of the islanders is a murderer and Kimberley must find out who, live on television. For every hour it takes her, one more person will die.
The game is rigged, everyone is hiding secrets, and time is running out…
An addictive and unputdownable crime thriller, perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and T.M. Logan.
One and Done by James Chandler
Narrated by James Anderson Foster
Podium Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by James Anderson Foster
After an impressive performance in front of a full house, local college basketball stand-out Davonte Blair celebrates the victory with a few friends.
But when a fierce argument over drugs ensues, the evening takes a violent turn — and one member of the group goes missing.
When police discover the body of the basketball team manager, the town turns into a tinderbox of emotions. The media is calling it a hate crime. The college president is desperate to avoid a scandal. And the police department is under intense pressure to solve the horrific case.
As defense attorney Sam Johnstone looks into the murder, the case grows even more complicated. Ronnie Norquist, the son of Sam’s longtime friend and law partner, was the dead student’s roommate — and Ronnie was there the night his roommate disappeared. His personal and professional worlds colliding, Sam can tell Ronnie knows more than he’s letting on. But what is it that Ronnie witnessed? And whose guilt does it prove?
In a case that’s full of circumstantial evidence and competing versions of truth, Sam must find out what really happened — before this college town tears itself apart.
- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of December 3rd on Brian’s Book Blog - December 3, 2023
- Disease X by N.J. Croft (Narrated by Joshua Saxon) - December 1, 2023
- A Purrfect Gift by Jae (Narrated by Anastasia Watley) - November 30, 2023
