Audiobooks narrated by Keith Szarabajka

Rescued from ISIS: The Gripping True Story of How a Father Saved His Son

The inspiring and terrifying tale of one man's journey to the Middle East to save his child from radical IslamDimitri Bontinck lived every parent's worst nightmare: his teenage son, introduced to Islam by his girlfriend, fell into the clutches of a radical mosque. Dimitri watched helplessly as his son Jay transformed from a gentle boy to a soldier in training, wearing traditional robes and following a strict diet. Completely brainwashed, Jay snuck out of the house and traveled to Syria, all but vanishing. Too late, Dimitri learned that their country, Belgium, was the leading hotbed of Islamic radicalization. Large numbers of teenagers were being lured into this world and expertly indoctrinated into radical Islam. One by one, they disappeared into the Middle East, most never to be seen again.With no one to help him, Dimitri-a white, Christian-raised atheist-set off on his own to save his son. Using only his military training, a lot of courage, and a little luck, he gradually made contacts in the Middle East and, after months of searching, was able to find his son and bring him home. The world was shocked at his unprecedented success, and he started receiving pleas from families around the world, asking that he get their children back, as well. Increasingly fearful for his own life but unable to ignore these cries for help, Dimitri accepted his newfound role as the jihadi hunter.

Dimitri Bontinck (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Empire

I have lost everything-my purpose, my love, my soul. Death knocks on my door. I want to answer, but every time I reach for the handle, the promise I made her brings me back. So I breathe. I live. I hate. And I allow the anger to boil beneath the surface of a perfectly indifferent façade. I am broken, and I don't want to be fixed. One last trip to New York, one last chance to redeem a lost part of the Mafia family. The Empire is crumbling, and it's my job to fix it. It's my job to mend the pieces that were scattered over thirty years ago. But the only way to fix it is to do something I swore I'd never do again: an arranged marriage. This time, I won't fall. Or so help me God, I'll kill her myself. My name is Sergio Abandonato. You think you know my pain, my suffering, my anger, my hate. You have no idea. I am the Mafia. I am the darkness. Blood in. No out.

Rachel Van Dyken (Author), Erin Spencer, Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka, Tom Taylorson (Narrator)

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Drunken Angel

Alan Kaufman recounts with unvarnished honesty the story of the alcoholism that took him to the brink of death, the post-traumatic stress disorder that drove him to the edge of madness, and the love that brought him back. Son of a French Holocaust survivor, Kaufman was a drinker so mauled by his indulgences that it is a marvel he hung on long enough to get into recovery. With his estranged daughter as inspiration, Kaufman cleaned himself up at age forty, taking full responsibility for nearly destroying himself, his work, and so many loved ones along the way. Kaufman minces no words as he looks back on a life pickled in self-pity, self-loathing, and guilt. Reading Drunken Angel is like watching an accident to see if any of the victims crawl away barely alive. Kaufman did, and here he delivers a lacerating, cautionary tale of a life wasted and reclaimed. 'With an outsized heart to go with its outsized thirst, Drunken Angel tells the sort of truths that feel like myths and the sort of myths that feel like truth.''Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket

Alan Kaufman (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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The Bone Polisher

Edgar and Macavity Award nominee Timothy Hallinan’s Simeon Grist private-eye novels have become cult favorites. This sixth series installment takes place in the West Hollywood of 1995, where the community is shaken by the brutal killing of an older man who was widely loved for his generosity and kindness. In a time when the police were largely indifferent to crimes against gay people, Simeon is hired to catch the murderer—and finds himself up against the most dangerous adversary of his career, a man who kills his victims not once but twice: once physically and once in spirit. With an unforgettable climax and a twist you won’t see coming, The Bone Polisher is a top-notch crime novel from a highly acclaimed author. “The wit of Hallinan’s previous Simeon outings is still in evidence.”—Publishers Weekly

Timothy Hallinan (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the landscape of television began an unprecedented transformation. While the networks continued to chase the lowest common denominator, a wave of new shows dramatically stretched television’s narrative inventiveness, emotional resonance, and artistic ambition. No longer necessarily concerned with creating always-likable characters, plots that always wrapped up neatly, or subjects that were deemed safe, shows such as The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Deadwood, The Shield, and more tackled issues of life and death, love and sexuality, addiction, race, violence, and existential boredom. Television shows became the place to go to see stories of the triumph and betrayals of the American Dream. This revolution happened at the hands of a new breed of auteur: the all-powerful writer-showrunner. These were men nearly as complicated, idiosyncratic, and “difficult” as the conflicted protagonists that defined the genre. Given the chance to make art in a maligned medium, they fell upon the opportunity with unchecked ambition. Combining deep reportage with cultural analysis and historical context, Brett Martin recounts the rise and inner workings of a genre that represents not only a new golden age for television but also a cultural watershed. Difficult Men features extensive interviews with all the major players, including David Chase (The Sopranos), David Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire), Matthew Weiner and Jon Hamm (Mad Men), David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood), and Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), in addition to dozens of other writers, directors, studio executives, actors, production assistants, makeup artists, script supervisors, and so on. Martin takes us behind the scenes of our favorite shows, delivering never-before-heard story after story and revealing how cable television has distinguished itself dramatically from the networks, emerging from the shadow of film to become a truly significant and influential part of our culture. “Brett Martin has accomplished something extraordinary: he has corralled a disparate group of flawed creative geniuses, extracted their tales of struggle and triumph, and melded those stories into a seamless narrative that reads like a nonfiction novel. With characters as rich as these, you can’t help but reach the obvious conclusion—Difficult Men would itself make one heck of a TV series.”—Mark Adams, New York Times bestselling author of Turn Left at Machu Picchu

