The Hardest Thing Audiobook By James Lear cover art

The Hardest Thing

A Dan Stagg Mystery

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Hardest Thing

By: James Lear
Narrated by: Charles Carr
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.72

Buy for $20.72

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Killing is easy. Love is...The Hardest Thing

James Lear does Lee Child

Once a major in the U.S. Army, Dan Stagg fell afoul of Don't Ask Don't Tell. In his late 30s, tall, and muscular, Dan is prone to violence, always upholding what he views as justice. He's offered a great deal of money to protect the young male "secretary" of a powerful real estate broker. The vain, shallow - but most of all hot - young man's idea of protection includes sex. Dan quickly realizes something strange is going on: he's being used as a shield for a much more sinister operation and must choose between easy money and sex or the ideals that he embodied in the Army. Why should he do the right thing - particularly when the army betrayed him? The Hardest Thing is a sexy gay mystery as only James Lear can write it: filled with lots of gay sexual encounters, romance, sweat, violence, and conspiracy.

©2013 James Lear (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Hard-Boiled Literature & Fiction Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction Romance

People who viewed this also viewed...

Straight Up Audiobook By James Lear cover art
Straight Up By: James Lear
A Sticky End Audiobook By James Lear cover art
A Sticky End By: James Lear
The Back Passage Audiobook By James Lear cover art
The Back Passage By: James Lear
Engaging Mystery • Captivating Plot Twists • Excellent Narration • Bittersweet Overtones • Engaging Vocal Performance
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
it was an exciting listen...I loved all the twists and turns of the story.

i loved the mystery and intrigue.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I definitely found my new favourite author! This was funny, hot and I just couldn’t stop listening. I had to finish it in one day. The narrator did a fantastic job. I totally recommend this audiobook.

Wow what A ride!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Lots of sex. The main guy is Dan a former marine, he’s tough talking, tough acting. He isn’t particular about whom he has sex with. He takes a new job as a body guard for Stirling. Stirling is more effeminate. Half the story is these two traveling together. There are bad guys, guns, kidnapping, and escape. The plot was not fully developed, but good enough for a setting.

One scene had me laughing. Only in an erotic story would you see something like this. A has been kidnapped. His hands and feet are tied to a bed. The bad guy wants A to give him oral pleasure before he kills A. While A is doing this A is thinking “The harder I could make him, the more I played along with his fantasy, the better my chances of escape.”

At times I was tired of first person, being in Dan’s head sooo much. It’s like being with someone who talks too much. He was such a strong aggressive voice.

Annoying: the cover picture is wrong. Dan shaves his head. Cover guy does not.

The narrator Charles Carr was very good.

Genre: erotic gay male romance

Well done for erotic gay male sex.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

As an Angelophile I fell in love with Chandler, and read every book cover to cover. I lived where Marlowe worked, I gazed out of the windows he wrote about to the Los Angeles he described, and I loved every romantic moment of his construct that I passed through every day. I was never as taken by his snarky lead as after having read every writing as when Elliott Gould narrated his work.

Now here, with the blatant brotherly eroticism of Dan Stagg I find my literary hero finally figuratively echoing Marlowe's gritty footsteps and he's... hot, raw, and a real man, perverted and idealistic in so far as it goes. He's romantic, edgy, fallible, punctual, charismatic, disgusting, attractive, and magnetic, and Charles Carr's voice makes him REALLY real, and believable.

I will buy every Stagg Novel narrated by Carr from here on out, but not one not narrated by Carr. He gets Lear.

Thank you Mr.s Lear and Carr for a delightful day, and night under the covers just like old radio days. Wow.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I haven't gotten to the end yet, and don't want it to end. This is ... awesome.

Have you listened to any of Charles Carr’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. I'm blown away.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes. The first utterance of Mr. Lear's text by Carr.

Any additional comments?

Mr. Lear and Mr. Carr have something that HAS to endure, or only will in this one piece. It's timelessness is powerful beyond words.

More Lear. More Stagg, More Carr. NOW.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the narrator of this and found the story both erotic and also fun and interesting.

Great story and performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
With just a very few tiny exceptions on niggling details, I really enjoyed this book! Once you get used to the James Lear level of sex in his novels - or chalk that up as part of the amusement - this is a very well done mystery with plenty of twists to the plot line to keep the readers' attention, right up until the end. Actually I was surprised that I was so engrossed in the story that I lost track of time, and, sooner than I would have wanted, it was over!

Part of this too is the narration by Charles Carr, who gives us *the* perfect voice for our scarred and war-worn Col. Dan Stagg. There's just enough variation among the voices of the other characters that it's quite easy to follow who is speaking - even when Stagg is wandering the street, speaking to himself, working out the heavy parts of the story toward the end.

This book was so well done that I'm looking forward to reading more Dan Stagg novels, as I think that Lear is on to something with this guy! I won't even mention my plotting quibbles because they are so small, and not terribly distracting. I can't wait to delve into the next one!

Very well-crafted action/mystery

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don't you just love when the cover artist has a total disconnect with the character?

This is one I went into totally blind, and in all honesty, it's not my usual read, so I have no idea what possessed me to pick it up. But I'm not sorry I did. I'm a horror fiend, a gore where, so why did I pick up a gay noir? Who knows? But I loved every minute of it. Told in the first person, we're introduced to Dann Stagg, an ex-marine tough guy who has trouble holding on to a job. Eventually, he's offered a job as hired muscle, bodyguard to a prissy, uptight 23-year-old male "secretary" who narrowly escaped being the target of a hit. Assignment? Get the kid out of town for a few days, check in on a regular basis, and you'll be told when it's safe to come back. Two things to keep in mind about Dan. He's gay, as it seems he's always horny. Now I expected the mystery, hell, maybe a little... ugh... romance, but the sex? My god, Dan can't keep it in his pants! Every chapter. Every single chapter. And you know what? It didn't bother me. Surprise, surprise. I'm not a prude, far from it, but I often find sex in books detracts from the story. I think part of the reason it didn't bother me so much is because I "read" the audiobook, and Charles Carr gave a great performance as Dan Stagg. So between the pacing of the story, Carr's excellent performance, and enough humor to keep me chuckling, I didn't want to put it down. I'll be the first to admit that The Hardest Thing may not be for everyone, but if it's your type of book, I highly recommend it.

More Dan Stagg, Please

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this book. I personally would’ve been enjoyed more descriptive scenes of intimacy, but the voice acting was superb and kept me engaged.

Brilliant voice acting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Any additional comments?

LOL

I kid you not, this story takes off in physical violence, sex, and more violence and doesn't stop until the end. And I must confess, I enjoyed.

A very entertaining audio! No room for a dull moment, that's for sure!!!

What In The World! LOL. 1/2/2015

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story is one of the best I have selected. Great thought out characters and a plot that is full of surprises. The narration was great as well.

Someone should make this into a movie.

Should be made into a movie

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews