Audiobooks narrated by Joe Mantegna

Featuring rapid-fire dialogue and spicy characters, Robert B. Parker's books are top-shelf reading for fans of detective crime novels. His Spenser series is several titles strong and an established classic; lately Parker has raised the stakes with two additional series (one featuring private eye Sunny Randle, the other featuring police chief Jesse Stone) that may eventually rival his beloved Boston P.I. Parker passed away in January 2010, following a successful career writing over 60 books that audiences continue to enjoy. He was 77.

Robert B. Parker (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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Thinner

The "extraordinary" ( Booklist ) novel of one man's quest to find the source of his nightmare and to reverse it before he becomes...nothing at all. This #1 national bestseller from Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, "pulsates with evil...it will have you on the edge of your seat" ( Publishers Weekly ). Billy Halleck, good husband, loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American Good Life: he has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career. But his is also fifty pounds overweight, heading, as his doctor says, into heart attack territory. One day, in a moment of carelessness, Billy sideswipes an old gypsy woman as she is crossing the street. The woman dies, but Billy has connections and gets off with a mere slap on the wrist. After the trial, the victim's ancient father curses him with a single word: "Thinner." Shedding weight by the week, Halleck is desperate enough for one last gamble...one that will lead him to a nightmare showdown with the forces of evil melting his flesh away. Beginning in suburban Connecticut and climaxing in rural Maine, this is a novel of unrelenting terror and growing horror as well as a nightmarish allegory about what lies beyond the limits of American complacency-and the responsibilities of human actions. With an introduction by Stephen King on "The Importance of Being Bachman," Thinner oozes "undeniable suspense" ( The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ) and "genuine chills" ( Kirkus Reviews ).

Stephen King (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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The Professional

A knock on Spenser's office door can mean only one thing: a new case. This time the visitor is a local lawyer with an interesting story. Elizabeth Shaw specializes in wills and trusts at the Boston law firm of Shaw & Cartwright, and over the years she's developed a friendship with wives of very wealthy men. These rich wives have a shared secret: they've all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower—and now he's blackmailing them for money. Shaw hires Spenser to make Eisenhower "cease and desist," so to speak, but when women start turning up dead, Spenser's case goes from blackmail to murder. As matters become more complicated, Spenser's longtime love, Susan, begins offering input on the case, analyzing Gary's behavior patterns in hopes of opening a new avenue of investigation. It turns out that not all of Gary's women are rich. So if he's not using them for blackmail, then what is his purpose? Spenser switches tactics to focus on the husbands, only to find that innocence and guilt may be two sides of the same coin.

Robert B. Parker (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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The Godfather

More than forty years ago, Mario Puzo wrote his iconic portrait of the Mafia underworld as told through the fictional first family of American crime, the Corleones. The leader, Vito Corleone, is the Godfather. He is a benevolent despot who stops at nothing to gain and hold power. His command post is a fortress on Long Island from which he presides over a vast underground empire that includes rackets, gambling, bookmaking, and unions. His influence runs through all levels of American society, from the cop on the beat to the nation's mighty. Mario Puzo, a master storyteller, introduces us to unforgettable characters, and the elements of this world explode to life in this violent and impassioned chronicle.

Mario Puzo (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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The Cold Moon: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

Lincoln Rhyme returns in a heart stopping new thriller from the author of "The Twelfth Card" On a freezing December night, with a full moon hovering in the black sky over New York City, two people are brutally murdered -- the death scenes marked by eerie, matching calling cards: moon-faced clocks investigators fear ticked away the victims' last moments on earth. Renowned criminologist Lincoln Rhyme immediately identifies the clock distributor and has the chilling realization that the killer -- who has dubbed himself the Watchmaker -- has more murders planned in the hours to come. Rhyme, a quadriplegic long confined to his wheelchair, immediately taps his trusted partner and longtime love, Amelia Sachs, to walk the grid and be his eyes and ears on the street. But Sachs has other commitments now -- namely, her first assignment as lead detective on a homicide of her own. As she struggles to balance her pursuit of the infuriatingly elusive Watchmaker with her own case, Sachs unearths shocking revelations about the police force that threaten to undermine her career, her sense of self and her relationship with Rhyme. As the Rhyme-Sachs team shows evidence of fissures, the Watchmaker is methodically stalking his victims and planning a diabolical criminal masterwork....Indeed, the Watchmaker may be the most cunning and mesmerizing villain Rhyme and Sachs have ever encountered.

