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Not my favorite so far, but everything I needed

Revisado: 06-25-24

My biggest hitch in this book initially, was the fact that the sinister sheriff has the same name as the psychopathic sheriff narrator of The Killer Inside Me.
Apparently it was just a coincidence, as far as the books are concerned, but if there was ever a real Lou Ford, I sure wonder what he did to Jim Thompson.

The plot in this is kind of all over the place, but it makes me want to read Thompson's other books about working in oil fields.

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Maybe my favorite Ellroy narrator

Revisado: 05-21-24

It's hard to describe a James Ellroy book to someone who's never read him.
His plotting is so insane and convoluted that I usually listen to his books twice in a row the first time.
This book has all the Black Dahlia that I could ever ask for, but I guess a certain type of reader might resent how much of this book is about boxing and real estate.
I think it all works, but I also listened to it twice in a row because of how crazy it was, so...

Craig Wasson is the definitive Ellroy narrator (they even have similar voices), but I really enjoyed Stephen Hoye's narration in this book.
He had to do a lot of crazy voices, and I feel like he did a great job of sketching out the characters that way.

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Woof

Revisado: 05-15-24

I don't have a text copy to reference all of the author's bad takes, but he shows a bizarre credulity and willingness to sympathize with certain killers (like the British creep who murdered homeless men to sleep with), while feeling a need to pontificate on the nature of evil with others.
The author is an ambulance driver, if you wonder at any point what the his credentials are.

The book gets a 3 overall because most of the books I've listened to that have discussed these serial killers did not have British narrators.

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I wish this guy met Maury Terry

Revisado: 05-03-24

This is a lot like The Ultimate Evil: Searching for the Sons of Sam.
An intrepid crazy man starts looking into an infamous episode in American crime, what he finds is so shocking and mysterious that he becomes obsessed and spends decades ruining his own life in order to write the book.

In many respects, reading the book makes you feel like you know less than you did before.

But whether you're convinced by this or that theory, you go to bed happy just knowing that the real murderers were the friends you made along the way.

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The narration is a lot and the stories are just as much

Revisado: 02-25-24

These stories are kind of like those of Gogol, and with John McDonagh's narration the overall production is very much like Peter Batchelor reading Gogol's Collected Stories.

If you came here for "The Nutcracker" and similarly festive stuff, turn around and find something with that up front in the title. These are weird, and the narrator leans in hard on that.

Listen to the sample and you'll know if you can handle it.

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Tedious and uninformative

Revisado: 01-05-24

Half of this book is a shallow and disjointed introduction to the life and work of Albert Camus.
The other half is the author incessantly announcing their contempt for Camus for not being a communist.

That's all well and good, but unfortunately the two halves alternate with each sentence, so every fact you're given about Camus or his work, is followed by a breathless analysis of how it relates to his nihilism, his cowardice, and his love of imperialism,

I came away from this book with a sense that a good author could have taken the same source material and written a good book on the topic of Camus's weakness and irrelevance.
I wouldn't have read it, because I wanted to read a very short introduction to Albert Camus.
But if you want a bad introduction and a bad critique, this book is for you.
And I mean it, I can't think of anyone else this book is for.
The narration is terrific.

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highest recommendation

Revisado: 06-25-23

First the caveats: Between the audio quality (a little fuzzy) and the navigation (two 30min chapters), I assume this was converted with minimal effort from a tape original.

But Stephen Mitchell's adaptation of the book is so beautiful, and Peter Coyote's performance of it is definitive.

You'll need an ebook or physical copy if you want to know more about Mitchell's approach to the text. If you're seriously in the market for the present audiobook, I think you will enjoy the full thing with the long introduction.
I've found it in a lot of used bookstores, so you can probably get it for next to nothing from an ethical online store like Better World Books.

Would the audiobook be better if Peter Coyote had read the introduction?
Yeah, obviously it would be better if Peter Coyote read the introduction, but that's an unfair standard to judge any audiobook by.
Highest recommendations!

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lol the kisses were a little too high in the audio

Revisado: 05-30-23

I enjoyed this recording because this is a great play to use your imagination on.
Read along while you listen, maybe find a cheap edition with good notes like the Folger Shakespeare Library.

If you decide to see a live performance, don't be surprised if the first three rows get free ponchos for sitting in the Splash Zone.
there will be blood

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a little lightweight but worth a credit

Revisado: 02-13-23

I would call this one of the breezier tours of global corruption, past and present, that I've read.

The book has a lot of interesting information, but I appreciate the references to specific works by other authors, which he thinks give more insight to the topics under discussion.
There were a bunch of books that sound like I should check them out, and that is something I love in works of nonfiction.

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Amazing narration!

Revisado: 01-05-23

I liked this book OK, but I mainly just wanted to say that the author did a great job narrating this.

I feel like he also did a good job of not going for the sheer exploitation available in this story.
It isn't a masterpiece of research or reporting or style, but it gets you through the essential facts of a very long and depressing story, in a respectful manner and play length.

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