Audiobooks narrated by Keith Szarabajka

90 Church: Inside America's Notorious First Narcotics Squad

Mad Men meets The Wire in this gripping true-crime memoir by a former agent at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1960s New York. Before Nixon famously declared a "war on drugs," there was the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. New York City, mid-1960s. The war in Vietnam was on the nation's tongue-but so was something else. Clandestine and chaotic, but equally ruthless, the agents of the bureau were feared by the Mafia, dealers, pimps, prostitutes-anyone who did his or her business on the streets. With few rules and almost no oversight, the battle-hardened agents of the bureau were often more vicious than the criminals they chased. Agent Dean Unkefer was a naive kid with notions of justice and fair play when he joined up. But all that quickly changed once he got thrown into the lion's den of 90 Church, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, where he was shocked to see the agents he revered were often more like thugs than lawmen. When he finally got the chance to prove his mettle by going undercover in the field, the lines became increasingly blurred. As he spiraled into the hell of addiction and watched his life become a complex balancing act of lies and half-truths, he began to wonder what side he was really on. 90 Church is both the unbelievable memoir of one man's confrontation with the dark corners of the human experience and a fascinating window into a little-known time in American history. Learn the story of the agents who make the DEA look like choirboys.

Agent Dean Unkefer (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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A Better Goodbye: A Novel

A retired masseuse and a retired boxer take jobs working for an actor, and love and jealousy soon follow. Nick Pafko knows he can't be a professional boxer forever. But he never guessed it would end so quickly-and so wrong. Broke and unemployed, Nick has little choice but to call a number given to him by a friend. On the other end is Scott, a washed-up B-movie actor who runs a so-called massage parlor looking for somebody desperate enough to work security. Jenny Yee doesn't really mind massage, until the day she finds her coworkers robbed and assaulted. Fearing for her safety, she resolves to never work without security again. With mounting expenses, she knows massage is the fastest way to get paid. When an old massage acquaintance calls Jenny to ask her to work for Scott, she agrees-and before long, she's the top earner. Scott is an arrogant moron, but he's harmless compared to the thug he calls "friend"-Onus DuPree. When DuPree decides to rob Scott's massage joint, it's the perfect opportunity to beat up Nick and take advantage of Jenny. Can Nick stay true to his promise to protect Jenny? Can he protect himself? "This visceral, gritty noir takes place on the seedy fringes of modern Hollywood...The dialogue is razor sharp, and the characters well developed-the good-hearted Nick is easy to root for. A robbery triggers a grisly showdown as this thriller hurtles toward its nail-biting conclusion."-Publishers Weekly

John Schulian (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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A Killing for Christ, 50th Anniversary Edition

Rome. Holy Thursday. A limousine carrying two pilgrims speeds toward the city. Rail, an American publisher, an obese voluptuary, perspires in the heat and shivers with the icy premonition of death. His companion, Harwell, is running a cold fever of bigotry and violence, self-indulgence and sadism: he is an American Nazi. The two must separate soon, must not be seen together, for they are to be the instruments of a public murder.Rail meets Father Malloy, who is to show him around the city. Malloy had been a chaplain in Vietnam, and he had seen too many people die. He is not aware of the murder Rail carries with him. This is to be a murder of world-shaking consequence. It is a plot on a grand scale, conceived by men of secret power: a sin-crazed, aging cardinal and a powerful Italian count. For them, Rail and Harwell are only acolytes in a monstrous ceremony; Malloy, awash in doubts about himself and his religious faith, is drawn into the drama.In A Killing for Christ, Pete Hamill steps behind the public face of the modern Church and sees the dark grottoes within. He examines the hidden hearts of priests and prostitutes, the tortured windings of perverted thinking, the orgies of the bored and the bitter. Within the passage of the four days most holy to the Church, he traces the malignant progress of a blasphemous conspiracy to the taut moment of its ultimate act and redeems from it a unique understanding of man and of faith.

