Download Top 100 Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

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Title: The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy

Author: Jame Purdy, John Waters (introduction)

Narrator: Alice Lunsford, Cassandra Campbell, Bonnie MacBird, Jim Meskimen, Stephen Hoye, Coleen Marlo, John Rubinstein, Gabrielle De Cuir

Format: Unabridged

Length: 25 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-05-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Celebrate "an authentic American genius"(Gore Vidal) in James Purdy's first complete short story collection. The publication of The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy is a literary event that marks the first time all of James Purdy's short stories - 56 in number, including seven drawn from his unpublished archives - have been collected in a single volume. As prolific as he was unclassifiable, James Purdy was considered one of the greatest - and most underappreciated - writers in America in the latter half of the twentieth century. Championed by writers as diverse as Dame Edith Sitwell, Gore Vidal, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Carl Van Vechten, John Cowper Powys, and Dorothy Parker, Purdy's vast body of work has heretofore been relegated to the avant-garde fringes of the American literary mainstream.

His unique form and variety of style made the Ohio-born Purdy impossible to categorize in standard terms, though his unique, mercurial talent garnered him a following of loyal readers and made him - in the words of Susan Sontag - "one of the half dozen or so living American writers worth taking seriously." Purdy's journey to recognition came with as much outrage and condemnation as it did lavish praise and lasting admiration. Some early assessments even dismissed his work as that of a disturbed mind, while others acclaimed the very same work as healing and transformative. Purdy's fiction was considered so uniquely unsettling that his first book, Don't Call Me by My Right Name, a collection of short stories all reprinted in this edition, had to be printed privately in the United States in 1956, after first being published in England.

Best known for his novels Malcolm, Cabot Wright Begins, Jeremy's Version, and Eustace Chisholm and the Works, Purdy captured an America that was at once highly realistic and deeply symbolic, a landscape filled with social outcasts living in crisis and longing for love, characterized by his dark sense of humor and unflinching eye. Love, disillusionment, the collapse of the family, ecstatic longing, sharp inner pain, and shocking eruptions of violence pervade the lives of his characters in stories that anticipate both "David Lynch and Desperate Housewives" (Guardian). In "Color of Darkness," for example, a lonely child attempts to swallow his father's wedding ring; in "Eventide," the anguish of two sisters over the loss of their sons is deeply felt in the summer heat; and in the gothic horror of "Mr. Evening," a young man is hypnotized and imprisoned by a predatory old woman. These stories and many others, both haunting and hilarious, form a canvas of deep desperation and immanent sympathy, as Purdy narrates "the inexorable progress toward disaster in such a way that it's as satisfying and somehow life-affirming as progress toward a happy ending" (Jonathan Franzen).

It may have taken over fifty years, but American culture is finally in sync with James Purdy.

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Title: Scavenger Hunt

Subtitle: Cooper Collection, Book 123

Author: Bill Bernico

Narrator: Curtis R. Sisco

Format: Unabridged

Length: 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-31-13

Publisher: Downwind Publications

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Elliott is hired to find a witness to a fatal auto accident that happened right outside his office building. Matt is hired to get the goods on a nasty neighbor who seems to be vandalizing his own property in an effort to frame his neighbor. But why?

Members Reviews:

Good

Read all the multi-packs and shorts packs long ago, since 2012. The author has gotten better with age/practice. I've read all of the Cooper stories (1 - 230) and several of Mr. Bernico's short stories and most have not disappointed me. You'll find some poorly written or predictable stories, but for the most part they are fair to good.

The Cooper series are better, but there's a few stinkers, too. They're great for a coffee break or a few minutes to relax.

cooper collection

i have enjoyed reading 132 of bill bernico's cooper collection, looking forward to more of his detective stories, easy to read and will keep your attention

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Title: The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations

Subtitle: Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 1

Author: Manly Wade Wellman

Narrator: Brian Troxell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-22-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 33 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

This audiobook collects Wellmans John Thunstone and Lee Corbet stories, written between 1943 and 1979. These stories combine the mystical and horrific with traditional Southern folk tales and legends. These stories also reveal a post-World War II modernism that make them much more then pulp romanticism. The paranoia and cynicism of modern weird icons, such as The X-files, may well have had their genesis in the pulp musings of Manly Wade Wellman. Indeed the intensely driven, idealistic occult investigator, John Thunstone, could be a pulp/noir stand-in for Fox Mulder.

