An Honest Living
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $15.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Ari Fliakos
-
By:
-
Dwyer Murphy
About this listen
“Like the best noir practitioners, Murphy uses the mystery as scaffolding to assemble a world of fallen dreams and doom-bitten characters . . . Murphy’s hard-boiled rendering of the city is nothing short of exquisite . . . For anyone who wants a portrait of this New York, few recent books have conjured it so vividly.”—The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice
• A Best Book of the Year from The New Yorker, LitHub, CrimeReads, and more!
A sharp and stylish debut from the editor-in-chief of CrimeReads in which an unwitting private eye gets caught up in a crime of obsession between a reclusive literary superstar and her bookseller husband, paying homage to the noir genre just as smartly as it reinvents it
After leaving behind the comforts and the shackles of a prestigious law firm, a restless attorney makes ends meet in mid-2000s Brooklyn by picking up odd jobs from a colorful assortment of clients. When a mysterious woman named Anna Reddick turns up at his apartment with ten thousand dollars in cash and asks him to track down her missing husband Newton, an antiquarian bookseller who she believes has been pilfering rare true crime volumes from her collection, he trusts it will be a quick and easy case. But when the real Anna Reddick—a magnetic but unpredictable literary prodigy—lands on his doorstep with a few bones to pick, he finds himself out of his depth, drawn into a series of deceptions involving Joseph Conrad novels, unscrupulous booksellers, aspiring flâneurs, and seedy real estate developers.
Set against the backdrop of New York at the tail end of the analog era and immersed in the worlds of literature and bookselling, An Honest Living is a gripping story of artistic ambition, obsession, and the small crimes we commit against one another every day.
©2022 Dwyer Murphy (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Local
- A Legal Thriller
- By: Joey Hartstone
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The town of Marshall, Texas, is the epicenter of intellectual property law in the US—renowned for its speedy trials and massive payouts. One of its best lawyers is James Euchre. His newest client, Amir Zawar, is a CEO forced to defend his life’s work against a patent infringement claim. But when a beloved hometown hero is murdered, all signs point to Zawar, an outsider with no alibi. With the help of a former federal prosecutor and a local PI, Euchre hopes to uncover the truth. In his first criminal case, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
-
-
Excellent legal thriller
- By Gypsy Wife on 06-30-22
By: Joey Hartstone
-
Safe Houses
- A Novel
- By: Dan Fesperman
- Narrated by: Dan Fesperman
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIA's network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helen's world is upended when, during her routine inspection of an agency property, she overhears a meeting between two unfamiliar people speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities far beyond her comprehension. Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sight lines of the most ruthless and powerful man at the agency.
-
-
Fiction from Truth
- By Sue MB on 11-10-18
By: Dan Fesperman
-
Even the Darkest Night
- A Terra Alta Novel
- By: Javier Cercas, Anne McLean - translator
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melchor, the son of a prostitute, went to prison as a teenager, convicted of working for a Colombian drug cartel. Behind bars, he read a book that changed his life: Les Misérables. Then his mother was murdered. He decided to become a cop. This new case, in Terra Alta, a remote region of rural Catalonia—the murder of a wealthy local man and his wife—will turn Melchor’s life upside down yet again.
-
-
Amazing
- By Tyler on 04-25-24
By: Javier Cercas, and others
-
The Secret Hours
- By: Mick Herron
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service “to investigate historical over-reaching.” Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn.
-
-
Just about perfect
- By June Lapidow on 09-28-23
By: Mick Herron
-
The Lemon
- A Novel
- By: S. E. Boyd
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While filming on location in Belfast, Northern Ireland, John Doe, the universally adored host of the culinary travel show Last Call, is found dead in a hotel room in an apparent suicide. As the news of his untimely demise breaks stateside, a group of friends, fixers, hustlers, and opportunists vie to seize control of the narrative: Doe’s chess-master of an agent Nia, ready to call in every favor she is owed to preserve his legacy; down-on-her-luck journalist Katie, who fabricates a story about Doe to save her job at a failing website.
-
-
Fliakos knocks it out of the park!