Jeffery Deaver (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Cold Moon

Lincoln Rhyme returns in a heart stopping new thriller from the author of The Twelfth Card On a freezing December night, with a full moon hovering in the black sky over New York City, two people are brutally murdered -- the death scenes marked by eerie, matching calling cards: moon-faced clocks investigators fear ticked away the victims' last moments on earth. Renowned criminologist Lincoln Rhyme immediately identifies the clock distributor and has the chilling realization that the killer -- who has dubbed himself the Watchmaker -- has more murders planned in the hours to come. Rhyme, a quadriplegic long confined to his wheelchair, immediately taps his trusted partner and longtime love, Amelia Sachs, to walk the grid and be his eyes and ears on the street. But Sachs has other commitments now -- namely, her first assignment as lead detective on a homicide of her own. As she struggles to balance her pursuit of the infuriatingly elusive Watchmaker with her own case, Sachs unearths shocking revelations about the police force that threaten to undermine her career, her sense of self and her relationship with Rhyme. As the Rhyme-Sachs team shows evidence of fissures, the Watchmaker is methodically stalking his victims and planning a diabolical criminal masterwork....Indeed, the Watchmaker may be the most cunning and mesmerizing villain Rhyme and Sachs have ever encountered.

Jeffery Deaver (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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The Coffin Dancer

Detective Lincoln Rhyme, the foremost criminalist in the NYPD, is on the hunt for an elusive murderer, the Coffin Dancer. He's a brilliant hitman who changes his appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims, only one of whom has lived long enough to offer a clue: the assassin has an eerie tattoo on his arm of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman in front of a casket. Like his previous bestselling novels A Maiden's Grave and The Bone Collector, Jeffery Deaver's latest psychological thriller combines spine-chilling forensic detail with a turbocharged plot. In The Coffin Dancer, Rhyme, tragically paralyzed from a line-of-duty accident, continues to tutor his beautiful, Detective Amelia Sachs, in the art of criminal hunting. Rhyme is certain he's seen this killer before, and his suspicion of an earlier encounter fuels a bitter taste for vengeance. When the chameleonlike assassin targets three federal witnesses for death, the stakes reach a new high. Rhyme's brainpower and Sachs's legwork are the only tools they have to track the cunning murderer through the subways, parks, and airports of a darkly painted New York City. And they have only forty-eight hours before the Coffin Dancer strikes again. With The Coffin Dancer, Deaver -- already an internationally bestselling author whose acclaimed novels have been translated into a dozen languages -- uses his trademark plot twists to keep this fast-paced, masterly thriller steamrolling along with breathtaking speed. This is page-turning suspense of the highest order.

Jeffery Deaver (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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Street Boys

Naples, Italy, during four fateful days in the fall of 1943. The only people left in the shattered, bombed-out city are the lost, abandoned children whose only goal is to survive another day. None could imagine that they would become fearless fighters and the unlikeliest heroes of World War II. They are the warriors immortalized in Street Boys, Lorenzo Carcaterra’s exhilarating new novel, a book that exceeds even his bestselling Sleepers as a riveting reading experience. It’s late September. The war in Europe is almost won. Italy is leaderless, Mussolini already arrested by anti-Fascists. The German army has evacuated the city of Naples. Adults, even entire families, have been marched off to work camps or simply sent off to their deaths. Now, the German army is moving toward Naples to finish the job. Their chilling instructions are: If the city can’t belong to Hitler, it will belong to no one. No one but children. Children who have been orphaned or hidden by parents in a last, defiant gesture against the Nazis. Children, some as young as ten years old, armed with just a handful of guns, unexploded bombs, and their own ingenuity. Children who are determined to take on the advancing enemy and save the city—or die trying. There is Vincenzo Soldari, a sixteen-year-old history buff who is determined to make history by leading others with courage and self-confidence; Carlo Maldini, a middle-aged drunkard desperate to redeem himself by adding his experience to the raw exuberance of the young fighters; Nunzia Maldini, his nineteen-year-old daughter, who helps her father regain his self-respect— and loses her heart to an American G.I.; Corporal Steve Connors, a soldier sent out on reconnaissance, then cut off from his comrades—with no choice but to aid the street boys; Colonel Rudolph Van Klaus, the proud Nazi commander shamed by his own sadistic mission; and, of course, the dozens of young boys who use their few skills and great heart to try to save their city, their country, and themselves. In its compassionate portrait of the rootless young, and its pitiless portrayal of the violence that is at once their world and their way out, Street Boys continues and deepens Lorenzo Carcaterra’s trademark themes. In its awesome scope and pure page-turning excitement, it stands as a stirring tribute to the underdog in us all—and as a singular addition to the novels about World War II.