Editorial Reviews:

This collection of Manly Wade Wellmans intriguing, mystifying, and eerie stories featuring John Thunstone and Lee Cobbet is guaranteed to inspire paranoia and thrills. Brian Troxell gives voice to the disturbing, sometimes alarming, and always entertaining adventures of these investigators of the supernatural from a master of mystically romantic pulp horror. Stories featuring playboy detective of the supernatural, Thunstone, and fellow occult expert Cobbet include, besides the title story famous for introducing Thunstone and arch-enemy, sorcerer Rowley Thorne, "The Golden Goblins", "Hoofs", "The Letters of Cold Fire", "John Thunstone's Inheritance", "Sorcery from Thule", "The Dead Man's Hand", and "The Shonokins".

Members Reviews:

LOVED this collection

What made the experience of listening to The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations the most enjoyable?

I loved the John Thunstone character and couldn't get enough. Initially a bit disappointed with the other main characters but they grow on you almost as fast.

Any additional comments?

I found Manly Wade Wellman due to a mention and acknowledgement of him in the preface of a Hellboy story in a Hellboy graphic novel by Mike Mignola. I can definitely see the inspiration Mignola drew from these stories and if you are a fan of his, you'll likely love Wellman as well.

Thunstone and Cobbett

If you could sum up The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations in three words, what would they be?

paranormal pulp fiction

What did you like best about this story?

There are several high points, but what i like like best is the author's confidence in good's triumph over evil.

What does Brian Troxell bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

The opportunity to absorb this great volume while I drive to work.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The culmination of twice cursed, and the death of Jackson...

Any additional comments?

download every book in this masterful series.

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Title: Thou Shalt Not Kill

Subtitle: Biblical Mystery Stories

Author: Anne Perry (editor)

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert, Eric Pollins, Aaron Abano

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-24-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

The greatest story ever told; the rise and fall of civilizations, empires, kings, despots, prophets and disciples; tales of love, betrayal, revenge, war, and disaster, the most fundamental and eternal myths and fables of Judeo-Christian society; the end of the world - the Bible has all of these. And now acclaimed mystery author Anne Perry has culled together an extraordinary list of writers - from Sharyn McCrumb, Carole Nelson Douglas, Robert Barnard, Marcia Talley, Susan Moody and Peter Lovesey to Sharan Newman, Nancy Pickard, Reginald Hill, Gillian Linscott, Simon Brett, and Peter Robinson - to contribute all new mystery and crime stories inspired by and based on these most ancient of biblical tales.

From Sampson and Delilah to David and Goliath; from Mount Sinai to the Last Supper, Thou Shalt Not Kill explores the stories of the bible as chilling expressions of the most basic instincts found in the "Good Book". With 15 unique and inspired twists on the traditional mystery story, Thou Shalt Not Kill is an inimitable edition to any library.

Members Reviews:

Old (Testament) School Murder Mysteries

I am a total old-school Mystery freak, and when I heard Anne Perry had a collection of fantastic whodunits based on stories from the old testament, I jumped on it.

One thing you can say for the Bible is it is an age-old fount of the lurid mystery going back to the first recorded murder.

Here we have stories from first-rate writers such as Simon Brett, Sharyn McCrumb, Peter Robinson, Nancy Pickard, and Anne Perry herself. Theyre full of arch twists on biblical stories, Moses in Slavery-era America, John the Baptist in the mob, and always, always entertaining.

Tavia Gilbert, Eric Pollins, and Aaron Abano keep the suspense tight--even when youve already heard the storylong ago in Sunday school.

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Title: Fatal Enemy

Subtitle: Jess Kimball Thriller

Author: Diane Capri

Narrator: Anne Hancock

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-03-13

Publisher: StoneHouse Ink

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 14 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Relentless victims' rights advocate Jess Kimball and Jack Reacher both deliver justice when the legal system fails. Reacher waits until trouble finds him and then he does whatever it takes. But Jess pursues legal justice and draws lines she will not cross. How can she win against killers who refuse to follow the rules?

Jess Kimball hadn't been in the same room with Richard Martin for more than a dozen years. Worse things than Richard had happened to her since she'd seen him last. He'd find out soon enough that she wasn't a gullible sixteen-year-old anymore. She was his enemy now and he was hers, whether he knew it or not.

Jess decided long ago she would never yield to him again. Richard Martin would make his choice tonight. Would they become fatal enemies? In this tense battle of nerve and guile, who will survive?

Members Reviews:

A hard story to read.

In all honest, if I hadn't thoroughly enjoyed Diane Capri's Jordan Fox series, I would not have finished the first chapter of this story.

Jess Kimble, is a victim's rights activists/investigative journalist who begins the story as a disgruntled ex-girlfriend who tried to keep the knowledge of a child from the father. But he found out, and the child was kidnapped. She is searching for her son. Now, Richard has fathered another child, and Jess is out to make sure he doesn't repeat his actions with the new mother after a divorce.

With a murdered mother and a kidnapped child, all caught on camera, Canada will not turn over the killer because he will be facing the death penalty. Now it's up to Jess to find justice for Betsy.

A well written story, but I'm not certain I like it, yet. I will read at least the next one in the series before making up my mind.

Fast paced novella that will keep you riveted to your seat

A fast paced, riveting novella. A great introduction to Jess Kimball and how she starts out. There is clearly more to her life than the reader is privy to, but there is enough to understand why she chose the profession she did and how she works within the law to work for the victims and to get to the truth.

A great start to a new series from a great crime writer.

Rating; 4.7

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Great short story!

Jess is an investigative reporter who is helping her friend protect her young daughter from her abusive ex-husband. He kidnaps the child and takes her to Canada where his family reside. Jess follows in a plot to bring the child safely back to the US and away from her father. Telling any more would be a spoiler, but this is a well written and well plotted story.

Like 2nd in series better

Not much to the plot. The next book in the series was much better. Kept me reading.

It was over as quick as quickly as it started.

It was really too short, if all the other books in this series are this short, you could combine them to make a decent length book. The main character is a good premise and the situation is believable.

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Title: The Best Crime Stories Ever Told

Author: Dorothy L. Sayers (editor)

Narrator: Robin Bloodworth, Suehyla El Attar

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 20 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

When acclaimed mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers first began compiling anthologies of the best crime stories in the 1920s and 30s, the genre was in the flush of its first golden age. While it is hard to imagine today - after every possible mystery plot has been told, retold, subverted, and played straight again by hundreds of writers over nearly a century - in Sayerss day there were still twists that had never been seen, and machinations of crime that would shock even jaded Jazz Age fans.

Now todays fans of mystery and crime can experience a handpicked collection of over thirty of the most outstanding stories from this era, originally chosen by Sayers and newly introduced by Otto Penzler, a leading expert and connoisseur in the field of mystery literature. As a prolific writer of the genre, Sayers understood the difficulty of putting together a mystery that was not only sufficiently challenging (so that the solution was not immediately obvious to the listener), but also solvable without forcing the writer to cheat. That balance between opacity and solvability remains the greatest challenge of writing great crime stories - and these are some of the greatest.

Authors appearing in this collection include:

Editorial Reviews:

Being an acclaimed mystery writer herself, Dorothy L. Sayers knows a thing or two about what makes a story captivating. In this anthology of short fiction, Sayers compiles over 30 of the best mysteries from the early 1900s, a veritable golden age for the genre. Robin Bloodworth and Suehyla El Attar perform with a robust gusto, clearly reveling in these classic tales by such luminaries as Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, and H. G. Wells. Listeners will be thrilled by the many treasures unearthed in The Best Crime Stories Ever Told.

Members Reviews:

Love Dorothy L Sayers

What disappointed you about The Best Crime Stories Ever Told?

What a disappointment, I love the crime books of Sayers, However, this collection degenerated into an anthology of ghost stories - not interested in Ghost stories and the write up should perhaps have been a bit more explanatory.

Has The Best Crime Stories Ever Told turned you off from other books in this genre?

No - The book is not a collection of Crime Stories.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Robin Bloodworth and Suehyla El Attar ?

Any one else would have been better as a narrator, he is particularly hard to listen to and the material did not help.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not really, it was long and I felt I had to give it a chance, but half way through book 3 I gave up. I wanted crime not ghost stories or philosophizing.

Any additional comments?

Audible should perhaps give a more accurate write up. The least favourite book I have chosen so far, but I guess there are going to be books I don't love. Having said that someone who liked this genre may love the book, I just felt a little cheated - by Sayers - is that a little weird?

Don't bother if you hate fake British accents.

Robin Bloodworth has almost singlehandedly ruined one of my favorite genres. The stories are intriguing, but I can't get past that voice. Fake British accent, drawling to the point of driving someone, who loves legit British accents, mad. In his regular voice he sounds OK American. I'm a diehard Sayers fan. Or at least I was.

Confused

A bit confused.

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Title: Target Practice

Author: Rex Stout

Narrator: George K. Wilson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

An invaluable sample of the early work of one of Americas finest mystery writers

Decades before detective Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, first struck fear into the hearts of Manhattans criminals, Rex Stout wrote fiction for All-Stories Magazine. By the time the Wolfe series brought him fame, Stout had put his early work behind him, and made no effort to preserve it. At the time of his death, these early mysteries and suspense stories were thought to be lost forever, but deep in the Library of Congress lay copies of the original magazine. Published for the first time in 1997, these early gems show a writer deploying all the humor, style, and clever plotting that would make Nero Wolfe a star.

Included here are Secrets, Stouts first mystery, Target Practice, a story of World War I, and Justice Ends at Home, whose main characters will look very familiar to fans of Nero and Archie.