- By LeiLani Q. on 09-22-23
By: S. E. Boyd
-
A Line in the Sand
- A Novel
- By: Kevin Powers
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim—Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US as a maintenance worker at the Sea Breeze Motel. Now, convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe.
-
-
A preposterous bloodbath
- By David Benjamin on 07-06-23
By: Kevin Powers
-
The Local
- A Legal Thriller
- By: Joey Hartstone
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The town of Marshall, Texas, is the epicenter of intellectual property law in the US—renowned for its speedy trials and massive payouts. One of its best lawyers is James Euchre. His newest client, Amir Zawar, is a CEO forced to defend his life’s work against a patent infringement claim. But when a beloved hometown hero is murdered, all signs point to Zawar, an outsider with no alibi. With the help of a former federal prosecutor and a local PI, Euchre hopes to uncover the truth. In his first criminal case, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
-
-
Excellent legal thriller
- By Gypsy Wife on 06-30-22
By: Joey Hartstone
-
Safe Houses
- A Novel
- By: Dan Fesperman
- Narrated by: Dan Fesperman
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIA's network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helen's world is upended when, during her routine inspection of an agency property, she overhears a meeting between two unfamiliar people speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities far beyond her comprehension. Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sight lines of the most ruthless and powerful man at the agency.
-
-
Fiction from Truth
- By Sue MB on 11-10-18
By: Dan Fesperman
-
Even the Darkest Night
- A Terra Alta Novel
- By: Javier Cercas, Anne McLean - translator
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melchor, the son of a prostitute, went to prison as a teenager, convicted of working for a Colombian drug cartel. Behind bars, he read a book that changed his life: Les Misérables. Then his mother was murdered. He decided to become a cop. This new case, in Terra Alta, a remote region of rural Catalonia—the murder of a wealthy local man and his wife—will turn Melchor’s life upside down yet again.
-
-
Amazing
- By Tyler on 04-25-24
By: Javier Cercas, and others
-
The Secret Hours
- By: Mick Herron
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service “to investigate historical over-reaching.” Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn.
-
-
Just about perfect
- By June Lapidow on 09-28-23
By: Mick Herron
-
The Lemon
- A Novel
- By: S. E. Boyd
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While filming on location in Belfast, Northern Ireland, John Doe, the universally adored host of the culinary travel show Last Call, is found dead in a hotel room in an apparent suicide. As the news of his untimely demise breaks stateside, a group of friends, fixers, hustlers, and opportunists vie to seize control of the narrative: Doe’s chess-master of an agent Nia, ready to call in every favor she is owed to preserve his legacy; down-on-her-luck journalist Katie, who fabricates a story about Doe to save her job at a failing website.
-
-
Fliakos knocks it out of the park!
- By LeiLani Q. on 09-22-23
By: S. E. Boyd
-
A Line in the Sand
- A Novel
- By: Kevin Powers
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim—Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US as a maintenance worker at the Sea Breeze Motel. Now, convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe.
-
-
A preposterous bloodbath
- By David Benjamin on 07-06-23
By: Kevin Powers
-
Reykjavík
- A Crime Story
- By: Ragnar Jónasson, Katrín Jakobsdóttir
- Narrated by: Bert Seymour, Tamaryn Payne
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Iceland, 1956. Fourteen-year-old Lára decides to spend the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. Time passes, and the mystery becomes Iceland‘s most infamous unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there? Thirty years later, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lára's case.
-
-
Better than expected
- By Shopper on 11-18-23
By: Ragnar Jónasson, and others
-
All the Sinners Bleed
- A Novel
- By: S. A. Cosby
- Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes.
-
-
Visceral, gripping, thrilling and entertaining
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 06-26-23
By: S. A. Cosby
-
On Java Road
- A Novel
- By: Lawrence Osborne
- Narrated by: Michael Obiora
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After two decades as a journalist in Hong Kong, ex-pat Englishman Adrian Gyle has very little to show for it. Evenings are whiled away with soup dumplings and tea at Fung Shing, the restaurant downstairs from his home on Java Road, watching the city erupt in violence as pro-democracy demonstrations hit ever closer to home. Watching from the skyrises is Adrian’s old friend Jimmy Tang, the scion of one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families. Just as Gyle prepares to turn his back on Hong Kong, he finds one last intrigue: Rebecca, a student involved in the protests.
