Audiobooks narrated by Stephen Mendel

The Curse of the Marquis de Sade: A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scan

"NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE • The captivating, deeply reported true story of how one of the most notorious novels ever written-Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom-landed at the heart of one of the biggest scams in modern literary history. "Reading The Curse of the Marquis de Sade, with the Marquis, the sabotage of rare manuscript sales, and a massive Ponzi scheme at its center, felt like a twisty waterslide shooting through a sleazy and bizarre landscape. This book is wild."-Adam McKay, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Described as both "one of the most important novels ever written" and "the gospel of evil," 120 Days of Sodom was written by the Marquis de Sade, a notorious eighteenth-century aristocrat who waged a campaign of mayhem and debauchery across France, evaded execution, and inspired the word "sadism," which came to mean receiving pleasure from pain. Despite all his crimes, Sade considered this work to be his greatest transgression. The original manuscript of 120 Days of Sodom, a tiny scroll penned in the bowels of the Bastille in Paris, would embark on a centuries-spanning odyssey across Europe, passing from nineteenth-century banned book collectors to pioneering sex researchers to avant-garde artists before being hidden away from Nazi book burnings. In 2014, the world heralded its return to France when the scroll was purchased for millions by Gérard Lhéritier, the self-made son of a plumber who had used his savvy business skills to upend France's renowned rare-book market. But the sale opened the door to vendettas by the government, feuds among antiquarian booksellers, manuscript sales derailed by sabotage, a record-breaking lottery jackpot, and allegations of a decade-long billion-euro con, the specifics of which, if true, would make the scroll part of France's largest-ever Ponzi scheme. Told with gripping reporting and flush with deceit and scandal, The Curse of the Marquis de Sade weaves together the sweeping odyssey of 120 Days of Sodom and the spectacular rise and fall of Lhéritier, once the "king of manuscripts" and now known to many as the Bernie Madoff of France. At its center is an urgent question for all those who cherish the written word: As the age of handwriting comes to an end, what do we owe the original texts left behind?"

Joel Warner (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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The Runaway: Ash Book 7

"When Peter Ash rescues a stranded woman, he finds she's in far deeper trouble than he bargained for... Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: crippling claustrophobia due to PTSD. After years of living rough, he's trying hard to get back to a normal life – one where people aren't trying to kill him. And then he meets Helene, a young pregnant woman stranded on a remote Nebraska road. With no other rescuers in sight, Peter offers her a ride. But Helene's angry ex-cop husband is hot on her trail. It seems Helene has seen something she was never meant to see, and for Peter, protecting her will mean putting both their lives on the line... Praise for Nick Petrie: 'Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Petrie's Peter Ash is the real deal' LEE CHILD 'Stunning ... The pace is like a sniper round, extraordinarily fast and precisely calibrated' DAVID BALDACCI (on The Drifter) 'Nonstop action at a machine gun pace. If you aren't reading Nick Petrie, now is the time to start' C.J. Box (on The Breaker) 'A gripping, beautifully written novel' Huffington Post (on The Drifter)"

Nick Petrie (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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The Wild One: Ash Book 5

"War veteran Peter Ash tracks a murderer through the most forbidding and stark landscape he has ever encountered, in the fifth thriller from the bestselling author of The Drifter. Losing ground in his fight against his claustrophobia, ex-soldier Peter Ash has no intention of ever getting on a plane – until a grieving woman asks him to find her grandson. The boy's mother was murdered and his father, the sole suspect, has taken his son and fled to Iceland. When Peter is met at Reykjavik airport by a man from the US Embassy, he realises the powers that be don't want him in Iceland. But he isn't going home until he accomplishes his mission – even if it means incurring the wrath of his own government. Peter must confront his growing PTSD and endure a powerful snowstorm to find a killer, save a young boy and keep himself out of prison – and a cold Icelandic grave."

Nick Petrie (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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The Breaker: Ash book 6

"In the sixth white-knuckle thriller from bestselling author Nick Petrie, Peter Ash hunts an assassin – if he suceeds in catching him, Peter's own record will be wiped clean... With two governments out to get him, ex-soldier Peter Ash has been keeping a low profile. His quiet existence in Milwaukee is far from the action-packed life he's been used to, but perhaps that's no bad thing... But when he spots a suspicious armed man walking into a busy market, Peter can't stand by and do nothing. He manages to prevent a tragedy, but the gunman escapes and his intended victim vanishes into the crowd. Then a powerful associate from Peter's past appears and makes him an irresistible offer: get to the bottom of what happened that day, and his record will be scrubbed clean. This is Peter's only path to a life free from the threat of prison. Now, he'll have to fight harder than ever before to ensure that freedom doesn't come at too high a cost..."

