Maria

When police stop Dustin Webb with a warrant to search his trunk, he knows there’s been a mistake. He’s former military and owns a security firm. But he’s horrified when the officers find explosives, and he can’t fathom how they got there. Criminal attorney Jamie Powell was Dustin’s best friend growing up. They haven’t spoken since he left for basic training, but she’s the first person he thinks of when he’s arrested. Jamie knows she’s putting her career on the line by defending an accused terrorist, but she’d never abandon him.

Tess O'Rourke dreams of becoming the first female chief of police in Long Beach, California. As commander of the East Division, she is well on her way...until the night she responds to an officer-needs-assistance call and fatally shoots an unarmed teenager. Despite being cleared of wrongdoing by a grand jury, Tess is so hounded by the public that she takes a job in Oregon to escape the bad press.

Michael Gresham meets his lost daughter, Cache, in her prison cell. She is scheduled for execution in 30 days. Her other lawyers have given up; there is nothing left to do. On a hunch, Michael reviews ancient records. He is astonished at what he finds. He goes before the appeals court. The lawyers at the other table hammer him; the judges pursue him. He leaves with a heavy heart. With gathering speed, the days tick past.

Kirstie Rawlings is jolted awake by a child crying. Racing upstairs to check on her newborn, she is plunged into every parents’ worst nightmare. She hears an unknown voice in the baby monitor, saying: "Let’s take the child - and go." Is someone trying to steal her little girl? In the bedroom, her daughter is safe asleep in her cot. Is the voice coming from a nearby house? But there aren’t any other children living on her quiet country road....

Birmingham, Alabama, has lost all power. Its streets are jammed with cars that won’t start, and its airport is engulfed in flames from burning planes. All communications—cell phones, computers, even radios—are silent. Every home and business is dark. Is it a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or something far worse?

Everyone is talking about Jennie Sue Baker and the mess she made of her life in New York. The former high school queen bee - and wealthy darling of Bloom, Texas - has returned home after all these years, riding on a common bus and bearing two bounced alimony checks. In a town that thrives on gossip, Jennie’s fall from grace has shamed her mother, set the town buzzing, and caused old, jealous enemies to whisper in delight. They say she’s taken a job as a housekeeper, gotten a garage apartment, and might be crushing on Rick Lawson, a simple farmer with modest dreams.

An ex-New York detective, now working as a freelance investigator in London, Thomas Blume hunts for the killers that tore his family apart. For justice, for closure, for revenge. But when Blume stumbles across a case that baffled police, he unwittingly becomes part of a world full of criminals, thugs, and corrupt cops that will do anything to stop him. Now, in a country he doesn't understand and a city stacked against him, Blume must fight to expose the truth.

"You've done better." With one uncharacteristically sassy tweet to her longtime celebrity crush, Zoe Miller's life turns upside down. Ultrahot A-lister Chase Covington doesn't just respond to Zoe's tweet, he does the unthinkable: he messages Zoe directly. Now she must decide between walking away or meeting her crush in person.

You know her voice. Now hear her story.

Audible has teamed up with Rolling Stone to produce an uncompromisingly honest Audible Original that honors the life and legacy of the incomparable Aretha Franklin. Aretha’s universal appeal was evident from the release of her first album at age 14 through her nearly 50 Top 40 hits. Yet this intimate biography reminds us that Aretha knew pain as much as she knew glory. It was the blues, residing deep within her soul, that gave way to a voice able to lift millions with a profound sense of freedom, self-worth, and undeniable talent to rise above sorrow.

This edgy, pause-register saga isn't just a trilogy, it's an enthralling listening experience, a non-stop roller coaster ride of emotion that will keep you on the edge of your seat, giving you cliffhanger after cliffhanger until the final, jaw-dropping climax. You will be on pins and needles as Selena Kitt plays cat and mouse with you, the listener. You'll find yourself asking - am I listening to a romance? A coming-of-age tale of sexual awakening in the Puritanical, repressed late 1950s?