-
-
Another winning novel by Laurence Osborne
- By Reed Ramlow on 09-26-22
By: Lawrence Osborne
-
Everybody Knows
- A Novel
- By: Jordan Harper
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing, William DeMeritt
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody whispers.” As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks, and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary.
-
-
Dreck!
- By cindy m on 06-09-23
By: Jordan Harper
-
The Return of Faraz Ali
- A Novel
- By: Aamina Ahmad
- Narrated by: Homer Todiwala, Nina Wadia
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not since childhood has Faraz returned to the Mohalla, in Lahore’s walled inner city, where women continue to pass down the art of courtesan from mother to daughter. But he still remembers the day he was abducted from the home he shared with his mother and sister there, at the direction of his powerful father, who wanted to give him a chance at a respectable life. Now Wajid, once more dictating his fate from afar, has sent Faraz back to Lahore, installing him as head of the Mohalla police station and charging him with a mission: to cover up the violent death of a young girl.
-
-
Awful narration
- By Anonymous User on 04-09-22
By: Aamina Ahmad
-
Harlem Shuffle
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
-
-
Best Read/Listen on Audible
- By Henry Posner on 09-22-21
By: Colson Whitehead
-
The Cold, Cold Ground
- Detective Sean Duffy, Book 1
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman’s suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things—and people—aren’t always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It’s no easy job—especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force.
-
-
Listen to this book. You won't be disappointed.
- By Christopher on 01-21-12
By: Adrian McKinty
-
The Plinko Bounce
- By: Martin Clark
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker, Morgan Hallett
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For seventeen years, small-town public defender Andy Hughes has been underpaid to look after the poor, the addicted, and the unfortunate souls who constantly cycle through the courts, charged with petty crimes. Then, in the summer of 2020, he’s assigned to a grotesque murder case that brings national media focus to rural Patrick County, Virginia—Alicia Benson, the wife of a wealthy businessman, is murdered in her home. The accused killer, Damian Bullins, is a cunning felon with a long history of violence, and he confesses to the police.
-
-
Compelling read
- By Nikki Fortier on 01-17-24
By: Martin Clark
-
Birnam Wood
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place.
-
-
Outstanding thriller w/ exceptional character development
- By Bradley T. Collins on 04-21-23
By: Eleanor Catton
-
The Gold Coast
- By: Nelson DeMille
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel, Nelson DeMille
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief and draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world.
-
-
Unexpectedly Great!
- By Jack C on 11-14-08
By: Nelson DeMille
-
Lowdown Road
- By: Scott Von Doviak
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the summer of '74 . . . Richard Nixon has resigned from office, CB radios are the hot new thing, and in the great state of Texas two cousins hatch a plan to drive $1 million worth of stolen weed to Idaho, where some lunatic is gearing up to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle. But with a vengeful sheriff on their tail and the revered and feared marijuana kingpin of Central Texas out to get his stash back, Chuck and Dean are in for the ride of their lives—if they can make it out alive . . .
-
-
hmm... what have I been sold?
- By Joe on 12-24-23
By: Scott Von Doviak
-
The Lost Kings
- A Novel
- By: Tyrell Johnson
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeanie’s whole world is turned upside down. Not only has she lost her beloved brother, but with no family left in Washington, she is ripped from everything she knows, including Maddox, the boy she could be learning to love. Twenty years later, Jeanie is in England. She keeps her demons at bay by drinking too much, sleeping with a married man, and speaking to a therapist she doesn’t respect. But her old life catches up to her when Maddox reappears, claiming to have tracked down her dad.
-
-
WTH did I just listen too!