Nick Petrie (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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Light It Up: Ash Book 3

"Peter Ash is wearing an armoured vest, has a pistol strapped to his leg, a semi-automatic rifle by his side, and a large stash of drugs money behind him. It's hot, the static is buzzing and he's trying not to think about what happened last week. Ash is riding shotgun in a truck leased to Heavy Metal Protection, a security firm that protects cash-rich cannabis entrepreneurs from modern-day highwaymen. Just seven days ago, Heavy Metal lost an entire vehicle, crew and cargo, disappearing without a trace. Armed robbery? Double homicide? Whatever, Ash is there to make sure it doesn't happen again. There's no doubt he has the skill set for the job: eight years of hard-won combat experience and a nervous system fused on high alert – a crippling liability in civilian life... but a survival trait in a combat zone."

Nick Petrie (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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Tear It Down: Ash Book 4

"In the fourth edge-of-your-seat adventure from bestselling author Nick Petrie, Peter Ash pursues one case – and stumbles into another – in the City of the Blues. Peter Ash came home from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: crippling claustrophobia due to PTSD. He always needs to be on the move, to have a purpose. So when war correspondent Wanda Wyatt is in trouble, Peter jumps at the chance to go to her aid. He arrives in Memphis to find that a truck has been driven into Wanda's house. Someone is clearly determined to drive her from her home by any means necessary. But why? Before he can investigate, Peter finds himself held at gunpoint. Caught between gangsters and whoever is threatening Wanda, he will need his special skills more than ever if he's going to save innocent lives..."

Nick Petrie (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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The Paradise Girls: A Novel

"Sandy Gingras's Paradise Girls features a broken engagement. A ruined vacation in paradise. One adorable little girl. The perfect recipe for the chance of a lifetime... It’s Christmas time, and Mary Valley is in a funk. She’s a writer for home magazines, but she’s lost touch with what home means. Her life seems meaningless. The last house she wrote about was a gazillion-dollar mansion with a moat! Plus, she’s estranged from her daughter, CC and granddaughter, Larkin and mired in a dead-end relationship with her boss. Daniel is a man adrift since his son Timmy was killed in Afghanistan. He’s living on a houseboat in Florida with Timmy’s three-legged dog, Tripod and taking tourists out on fishing charters. But his life is on the edge. He’s painting his houseboat black, and he can’t stop thinking about “getting lost at sea.” When Mary’s boss tells her he’s spending Christmas with his ex, she books a trip with her family to The Low Key Inn, a hotel on the edge of the Everglades. But things go wrong from the get-go. CC bails out of the vacation, and Mary is stuck with an unhappy Larkin. The hotel is dated and down-on-its-luck, and perhaps its owner is a witch. Then Mary meets Daniel, casts a hook into his head and wrecks his boat. This is the story of how wounded people can help each other heal, how lost people can help each other find their way home. How life can become a love story… A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Griffin"

Sandy Gingras (Author), Elizabeth Wiley, Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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Burning Bright: Ash Book 2

"They're hunting her. Deep in north California's redwood forests, June Cassidy is hiding. She's no idea who's after her, why they want her or how much longer she can survive. But she's not the only fugitive hiding in the woods. After eight years a soldier, Peter Ash came home with only one souvenir: what he calls 'white static', a crippling claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him far from conventional life and deep into the wilderness, living rough, sleeping under the stars. The odds are against them, but Peter might just be the one man with the skill set to get June out of the woods alive. 'For me, no crime-fiction character has ever measured up to Jack Reacher – until, that is, I met Peter Ash… Petrie's writing is smooth, almost melodic, and he's very, very good at ratcheting up stomach-churning tension.' ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY"

Nick Petrie (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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The Drifter: Ash Book 1

"Eight years a soldier, Peter Ash came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls 'white static', a buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming the Pacific coast's mountains and forests, sleeping under the stars. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man's widow and two young children. While repairing her dilapidated porch, he makes two unwelcome discoveries: The first is a dog, the meanest, ugliest dog he's ever laid eyes on, guarding a suitcase; the second unwelcome surprise is the suitcase's contents – $400,000 in cash and four slabs of plastic explosive. Just what was his friend caught up in during his final days? Ash will find that the demons of war aren't easy to leave behind... “Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Peter Ash is the real deal.” LEE CHILD"