Lorenzo Carcaterra (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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Sixkill

The last Spenser novel completed by Robert B. Parker. On location in Boston, bad-boy actor Jumbo Nelson is accused of the rape and murder of a young woman. From the start the case seems fishy, so the Boston PD calls on Spenser to investigate. Things don't look so good for Jumbo, whose appetites for food, booze, and sex are as outsized as his name. He was the studio's biggest star, but he's become its biggest liability. In the course of the investigation, Spenser encounters Jumbo's bodyguard: a young former football-playing Native American named Zebulon Sixkill. He acts tough, but Spenser sees something more within the young man. Despite the odd circumstances, the two forge an unlikely alliance, with Spenser serving as mentor. As the case grows darker and secrets about both Jumbo and the dead woman come to light, it's Spenser—with Sixkill at his side—who must put things right.

Robert B. Parker (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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Silent Night: A Spenser Holiday Novel

It's December in Boston, and Spenser is busy planning the menu for Christmas dinner when he's confronted in his office by a young boy named Slide. Homeless and alone, Slide has found refuge with an organization named Street Business, which gives shelter and seeks job opportunities for the homeless and lost. Slide's mentor, Jackie Alvarez, is being threatened, and Street Business is in danger of losing its tenuous foothold in the community, turning Slide and many others like him back on the street. But it's not a simple case of intimidation - Spenser, aided by Hawk, finds a trail that leads to a dangerous drug kingpin, whose hold on the at-risk community Street Business serves threatens not just the boys' safety and security, but their lives as well. Unfinished at the time of his death, Silent Night was completed by Parker's longtime agent, whose decades-long association with Parker's work gives her unique insight and perspective to his voice and storytelling style. Her contribution also speaks volumes about their enduring friendship.

Helen Brann, Robert B. Parker (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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School Days

Lily Ellsworth--erect, firm, white-haired, and stylish--is the grand dame of Dowling, Massachusetts, and possesses an iron will and a bottomless purse. When she hires Spenser to investigate her grandson Jared Clark's alleged involvement in a school shooting, Spenser is led into an inquiry that grows more harrowing at every turn. Though seven people were killed in cold blood, and despite Jared's being named as a co-conspirator by the other shooter, Mrs. Ellsworth is convinced of her grandson's innocence. Jared's parents are resigned to his fate, and the boy himself doesn't seem to care whether he goes to prison for a crime he might not have committed. As the probe goes on, Spenser finds himself up against a number of roadblocks--from the school officials who don't want him asking questions, to Jared's own parents, who are completely indifferent to the boy's defense. Ultimately, Spenser discovers a web of blackmail and some heavy-duty indiscretions--and a truth too disturbing to contemplate. Before the case reaches its unfortunate end, he is forced to make a series of difficult decisions--with fatal consequences.

Robert B. Parker (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

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Rough Weather

"Robert B. Parker is that rarity-a prolific author whose books are consistently original, suspenseful and fascinating. His crackling dialogue is always fresh and smart-alecky. You're happily hooked before you know it."-Forbes Heidi Bradshaw is wealthy, beautiful, and well connected-and she needs Spenser's help. In a most unlikely request, Heidi, a notorious gold digger recently separated from her latest husband, recruits the Boston P.I. to accompany her to her private island, Tashtego, for her daughter's wedding. Spenser is unsure of what his role as personal bodyguard will entail, but he consents when it's decided that he can bring his beloved Susan Silverman along. It should be a straightforward job for Spenser: show up for appearances, have some drinks, and spend some quality time with Susan. Yet when his old nemesis Rugar-the Gray Man-arrives on Tashtego, Spenser realizes that something is amiss. With a hurricane-level storm brewing outside, the Gray Man jumps into action, firing fatal shots into the crowd of wedding guests and kid- napping the bride-but Spenser knows that the sloppy guns-for-hire abduction is not Rugar's style. Unable to prevent the attack, Spenser will stop at nothing to recover the kidnapped bride and figure out how the Gray Man is connected. It's up to Spenser to decide who the real enemy is . . . before more people end up dead.

Robert B. Parker (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Joe Mantegna