- By F. on 09-06-23
By: Tyrell Johnson
Critic reviews
“It is precisely style and atmosphere that give An Honest Living so much electricity and dimension. Like the best noir practitioners, Murphy uses the mystery as scaffolding to assemble a world of fallen dreams and doom bitten characters . . . Murphy’s hard-boiled rendering of the city is nothing short of exquisite . . . For anyone who wants a portrait of this New York, few recent books have conjured it so vividly. For those who demand a straightforward mystery without any humor, romance and ambience, well, forget it, Jake, it’s literature.”—The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice
“Set amid New York’s rare-book trade, this slow-burning début crime novel is also an atmospheric homage to the film Chinatown.”—The New Yorker
“Murphy’s engrossing debut is a book made for summer reading. It’s a smart, leisurely read, richly layered with movie references and philosophical reflections.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Related to this topic
-
Out the Window
- A Matthew Scudder Story, Book 1
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Lawrence Block
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matthew Scudder, a down-but-not-out-detective, is shocked by the apparent suicide of Paula, a waitress at Armstrong’s, one of Scudder’s hangouts. When Paula’s sister shows up and asks Matt to investigate what she believes to be a murder, Scudder agrees to take on the case. A number of clues don’t add up to suicide, and Scudder’s investigation leads him to the dark corners of Paula’s world.
-
-
Good detective story.
- By Wayne on 04-17-16
By: Lawrence Block
-
The Sins of the Fathers
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hooker was young, pretty...and dead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again--that's where Matthew Scudder comes in.
-
-
Good introduction to a popular series
- By Sharron on 12-26-11
By: Lawrence Block
-
The Night Ocean
- By: Paul La Farge
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
-
-
Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
-
Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unemployed at 29, Tess Monaghan is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent—including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancée—make the case front page news...and point to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence could prove costly to Tess.
-
-
I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
-
Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
-
-
Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
-
The Merlot Murders
- A Wine Country Mystery
- By: Ellen Crosby
- Narrated by: P. J. Davis-Oran
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucie Montgomery's semi-estranged brother, Eli, calls her in France to tell her that their father, Leland, has been killed in a hunting accident on the family's 500-acre Virginia vineyard. But the vineyard is now shabby and run-down and her siblings want to sell it. Then Lucie's godfather tells her Leland's death was no accident. With her greedy brother, hell-raising sister, and a seemingly cut-rate vintner hired by Leland just before he died, all the suspects are disturbingly close to home.
-
-
Wine & history w/ your mystery!
- By Cracker1951 on 03-27-08
By: Ellen Crosby
-
Out the Window
- A Matthew Scudder Story, Book 1
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Lawrence Block
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matthew Scudder, a down-but-not-out-detective, is shocked by the apparent suicide of Paula, a waitress at Armstrong’s, one of Scudder’s hangouts. When Paula’s sister shows up and asks Matt to investigate what she believes to be a murder, Scudder agrees to take on the case. A number of clues don’t add up to suicide, and Scudder’s investigation leads him to the dark corners of Paula’s world.
-
-
Good detective story.
- By Wayne on 04-17-16
By: Lawrence Block
-
The Sins of the Fathers
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hooker was young, pretty...and dead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again--that's where Matthew Scudder comes in.
-
-
Good introduction to a popular series
- By Sharron on 12-26-11
By: Lawrence Block
-
The Night Ocean
- By: Paul La Farge
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marina Willett, MD, has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends - or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears.
-
-
Frustratingly Uneven Due to Clumsy Plot Structure
- By Adam on 06-15-17
By: Paul La Farge
-
Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unemployed at 29, Tess Monaghan is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent—including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancée—make the case front page news...and point to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence could prove costly to Tess.
-
-
I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
-
Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
-
-
Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
-
The Merlot Murders
- A Wine Country Mystery
- By: Ellen Crosby
- Narrated by: P. J. Davis-Oran
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucie Montgomery's semi-estranged brother, Eli, calls her in France to tell her that their father, Leland, has been killed in a hunting accident on the family's 500-acre Virginia vineyard. But the vineyard is now shabby and run-down and her siblings want to sell it. Then Lucie's godfather tells her Leland's death was no accident. With her greedy brother, hell-raising sister, and a seemingly cut-rate vintner hired by Leland just before he died, all the suspects are disturbingly close to home.
-
-
Wine & history w/ your mystery!
- By Cracker1951 on 03-27-08
By: Ellen Crosby
-
The Good Friday Murder
- A Christine Bennett Mystery, Book 1
- By: Lee Harris
- Narrated by: Dee Macaluso
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Christine Bennett has left the cloistered world of nuns for the profane world of New York State, where murder and madness are often linked. At a town meeting, Christine volunteers to investigate a 40-year-old murder case long since closed. Now she'll move heaven and earth to exonerate a pair of retarded savant twins, now senior citizens, of their mother's murder on Good Friday in 1950.
-
-
Polite procedural cozy
- By connie on 12-29-12
By: Lee Harris
-
Loot
- By: Aaron Elkins
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1945, The Nazis, reeling and near defeat, frantically work to hide the huge store of art treasures that Hitler has looted from Europe. Truck convoys loaded with the cultural wealth of the Western world pour in an unending stream into the compound of the vast Altaussee salt mine high in the Austrian Alps. But with the Allies closing in, the vaunted efficiency of the Nazis has broken down. At Altaussee, all is tumult and confusion.
-
-
This book was a wonderful example of why I normally avoid histfiction: too good, too gripping! Now I need to read Monuments Men!
- By Logophile on 08-01-24
By: Aaron Elkins
-
The Eighth Commandment
- By: Lawrence Sanders
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Damaretion, the prized Greek coin from Archibald Havistock's collection, disappears and appraiser Mary Lou "Dunk" Bateson comes under suspicion, Bateson, a cop, and an insurance investigator set out to solve the crime.
-
-
It was a nice listen
- By John on 10-01-12
By: Lawrence Sanders
-
The Fallen
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My life was ordinary until three years ago when I was thrown out of a downtown hotel window. My name is Robbie Brownlaw, and I am a homicide detective for the city of San Diego. I am 29 years old. I now have synesthesia, a neurological condition where your senses get mixed up. Sometimes when people talk to me, I see their voices as colored shapes provoked by the emotions of the speakers, not by the words themselves. I have what amounts to a primitive lie detector.
-
-
OK, but...
- By Robert E. Orlando on 01-01-14
-
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
- By: Dinaw Mengestu
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ethiopian émigré Dinaw Mengestu is a skilled observer of people who offers a colorful debut work of fiction. Insightful and swiftly paced, this novel evokes past and present in the course of its compelling narrative. It's the `70s, and one D.C. neighborhood is undergoing big changes. In the mix is Ethiopian grocery owner Sepha Stephanos - a man with a complex past who fled his homeland after seeing his father brutalized by themilitary. He hopes for new prospects in D.C.'s gentrification process.
-
-
Great book, wonderful reader
- By Lisbeth on 11-22-11
By: Dinaw Mengestu
-
Insomniac City
- New York, Oliver, and Me
- By: Bill Hayes
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at 48 years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.
-
-
Touching and Intimate Portrait
- By Amazon Customer on 01-18-19
By: Bill Hayes
-
Crewel World
- By: Monica Ferris
- Narrated by: Susan Boyce
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Betsy Devonshire arrived in Excelsior, Minnesota, all she wanted was to visit her sister Margot and get her life in order. She never dreamed her sister would give her a place to stay and a job at her needlecraft shop. In fact, things had never looked so good - until Margot was murdered. In a town this friendly, it's hard to imagine who could have committed such a horrible act, but Betsy has a few ideas. There's an ex-employee who wants to start her own needlework store. And there's the landlord who wanted Margot out. Now Betsy's putting together a list of motives and suspects....
-
-
British style mystery set in America
- By Sara on 01-13-14
By: Monica Ferris
-
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
- By: Sloan Wilson
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the story of Tom and Betsy Rath, a young couple with everything going for them: three healthy children, a nice home, a steady income. They have every reason to be happy, but for some reason they are not. Like so many young men of the day, Tom finds himself caught up in the corporate rat race - what he encounters there propels him on a voyage of self-discovery that will turn his world inside out.
-
-
great read/listen
- By BBJ on 09-26-16
By: Sloan Wilson
-
The Book of Air and Shadows
- A Novel
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jake Mishkin's seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the center of a deadly conspiracy and a chase to find a priceless treasure involving William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer (or killers) unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for 400 years.
-
-
Not your average story.