Members Reviews:

Delightful Vignettes

These stories give insight into Mr. Stout's genius, and the method of story-telling in these efforts can be seen refined and shaped into the cohesive universe of the later Nero Wolfe books. Each story presents a character with a quandary, and characters approach their quandaries with emotional depth. Mr. Stout's political interest in World Federalism, which occasionally surfaces in his mysteries, is starkly outlined in the first of these stories.

Although a proto Wolfe/Archie relationship can be found, one can be very grateful that Mr. Stout continued to refine from this first effort. I can hardly imagine an Archie who says to Wolfe, "You're a terrible lawyer, Sir.", although one can see the beginning of the impudence necessary to Archie's character.

These stories, on their own merits, are interesting, engaging, and often quite funny. To someone who enjoys the larger canon of Rex Stout's work, this is a valuable tour to the way he thinks. To everyone else, these stories are simply quite good.

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Title: Beware of the Trains

Subtitle: And Other Stories

Author: Edmund Crispin

Narrator: Philip Bird

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-29-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Who burglarised the train heading for Victoria Station and whatever became of its conductor? Did the village idiot or Mrs Foley murder the mean-spirited Edgar Foley? Or could the constable be responsible for the devious deed? Who on earth will be able to untangle the affair of the disappearing car, the black necktie, and the abortive theft?

Members Reviews:

Very Nice

A good selection of short stories, narrated well and written to hold interest.

Clues are fair and the plots well thought out. (I think Edmund Crispin was a founder member of the Detective Writers' Club who formed the rules for writing detective fiction so as to be fair to the reader).

I found this highly entertaining and would have no trouble recommending it.

Thank you, Audible, for introducing some classic detective fiction that is extremely well read.

Classic Crispin

A slightly breathless delivery in this narration but well characterised. Short stories, many including Inspector Humbleby, with the usual Crispin twists and unlikely plots. All good fun and a must for Crispin/Fen fans.

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Title: The Night and the Music

Subtitle: The Matthew Scudder Short Story Collection

Author: Lawrence Block

Narrator: Lawrence Block

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-01-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 28 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

Lawrence Block's 17 Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world - along with a bevy of awards including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe (Germany), and the Maltese Falcon (Japan). But Scudder has starred in short fiction as well, and it's all here, from a pair of late-'70s novelettes ("Out the Window" and "A Candle for the Bag Lady") through "By the Dawn's Early Light" (Edgar) and "The Merciful Angel of Death" (Shamus), all the way to "One Last Night at Grogan's", a moving and elegiac story never before published. Some of these stories appeared in such magazines as Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen, and Playboy.

The title vignette, "The Night and the Music", was written for a NYC jazz festival program; another, "Mick Ballou Looks at the Blank Screen", has appeared only as the text of a limited-edition broadside. Several stories look back from the time of their writing, with Scudder recounting events from his former life as a cop, first as a patrolman partnered with the legendary Vince Mahaffey, then as an NYPD detective leading a double life. Along with these eleven stories and novelettes, The Night and The Music includes a list of the seventeen novels in chronological order, and an author's note detailing the origin and bibliographical details of each of the stories.

Brian Koppelman, the prominent screenwriter and director (Solitary Man, Ocean's Thirteen, Rounders) and a major Matt Scudder fan, has sweetened the pot with an introduction.

Members Reviews:

Stories are clever if you can get past his voice.

As clever an author as Block is, his narration leaves much to be desired. If you can stand his reading, some of the stories are worthwhile. This is a case where I'd recommend reading them instead.

Is this Matt Scudder's last episode ??

The book is collection of Matt Scudder's short stories that most deal with the early years of Matt as a detective. They are witty, engaging and fun to read with a melancholic twist for the reader that knows that this may be the last book of one of the most compelling detective series . We shall miss you , Matt Scudder !!!

Short Stories - Some Good; Some Not

What made the experience of listening to The Night and the Music the most enjoyable?

Some new Matt Scudder stories,and some are new. I had read or heard most of the stories but really enjoyed the new ones. The span Matt's career/life from the time he was married to his first wife on.

Any additional comments?

Why did Larry decided to read this himself? He once said that he wouldn't do it again.

New York City Crime

If you could sum up The Night and the Music in three words, what would they be?

New York. Police. Crime.

What other book might you compare The Night and the Music to, and why?

All of the Mathew Scudder books and crime fiction. You are taken into an intimate picture of the criminal underworld showing the connection between police and criminals and the effect such a job has.

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Title: Short Stories by G. K. Chesterton

Author: G. K. Chesterton

Narrator: Bart Wolffe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-25-12

Publisher: Saland Publishing

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies

Publisher's Summary:

A collection of five short stories by G. K. Chesterton including The Blue Cross, The Invisible Man, The Three Tools of Death, The Flying Stars and The Wrong Shape.