Pete Hamill (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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A Parker Novel, #13: Deadly Edge

Deadly Edge bids a brutal adieu to the 1960s as Parker robs a rock concert, and the heist goes south. Soon Parker finds himself-and his woman, Claire-menaced by a pair of sadistic, drug-crazed hippies. Parker has a score to settle while Claire's armed with her first rifle-and they're both ready to usher in the end of the Age of Aquarius.

Richard Stark (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Alphaville: 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side

A raw, gritty memoir-part true-life cop thriller, part unputdownable history of a storied time and place-that will grip you by the throat until the explosive end. In 1988, Alphabet City burned with heroin, radicalism, and antipolice sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop in the most high-voltage neighborhood in Manhattan, Detective Sergeant Mike Codella earned the nickname "Rambo" from the local dealers, as well as a $50,000 bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of Fifth Avenue, Washington Square Park, and NYU, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence, and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davey Blue Eyes-a stone-cold murderer and the head of Alphabet City's heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured-all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases, and close calls-Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving. Alphaville, Codella's riveting, no-holds-barred memoir, resurrects the vicious streets that Davey Blue Eyes owned and tells the story of how Codella bagged the so-called Forty Thieves that surrounded Davey, slowly working his way to the head of the snake one scale at a time. With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city's own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop and of New York City itself. "A quick, nitty-gritty, page-turning read that will leave you breathless...I highly, highly recommend this read."-Philip Carlo, New York Times bestselling author of Ice Man

Bruce Bennett, Michael Codella (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

In the wake of tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Donald Trump's initial refusal to denounce the white nationalists behind it all, the "antifa" opposition movement is suddenly appearing everywhere. But what is it, precisely? And where did it come from?As long as there has been fascism, there has been anti-fascism-also known as "antifa." Born out of resistance to Mussolini and Hitler in Europe during the 1920s and '30s, the antifa movement has suddenly burst into the headlines amid opposition to the Trump administration and the alt-right. They could be seen in news reports, often clad all in black with balaclavas covering their faces, demonstrating at the presidential inauguration, and on California college campuses protesting far-right speakers, and most recently, on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, protecting, among others, a group of ministers including Cornel West from neo-Nazi violence. (West would later tell reporters, "The anti-fascists saved our lives.")Simply, antifa aims to deny fascists the opportunity to promote their oppressive politics, and to protect tolerant communities from acts of violence promulgated by fascists. Critics say shutting down political adversaries is anti-democratic; antifa adherents argue that the horrors of fascism must never be allowed the slightest chance to triumph again.In a smart and gripping investigation, historian and former Occupy Wall Street organizer Mark Bray provides a detailed survey of the full history of anti-fascism from its origins to the present day-the first transnational history of postwar anti-fascism in English. Based on interviews with anti-fascists from around the world, Antifa details the tactics of the movement and the philosophy behind it, offering insight into the growing but little-understood resistance fighting back against fascism in all its guises.

Mark Bray (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Back Lash

As Sam Acquillo tells us in the early pages of Back Lash, “Not everyone gets to live their adult lives orbiting a central mystery.” But that’s how it’s been for Sam, whose entire existence has been defined by a single, horrific event. Now that event has reached out from the deep past, an unwanted visitor, and Sam is forced to unpack, like a Russian doll, secrets within secrets, each more ominous than the one before. What is revealed would be disturbing enough were it not also so personal—not a welcome development for a man who once said, “Avoidance, rationalization, and denial are highly underrated coping strategies.” The action moves from Southampton to the Bronx, where Sam once prowled in the part-time care of his father, owner of a truck-repair business and of a temper that stood out even on the mean streets. It’s here that Sam learns that evil history doesn’t only repeat itself, it can improve upon the original; that no matter how things change, the world of cops and criminals, priests, power brokers, wise guys, and even wiser old bartenders stays the same—or gets much, much worse. “Nicely plotted…Sam must contend with his father’s ghost and his father’s surviving enemies. Sam’s backstory adds depth to an already strong character.”—Publishers Weekly