Nick Petrie (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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Left for Dead: A Novel

"Special Operative Eric Steele battles a renegade group of bioterrorists armed with a devastating virus in the fourth pulse-pounding military thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Outlaw Platoon. On a remote mountaintop in western China, Doctor Ai Liang is about to risk everything and defy the Chinese Communist Party. She and her team have created a terrifying new coronavirus, even more deadly than COVID-19, called C-62 that is capable of killing a person in twenty minutes. But her conscience tells her she must destroy the deadly bioweapon before it can bring devastation to millions. The doctor’s heroic plans are interrupted when mysterious commandos swarm the lab, kill everyone in sight, and take off with the C-62 virus. Meanwhile, Eric Steele is on a cleanup mission, about to exact revenge on the group responsible for killing numerous alphas and forcing the Program to disband. When justice is served, Steele can turn his thoughts to other pressing matters—namely his long lost father and his estranged girlfriend, Meg Harden. But when news of CCP plans to attack US forces reach the United States, the President calls for the revival of the Program to deal with this new threat. Steele is back in action, and soon learns that the supposed CCP attack is related to a much more complex plot involving a fanatical Chinese Imperialist group—and the stolen C-62 bioweapon. It’s up to Steele and his team to find out who the real threat is and stop them before they can unleash another pandemic in the form of the deadly C-62 virus on the entire world."

Sean Parnell (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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The Panzer Killers: The Untold Story of a Fighting General and His Spearhead Tank Division's Charge

"A general-turned-historian reveals the remarkable battlefield heroics of Major General Maurice Rose, the World War II tank commander whose 3rd Armored Division struck fear into the hearts of Hitler's panzer crews. "The Panzer Killers is a great book, vividly written and shrewdly observed."-The Wall Street Journal Two months after D-Day, the Allies found themselves in a stalemate in Normandy, having suffered enormous casualties attempting to push through hedgerow country. Troops were spent, and American tankers, lacking the tactics and leadership to deal with the terrain, were losing their spirit. General George Patton and the other top U.S. commanders needed an officer who knew how to break the impasse and roll over the Germans-they needed one man with the grit and the vision to take the war all the way to the Rhine. Patton and his peers selected Maurice Rose. The son of a rabbi, Rose never discussed his Jewish heritage. But his ferocity on the battlefield reflected an inner flame. He led his 3rd Armored Division not from a command post but from the first vehicle in formation, charging headfirst into a fight. He devised innovative tactics, made the most of American weapons, and personally chose the cadre of young officers who drove his division forward. From Normandy to the West Wall, from the Battle of the Bulge to the final charge across Germany, Maurice Rose's deadly division of tanks blasted through enemy lines and pursued the enemy with a remarkable intensity. In The Panzer Killers, Daniel P. Bolger, a retired lieutenant general and Iraq War veteran, offers up a lively, dramatic tale of Rose's heroism. Along the way, Bolger infuses the narrative with fascinating insights that could only come from an author who has commanded tank forces in combat. The result is a unique and masterful story of battlefield leadership, destined to become a classic."

Daniel P. Bolger (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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The Bright Book of Life: Novels to Read and Reread

"America's most original and controversial literary critic writes trenchantly about forty-eight masterworks spanning the Western tradition-from Don Quixote to Wuthering Heights to Invisible Man-in his first book devoted exclusively to narrative fiction. In this valedictory volume, Yale professor Harold Bloom-who for more than half a century was regarded as America's most daringly original and controversial literary critic-gives us his only book devoted entirely to the art of the novel. With his hallmark percipience, remarkable scholarship, and extraordinary devotion to sublimity, Bloom offers meditations on forty-eight essential works spanning the Western canon, from Don Quixote to Book of Numbers; from Wuthering Heights to Absalom, Absalom!; from Les Misérables to Blood Meridian; from Vanity Fair to Invisible Man. Here are trenchant appreciations of fiction by, among many others, Austen, Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, James, Conrad, Lawrence, Le Guin, and Sebald. Whether you have already read these books, plan to, or simply care about the importance and power of fiction, Harold Bloom is your unparalleled guide to understanding literature with new intimacy."

Harold Bloom (Author), Stephen Mendel (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Stephen Mendel