Brett Martin, Brett Martin (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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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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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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Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden’s Final Plot against America

Two Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists take an unbridled look into one of the most sensitive post-9/11 national security investigations, a breathtaking race to avert a second devastating terrorist attack on American soil. In Enemies Within Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman lay bare the complex and often contradictory state of counterterrorism and intelligence in America through the pursuit of Najibullah Zazi, a terrorist bomber who trained under one of bin Laden’s most trusted deputies. Zazi and his coconspirators represented America’s greatest fear: a terrorist cell operating inside America. Apuzzo and Goldman lift the veil of secrecy to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of our counterterrorism measures. This real-life spy story—uncovered in previously unpublished secret NYPD documents and interviews with intelligence sources—shows that while many of these programs are more invasive than ever, they are often counterproductive at best. Six months after the 9/11 attacks, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly initiated a straightforward yet audacious antiterrorist plan to be implemented in the Big Apple. The NYPD would dispatch a vast network of undercover officers and informants—known as “mosque crawlers” and “rakers”—into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations in mosques and community centers. Police amassed data on innocent people, often for their religious and political beliefs. But when it mattered most, these strategies failed to identify the most imminent threats. Enemies Within tackles the tough questions about the effectiveness of the measures we take to protect ourselves from real and perceived threats. Its shocking details about the tactics and activities of the NYPD will be headline news and reveal what it really takes to hunt down terrorists in America. “The authors use their investigative know-how like skilled surgeons, utilizing their scalpel to expose a malignant growth in the heart of the NYPD.”—Frank Serpico, NYPD (Ret.)

Adam Goldman, Matt Apuzzo (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life

Internationally bestselling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins's long-awaited tale of his wild life and times, both at home and around the globe Tom Robbins's warm, wise, and wonderfully weird novels- including Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Another Roadside Attraction, and Jitterbug Perfume- provide an entryway into the frontier of his singular imagination. Madcap but sincere, pulsating with strong social and philosophical undercurrents, his irreverent classics have introduced countless readers to hitchhiking cowgirls, born-again monkeys, a philosophizing can of beans, exiled royalty, and problematic redheads. In Tibetan Peach Pie, Robbins turns that unparalleled literary sensibility inward, weaving together stories of his unconventional life- from his Appalachian childhood to his globe-trotting adventures- told in his unique voice, which combines the sweet and sly, the spiritual and earthy. The grandchild of Baptist preachers, Robbins would become, over the course of half a century, a poet interruptus, a soldier, a meteorologist, a radio DJ, an art-critic-turned-psychedelic-journeyman, a world-famous novelist, and a counterculture hero, leading a life as unlikely, magical, and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters. Robbins offers intimate snapshots of Appalachia during the Great Depression, the West Coast during the sixties' psychedelic revolution, international roving before Homeland Security monitored our travels, and New York publishing when it still relied on trees. Written with the big-hearted comedy and mesmerizing linguistic invention for which Robbins is known, Tibetan Peach Pie is an invitation into the private world of a literary legend.

Tom Robbins (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Primal Waters

It was the greatest predator of all time, the most fearsome creature that ever lived-a seventy-foot, seventy-thousand-pound great white shark. Its jaws, filled with hundreds of seven-inch serrated teeth, could swallow an elephant whole. It could sense its prey from miles away, and if you ever came close enough to see the monster ... it was already too late. Eighteen years have passed since Jonas Taylor last crossed paths with Carcharodon megalodon. Now a middle-aged father of two, he is overwhelmed by mountains of bills and the daily strife of raising a family. But life is about to change. A Hollywood television producer wants Jonas to join his new survival series: Daredevils. For the next six weeks, two teams of crazy daredevils on a South Pacific ocean voyage will try to outperform one another in front of the cameras. Jonas needs the money, and working on the color commentary seems easy enough. But behind the scenes, someone else is pulling the strings. And before it's over, Jonas will again come face to face with the most dangerous creatures ever to stalk the oceans. "Alten's imaginative tale will keep readers turning the pages."-Booklist

Steve Alten (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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The Line of Departure: A Postapocalyptic Novel

A gripping new novel from one of the best-known names in survivalist fiction. Former Marine-turned-author, G. Michael Hopf grabs readers from page one with his breathtaking blend of action, adventure, and political intrigue. The End—the first book in Hopf ’s New World series—has sold more than 50,000 copies, and word of mouth is quickly building on the series as a whole. In the fourth book, The Line of Departure, the United States is on the brink of total anarchy in the wake of a super-EMP attack. Gordon Van Zandt and his family have managed to beat the odds so far, but can they survive once war erupts? From the Trade Paperback edition.

G. Michael Hopf (Author), Keith Szarabajka, Keith Szarabajka (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Keith Szarabajka