Chris Knopf (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Backflash

After the publication of Butcher’s Moon in 1974, Donald Westlake said, “Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone.” And readers waited. But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker’s as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, “suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor”—and the novels that followed showed that neither Parker nor Stark had lost a step. Backflash finds Parker checking out the scene on a Hudson River gambling boat. Parker’s no fan of either relaxation or risk, however, so you can be sure he’s playing with house money—and he’s willing to do anything to tilt the odds in his favor. Featuring a great cast of heisters, a striking setting, and a new introduction by Westlake’s close friend and writing partner, Lawrence Block, this classic Parker adventure deserve a place of honor on any crime fan’s bookshelf.

Lawrence Block, Richard Stark (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Clan and Crown

For the first few years, Rick Galloway and his band of mercenaries were doing well just to survive. They’d been swept off a hilltop in Africa by a flying saucer and deposited on an alien world where the other inhabitants were human—but from various and unfriendly periods of history, all collected by flying saucer raids. Rick has faced facts: this place is going to be home, permanently. To create a safe society for themselves and the families they are gradually building, they need to do more than just survive; they must convince the others that a unified, peaceful society is better than a collection of warring tribes. Force would not be Rick’s chosen method of persuasion, but on a planet where the other dominant culture is one brought straight from ancient Rome, force may be the only way. “Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction’s great storytellers.”—Poul Anderson, praise for the author

Jerry Pournelle, Roland Green (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Comeback

After the bloodbath of Butcher’s Moon, the action-filled blowout Parker adventure, Donald Westlake said, “Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone.” And for nearly twenty-five years, he stayed away, while readers waited. But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker’s as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, “suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor”—and the resulting novel, Comeback, showed that neither Stark nor Parker had lost a single step. Knocking over a highly lucrative religious revival show, Parker reminds us that not all criminals don ski masks—some prefer to hide behind the wings of fallen angels.

Lawrence Block, Richard Stark (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Cop Job

It’s bad enough when someone you know is brutally murdered; it’s worse when the guy was a paranoid schizophrenic helplessly bound to a wheelchair. Sam Acquillo and Jackie Swaitkowski tried to look after Alfie Aldergreen, as had others around the Village of Southampton, but now they were forced to wonder what else they could have done. One thing is for certain, Alfie’s killers are about to know what it means to murder a friend of Sam—former corporate troubleshooter, former professional boxer, and all-around ornery bulldog—and Jackie, a defense lawyer often described as an avenging angel. This sixth installment in the Sam Acquillo Hamptons mystery series brings back Knopf’s ensemble of famously eccentric and involving characters, not the least of which is Sam’s mutt, Eddie Van Halen. Not just a crime story, it examines the fraught intersection of wealth, culture, politics, and the ravages of an ugly war. Combining beautiful watery settings with a unique look into the underbelly of the Hamptons, it’s a mystery you won’t find anywhere else. “Knopf has a touch I like—cool, careful, reflective—and a great ear for the comic eccentricities of the human voice.”—New York Times Book Review, praise for the author

Chris Knopf (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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DEFCON One

DEFCON: Defense Readiness Condition DEFCON Five: normal peacetime activities DEFCON Four: increase intelligence watch and increase security DEFCON Three: forces on standby, awaiting further orders DEFCON Two: forces ready for combat DEFCON One: forces deployed for combat In this explosive bestseller, the United States and the Soviet Union are poised on the brink of Armageddon. Glasnost has failed, Russia is economically desperate, and Gorbachev’s successor has launched the first strike in what may become World War III. Only one man knows the full extent of the impending horror—a CIA operative trapped in the Kremlin. Written by a former Marine Corps pilot, DEFCON One is a blistering scenario of men and war—exciting, tense, and frighteningly real.

Joe Weber (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Keith Szarabajka