- By Nicholas Winn on 06-02-07
By: Michael Gruber
-
Cop Hater
- 87th Precinct Series, Book 1
- By: Ed McBain
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a sniper begins gunning down cops from the 87th Precinct in cold blood, it’s up to Detective Steve Carella to solve the case. With three cops already dead, Carella delves into the city’s underworld to search for the killer.
-
-
Dang, it's about time for the 87th Precinct
- By Eric J. Toll on 05-17-14
By: Ed McBain
-
The Talented Mr. Ripley
- By: Patricia Highsmith
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal, but he grows enraged by Dickie's ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante.
-
-
Patricia, Phil, and Pathology
- By Mel on 04-24-13
-
Big City, Bad Blood
- By: Sean Chercover
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Disillusioned newspaper reporter-turned-private detective Ray Dudgeon doesn't want to save the world; he just wants to do an honest job well. But when doing an honest job threatens society's most powerful and corrupt, Ray's odds of survival make for a sucker's bet.
-
-
Quintessentially Chicago
- By Eva Gannon on 09-21-09
By: Sean Chercover
What listeners say about An Honest Living
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nicole Hurtado Docati
- 02-04-24
The beginning of the story was very engaging and the reading had a great tone and pace.
The story has a very anticlimactic ending, however the reading was very good. Would recommend this reader maybe not the author.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SB
- 07-26-22
Promising start, failed to deliver
The narrator was the perfect choice for this novel. He did an excellent job. The story got off to a wonderful start, it was very well written with several interesting threads. The last third of the novel was a huge disappointment. All those threads were left dangling. Quite frankly, the ending baffled me. It made no sense, answered no questions, and generally insulted the listener who had hung in for the whole book. I feel cheated and that I wasted my time.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ZUrlocker
- 09-28-23
A noir homage. Or maybe pastiche. You decide.
I picked it up on a whim. I like noir. But this... it was something else. An homage. Or maybe a pastiche. To be honest, it was hard to say. I'm all for mystery, but it starts to get tedious. Maybe this was a book where nothing happens and people are just talking all the time going off into the woods. Is it Chinatown? Or maybe some Conrad story we're stuck in. Who knows? I wasn't sure I was following the story. Not sure I wanted to know. It was a long story that hung together pretty loosely. The man's confession was wrapped in his own skin. There was a great deal more to the story but I couldn't remember all the details. I needed a drink. Deserved one for finishing. Didn't we all?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- peter walsh
- 08-19-24
Great writing!
modern noir! Full of city metaphor. Catch’s the smells and brings them to the readers nose.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Claire P.
- 08-30-22
A True Noir
There’s a disaffected narrator, a damsel in distress who may or may not have a secret, a crime (or two), enough dry observations to make you reach for a cool drink, and even a fat man. Beautifully read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Faith
- 10-27-22
Dud
writing style great, performance great, story overall flat and lacking...just kept thinking there had to be more
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Owlet
- 07-30-22
A thoroughly enjoyable listen
Mr. Murphy’s prose is nicely balanced and sharply executed. I found his attention to detail about the gritty beauty of life in NYC and Brooklyn so gratifyingly rendered. The overall tone is slightly sardonic without being embittered or dark, and i found the protagonist to be relatable and likable. The author takes us into the world of his characters while letting the characters develop in the slow and subtle unfolding of an old-fashioned crime story— no overdramatized hyperbole, just a keen eye for both the facts and ambiguities of life and human nature, with a dash of mystery thrown in.
The narration is excellent, nicely paced and moderated, with just the right combination of warmth and irony.
This is a great first venture into crime noir for the author, and i hope there will be sequels to come.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katherine F.
- 08-01-22
Very enjoyable
Expertly read, well written. The book references and lightly mirrors Chinatown - I was eager to restart listening throughout. Not as tight as a standard whodunnit, but that somehow made it more likable, not less.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jaf
- 09-28-23
Great narrator no plot
If you like NYC you might like this gritty travelogue but that’s all it is. No big mystery or even plot
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 05-18-23
Disappointing
This story was lacking in any kind of finality as well as any real plot. Had I realized it was over when it was, I would have stopped listening, and gotten my money back. Read something else.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful