Bad Call
A Summer Job on a New York Ambulance
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 $19.48
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Daniel Thomas May
-
By:
-
Mike Scardino
About this listen
An adrenaline-fueled read that will stay with you long after the you listen to the last sentence, Bad Call is a "compulsively readable, totally unforgettable"* memoir about working on a New York City ambulance in the 1960s. (*James Patterson)
Bad Call is Mike Scardino's visceral, fast-moving, and mordantly funny account of the summers he spent working as an "ambulance attendant" on the mean streets of late-1960s New York.
Fueled by adrenaline and Sabrett's hot dogs, young Mike spends his days speeding from one chaotic emergency to another. His adventures take him into the middle of incipient race riots, to the scene of a plane crash at JFK airport and into private lives all over Queens, where New Yorkers are suffering, and dying, in unimaginable ways. Learning on the job, Mike encounters all manner of freakish accidents (the man who drank Drano, the woman attacked by rats, the man who inflated like a balloon), meets countless unforgettable New York characters, falls in love, is nearly murdered, and gets an early and indelible education in the impermanence of life and the cruelty of chance.
Action-packed, poignant, and rich with details that bring Mike's world to technicolor life, Bad Call is a gritty portrait of a bygone era as well as a bracing reminder that, though "life itself is a fatal condition," it's worth pausing to notice the moments of beauty, hope, and everyday heroism along the way.
©2018 Mike Scardino (P)2018 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
A Thousand Naked Strangers
- A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
- By: Kevin Hazzard
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of 9/11, Kevin Hazzard felt that something was missing from his life - his days were too safe, too routine. A failed salesman turned local reporter, he wanted to test himself, see how he might respond to pressure and danger. He signed up for emergency medical training and became, at age 26, a newly minted EMT running calls in the worst sections of Atlanta. His life entered a different realm - one of blood, violence, and amazing grace.
-
-
A Wild Ride You Won't Forget!
- By Kathy in CA on 05-23-17
By: Kevin Hazzard
-
Gutter Medicine: Twenty-Six Years as a Firefighter Paramedic
- By: Roger Huder
- Narrated by: Tom Jordan
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My career as a firefighter/paramedic stretched from 1974 to 2000 when were inventing EMS as we went along. These are stories from those years on the street. That place I named so long ago, the other reality that exists just outside most people’s everyday lives. It is a place that seems to exist parallel to the normal workaday existence: yet it is only a car accident or cardiac away for any of us. It manifested itself in brushfires, house fires, shootings, stabbings, hangings, accidents with injuries, cardiacs, codes, drownings, and a thousand other emergencies.
-
-
Mesmerizing!
- By txdoc on 10-16-19
By: Roger Huder
-
Riding the Lightning
- A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic
- By: Anthony Almojera
- Narrated by: Anthony Almojera
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a seasoned paramedic and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he could handle anything his job threw at him. Like many medical first responders, he came from a troubled background and carried the traumas of the city as well as its triumphs. He had grown up in the rough-and-tumble Park Slope of the 1980s, been homeless for a time, and had watched murder, addiction, and hopelessness consume those closest to him. But he had dedicated his life to helping people in need, and while every day was filled with tragedy—stabbings, shootings, accidents, suicides—it also brought moments of uplift.
-
-
Honest, brutal and compassionate.
- By Adam on 06-08-22
By: Anthony Almojera
-
The Rescuer
- One Firefighter’s Story of Courage, Darkness, and the Relentless Love That Saved Him
- By: Jason Sautel, D.R. Jacobsen - contributor
- Narrated by: Mark Smeby
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He helped save people every day - but he had no idea how to save himself. Jason Sautel had it all. Confident in his abilities and trusted by his fellow firefighters, he was making a name for himself on the streets of Oakland, California. His adrenaline-fueled job even helped him forget the pain of his childhood - until the day he looked into the eyes of a jumper on the Bay Bridge and came face-to-face with a darkness he knew would take him down as well.
-
-
Real..... and good!
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-21
By: Jason Sautel, and others
-
Blood, Sweat, Tears and Prayers
- Firefighting and EMS from Some of the Toughest Streets in America
- By: Gary Ludwig
- Narrated by: Kevin Kollins
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gary Ludwig has been a firefighter/paramedic for 37 years and has worked in two of the most violent cities in the United States (St. Louis and Memphis) for 34 years of those years. He gathers his experiences in this field and presents an honest overview of his experiences with the emotions, feelings, sights, and gut-wrenching efforts men and women in this field experience to save a life or property. This is the insider look at a profession few of us fully appreciate: This book gains the profession the respect that is due.
-
-
A MUST for anyone in emergency services!!!!
- By Trent Longtin on 12-20-18
By: Gary Ludwig
-
Confessions of a Trauma Junkie
- My Life as a Nurse Paramedic, 2nd Edition
- By: Sherry Lynn Jones
- Narrated by: Kristine M Bowen
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Share the innermost feelings of emergency services workers as they encounter trauma, tragedy, redemption, and even a little humor. This audiobook details a progression from innocence to enlightened caregiver to burnout, glimpsing into each stage personally and professionally.
-
-
Confessions of a trauma junkie
- By Deborah on 07-17-18
-
A Thousand Naked Strangers
- A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
- By: Kevin Hazzard
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of 9/11, Kevin Hazzard felt that something was missing from his life - his days were too safe, too routine. A failed salesman turned local reporter, he wanted to test himself, see how he might respond to pressure and danger. He signed up for emergency medical training and became, at age 26, a newly minted EMT running calls in the worst sections of Atlanta. His life entered a different realm - one of blood, violence, and amazing grace.
-
-
A Wild Ride You Won't Forget!
- By Kathy in CA on 05-23-17
By: Kevin Hazzard
-
Gutter Medicine: Twenty-Six Years as a Firefighter Paramedic
- By: Roger Huder
- Narrated by: Tom Jordan
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My career as a firefighter/paramedic stretched from 1974 to 2000 when were inventing EMS as we went along. These are stories from those years on the street. That place I named so long ago, the other reality that exists just outside most people’s everyday lives. It is a place that seems to exist parallel to the normal workaday existence: yet it is only a car accident or cardiac away for any of us. It manifested itself in brushfires, house fires, shootings, stabbings, hangings, accidents with injuries, cardiacs, codes, drownings, and a thousand other emergencies.
-
-
Mesmerizing!
- By txdoc on 10-16-19
By: Roger Huder
-
Riding the Lightning
- A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic
- By: Anthony Almojera
- Narrated by: Anthony Almojera
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a seasoned paramedic and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he could handle anything his job threw at him. Like many medical first responders, he came from a troubled background and carried the traumas of the city as well as its triumphs. He had grown up in the rough-and-tumble Park Slope of the 1980s, been homeless for a time, and had watched murder, addiction, and hopelessness consume those closest to him. But he had dedicated his life to helping people in need, and while every day was filled with tragedy—stabbings, shootings, accidents, suicides—it also brought moments of uplift.
-
-
Honest, brutal and compassionate.
- By Adam on 06-08-22
By: Anthony Almojera
-
The Rescuer
- One Firefighter’s Story of Courage, Darkness, and the Relentless Love That Saved Him
- By: Jason Sautel, D.R. Jacobsen - contributor
- Narrated by: Mark Smeby
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He helped save people every day - but he had no idea how to save himself. Jason Sautel had it all. Confident in his abilities and trusted by his fellow firefighters, he was making a name for himself on the streets of Oakland, California. His adrenaline-fueled job even helped him forget the pain of his childhood - until the day he looked into the eyes of a jumper on the Bay Bridge and came face-to-face with a darkness he knew would take him down as well.
-
-
Real..... and good!
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-21
By: Jason Sautel, and others
-
Blood, Sweat, Tears and Prayers
- Firefighting and EMS from Some of the Toughest Streets in America
- By: Gary Ludwig
- Narrated by: Kevin Kollins
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gary Ludwig has been a firefighter/paramedic for 37 years and has worked in two of the most violent cities in the United States (St. Louis and Memphis) for 34 years of those years. He gathers his experiences in this field and presents an honest overview of his experiences with the emotions, feelings, sights, and gut-wrenching efforts men and women in this field experience to save a life or property. This is the insider look at a profession few of us fully appreciate: This book gains the profession the respect that is due.
-
-
A MUST for anyone in emergency services!!!!
- By Trent Longtin on 12-20-18
By: Gary Ludwig
-
Confessions of a Trauma Junkie
- My Life as a Nurse Paramedic, 2nd Edition
- By: Sherry Lynn Jones
- Narrated by: Kristine M Bowen
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Share the innermost feelings of emergency services workers as they encounter trauma, tragedy, redemption, and even a little humor. This audiobook details a progression from innocence to enlightened caregiver to burnout, glimpsing into each stage personally and professionally.
-
-
Confessions of a trauma junkie
- By Deborah on 07-17-18
-
Miracles & Mayhem in the ER
- Unbelievable True Stories from an Emergency Room Doctor
- By: Dr. Brent Rock Russell
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Miracles and Mayhem in the ER, Dr. Brent Russell shares true-life stories of his early days as an emergency room doctor. Contemplative and oftentimes hilarious, Dr. Russell leads the listener through the glass doors and down the narrow halls of the ER where desperate patients, young and old, come to get well. Occasionally heart wrenching and always fast-paced, Miracles and Mayhem in the ER will have listeners holding their breath one second and celebrating the next.
-
-
Not what I thought - but still great!
- By Marisa on 05-10-17
-
American Heroes
- By: James Patterson, Matt Eversmann, Tim Malloy
- Narrated by: Joe Mantegna
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
U.S. soldiers who served in overseas conflicts—from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan—share true stories of the actions that earned them some of America’s most distinguished military medals, up to and including the Medal of Honor. They never acted alone, but always in the spirit of camaraderie, patriotism, and for the good of our beloved country. There has never been a better time for all of us to think about duty, sacrifice, and what it means to be an American hero.
-
-
EXCELLENT
- By Wilson Che' Gray on 10-25-24
By: James Patterson, and others
-
Hard Roll
- A Paramedic’s Perspective of Life and Death in New Orleans
- By: Jon McCarthy
- Narrated by: Arthur Flavell
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known as one of America's most dangerous cities, New Orleans plays host to incidents ranging from the tragic and disturbing to the completely bizarre - and during his career as an emergency medic, Jon McCarthy saw it all. He chronicles some of the most formative calls of his career in this autobiography that sounds like crime fiction. McCarthy demonstrates with detail and clarity that the difficult choice is often the right choice. While not for the faint of heart, each entry in this collection provides poignant insight into the bonds between medics and the people and city they serve.
-
-
The nightmares we all take for granted, these guys are elbow deep in daily. Experience it here:
- By Sandy on 02-12-24
By: Jon McCarthy
-
The Job
- True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop
- By: Steve Osborne
- Narrated by: Steve Osborne
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steve Osborne has seen a thing or two in his 20 years in the NYPD - some harmless things, some definitely not. In "Stakeout" Steve and his partner mistake a Manhattan dentist for an armed robbery suspect and reduce the man down to a puddle of snot and tears when questioning him. In "Mug Shot" the mother of a suspected criminal makes a strange request and provides a sobering reminder of the humanity at stake in his profession.
-
-
Great Book for Traveling
- By Johnnie Walker on 05-15-16
By: Steve Osborne
-
Ordinary Heroes
- A Memoir of 9/11
- By: Joseph Pfeifer
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chief Joe Pfeifer led his firefighters to investigate an odor of gas in downtown Manhattan on the morning of 9/11, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever. A few moments later, he watched as the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Pfeifer, the closest FDNY chief to the scene, spearheaded rescue efforts on one of the darkest days in American history.
-
-
An amazing account
- By Anonymous User on 09-09-21
By: Joseph Pfeifer
-
Lights and Sirens
- The Education of a Paramedic
- By: Kevin Grange
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine months of tying tourniquets and pushing new medications, of IVs, chest compressions, and defibrillator shocks - that was Kevin Grange's initiation into emergency medicine when, at age 36, he enrolled in the "Harvard of paramedic schools": UCLA's Daniel Freeman paramedic program, long considered one of the best and most intense paramedic training programs in the world.
-
-
if your looking into EMS as a career DO READ!!!i
- By Jess-eoohh on 07-15-16
By: Kevin Grange
-
The Green Mile
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At Cold Mountain Penitentiary, the convicted killers on E Block await their turn to walk the Green Mile and keep a date with the electric chair. Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working as a guard on the Mile, but he's never met anyone like John Coffey.
-
-
An excellent narrator and an excellent story.
- By Bryan J. Peterson on 03-21-10
By: Stephen King
-
One Doctor
- Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine
- By: Brendan Reilly
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic story told by a unique voice in American medicine, One Doctor describes life-changing experiences in the career of a distinguished physician. In riveting first-person prose, Dr. Brendan Reilly takes us to the front lines of medicine today.
-
-
Simply Brilliant
- By Jan on 06-20-14
By: Brendan Reilly
-
Unnatural Causes
- By: Dr Richard Shepherd
- Narrated by: Dr Richard Shepherd
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the country's top forensic pathologist, Dr Richard Shepherd has spent a lifetime uncovering the secrets of the dead. When death is sudden or unexplained, it falls to Shepherd to establish the cause. Each post-mortem is a detective story in its own right - and Shepherd has performed over 23,000 of them. Through his skill, dedication and insight, Dr Shepherd solves the puzzle to answer our most pressing question: how did this person die?
-
-
Boring!
- By Zoesmydog on 06-21-19
-
A Gentleman in Moscow
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.
-
-
A Reprieve Amidst Ugly News, Relentless Negativity
- By Cathy Lindhorst on 08-27-17
By: Amor Towles
-
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
- By: V. E. Schwab
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
France, 1714: In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever - and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
-
-
Prose style not to my liking
- By C.V. Cox on 10-18-20
By: V. E. Schwab
-
Shantaram
- A Novel
- By: Gregory David Roberts
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 42 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.
-
-
Probably the best performance I've listened to.
- By Mickey on 04-15-14
Critic reviews
"In this fresh and powerful debut memoir, Scardino looks back on his summers during college in the late 1960s when he worked as a New York City hospital ambulance attendant...Scardino recounts in short chapters the many emergencies he witnessed and assisted in that showed him 'the entire catalog of horrifying things that can happen to a human body.' From accidental deaths to suicides, Scardino writes with the detail of a crime reporter...Scardino's unsparing memoir offers an empathetic look at human pain and suffering." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
Related to this topic
-
The Postmortal
- A Novel
- By: Drew Magary
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world where an anti-aging cure is available worldwide, immortality comes with its own unique problems. John Farrell is about to get "The Cure". Old age can never kill him now. The only problem is, everything else still can.
-
-
Interesting concept but bleak and wearing
- By Amazon Customer on 05-15-12
By: Drew Magary
-
The Cutting
- A McCabe and Savage Thriller, Book 1
- By: James Hayman
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Mike McCabe moved from a top homicide job with the NYPD to Portland, Maine, to leave his failed marriage and suspicions of wrongdoing behind, and to find a more peaceful life for himself and his 13-year-old daughter. But the small New England city is not nearly as safe as he thought. On a warm September night, a missing high school athlete is found dead in a scrap-metal yard, her heart removed from her body with surgical precision. As outrage over the killing spreads, a young businesswoman disappears while out on a morning jog.
-
-
Is It The Story? Or Its Telling? Hmmmm...
- By Ted on 12-01-15
By: James Hayman
-
All Involved
- A Novel
- By: Ryan Gattis
- Narrated by: Anthony Rey Perez, Marisol Ramirez, Jim Cooper, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A propulsive and ambitious novel as electrifying as The Wire, from a writer hailed as the West Coast's Richard Price—a mesmerizing epic of crime and opportunity, race, revenge, and loyalty, set in the chaotic streets of South Central LA in the wake of one of the most notorious and incendiary trials of the 1990s. At 3:15 p.m. on April 29, 1992, a jury acquitted three white Los Angeles Police Department officers charged with using excessive force to subdue a black man named Rodney King and failed to reach a verdict on the same charges involving a fourth officer. Less than two hours later, the city exploded in violence that lasted six days. In nearly 121 hours, fifty-three lives were lost. But there were even more deaths unaccounted for: violence that occurred outside of active rioting sites by those who used the chaos to viciously settle old scores.
-
-
Best Multiple Narrative Since the Poisonwood Bible
- By Alan McCarron on 04-22-15
By: Ryan Gattis
-
The Year We Disappeared
- By: Cylin Busby, John Busby
- Narrated by: Cylin Busby, David Baker
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A peaceful summer night is shattered by gunfire as an unseen assailant tries to murder police officer John Busby. Though horribly wounded, Busby survives. But the perpetrator remains at large, meaning neither Busby, nor his wife, nor their three children are safe. In separate chapters John and his daughter, Cylin, who was nine at the time, recount the story of that year. John writes graphically, and movingly, of his wounds, his pain, his multiple surgeries, and his rage.
-
-
Heartbreaking. Justice just out of reach.
- By Amanda on 01-07-14
By: Cylin Busby, and others
-
Death Wish
- By: Brian Garfield
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What do you do when murderers have killed your wife and destroyed your daughter? Until that awful moment Paul Benjamin was an ordinary man - but the unspeakable violence that shattered his life turned him into someone quite different. Someone destiny was shaping into a bizarre instrument of vengeance. This is the novel that spawned the classic movie starring Charles Bronson.
-
-
alonzo
- By lloyd on 10-19-11
By: Brian Garfield
-
American Rust
- By: Philipp Meyer
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation-as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love-that arise from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.
-
-
A Web of Despair and Desperation
- By Darwin8u on 07-16-12
By: Philipp Meyer
-
The Postmortal
- A Novel
- By: Drew Magary
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world where an anti-aging cure is available worldwide, immortality comes with its own unique problems. John Farrell is about to get "The Cure". Old age can never kill him now. The only problem is, everything else still can.
-
-
Interesting concept but bleak and wearing
- By Amazon Customer on 05-15-12
By: Drew Magary
-
The Cutting
- A McCabe and Savage Thriller, Book 1
- By: James Hayman
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Mike McCabe moved from a top homicide job with the NYPD to Portland, Maine, to leave his failed marriage and suspicions of wrongdoing behind, and to find a more peaceful life for himself and his 13-year-old daughter. But the small New England city is not nearly as safe as he thought. On a warm September night, a missing high school athlete is found dead in a scrap-metal yard, her heart removed from her body with surgical precision. As outrage over the killing spreads, a young businesswoman disappears while out on a morning jog.
-
-
Is It The Story? Or Its Telling? Hmmmm...
- By Ted on 12-01-15
By: James Hayman
-
All Involved
- A Novel
- By: Ryan Gattis
- Narrated by: Anthony Rey Perez, Marisol Ramirez, Jim Cooper, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A propulsive and ambitious novel as electrifying as The Wire, from a writer hailed as the West Coast's Richard Price—a mesmerizing epic of crime and opportunity, race, revenge, and loyalty, set in the chaotic streets of South Central LA in the wake of one of the most notorious and incendiary trials of the 1990s. At 3:15 p.m. on April 29, 1992, a jury acquitted three white Los Angeles Police Department officers charged with using excessive force to subdue a black man named Rodney King and failed to reach a verdict on the same charges involving a fourth officer. Less than two hours later, the city exploded in violence that lasted six days. In nearly 121 hours, fifty-three lives were lost. But there were even more deaths unaccounted for: violence that occurred outside of active rioting sites by those who used the chaos to viciously settle old scores.
-
-
Best Multiple Narrative Since the Poisonwood Bible
- By Alan McCarron on 04-22-15
By: Ryan Gattis
-
The Year We Disappeared
- By: Cylin Busby, John Busby
- Narrated by: Cylin Busby, David Baker
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A peaceful summer night is shattered by gunfire as an unseen assailant tries to murder police officer John Busby. Though horribly wounded, Busby survives. But the perpetrator remains at large, meaning neither Busby, nor his wife, nor their three children are safe. In separate chapters John and his daughter, Cylin, who was nine at the time, recount the story of that year. John writes graphically, and movingly, of his wounds, his pain, his multiple surgeries, and his rage.
-
-
Heartbreaking. Justice just out of reach.
- By Amanda on 01-07-14
By: Cylin Busby, and others
-
Death Wish
- By: Brian Garfield
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What do you do when murderers have killed your wife and destroyed your daughter? Until that awful moment Paul Benjamin was an ordinary man - but the unspeakable violence that shattered his life turned him into someone quite different. Someone destiny was shaping into a bizarre instrument of vengeance. This is the novel that spawned the classic movie starring Charles Bronson.
-
-
alonzo
- By lloyd on 10-19-11
By: Brian Garfield
-
American Rust
- By: Philipp Meyer
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation-as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love-that arise from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.
-
-
A Web of Despair and Desperation
- By Darwin8u on 07-16-12
By: Philipp Meyer
-
The Quiet Game
- By: Greg Iles
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 20 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When former prosecutor Penn Cage returns to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, he doesn't find the peace he desperately craves. He finds that his own father is being blackmailed by a corrupt ex-cop. And when Penn investigates, he uncovers a murderous secret - and the small town's violent past.
-
-
Complex and Good Courtroom Drama!
- By R. Pontiflet on 02-09-15
By: Greg Iles
-
Bone Dry
- By: Bette Golden Lamb
- Narrated by: Beth Richmond
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine. You have cancer. You’ve been blasted and wasted with chemotherapy, along with every other poison the doctors could find to kill malignant cells. Most days you’re more dead than alive. Now there is one last chance for survival. Tomorrow you will be infused with your own, treated bone marrow frozen, stored, and safe in one of California’s most prestigious hospitals. Then comes the note: “We have your marrow.... pay or die."
-
-
Not bad, not great, it was OK"
- By Laurie Carroll on 03-13-16
-
City of the Sun
- A Novel
- By: David Levien
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jamie Gabriel gets on his bike before dawn to deliver newspapers in his suburban Indianapolis neighborhood. He is 12 years old. Somewhere en route, he vanishes without a trace. Crushed by frustrating dead ends and exhausted by a police force that cannot (or will not) find their son, the Gabriels finally stumble upon a name - an elusive private investigator who may represent their last chance for answers.
-
-
Workmanlike thriller. Scott Brick is annoying.
- By Richard Delman on 01-13-13
By: David Levien
-
Last Night in the OR
- A Transplant Surgeon's Odyssey
- By: Bud Shaw
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1980s marked a revolution in the field of organ transplants, and Bud Shaw, MD, who studied under Tom Starzl in Pittsburgh, was on the front lines. Now retired from active practice, Dr. Shaw relays gripping moments of anguish and elation, frustration and reward, despair and hope in his struggle to save patients. He reveals harshly intimate moments of his medical career.
-
-
Expect alot of bad language!
- By Lynn L. on 08-10-16
By: Bud Shaw
-
The Body in the Woods
- Point Last Seen Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: April Henry
- Narrated by: Amy McFadden
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alexis, Nick, and Ruby have very different backgrounds: Alexis has spent her life covering for her mom's mental illness, Nick's bravado hides his fear of not being good enough, and Ruby just wants to pursue her eccentric interests in a world that doesn't understand her. When the three teens join Portland County Sheriff's Search and Rescue, they are teamed up to search for a autistic man lost in the woods. What they find instead is a dead body. In a friendship that will be forged in danger, fear, and courage, the three team up to find the girl's killer.
-
-
Consistency in the story
- By DAVIDGAUDET on 03-31-24
By: April Henry
-
Forty Words for Sorrow
- By: Giles Blunt
- Narrated by: James Daniels
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the badly decomposed body of 13-year-old Katie Pine is found, John Cardinal is vindicated. It was Cardinal who'd kept the Pine case open and Cardinal had been demoted to the burglary squad for his excessive zeal. But Katie Pine isn't the only youngster to have gone missing and Cardinal is now given the go-ahead to reopen the files on three other lost kids. When another youth is reported missing, he begins to see a pattern that screams "serial killer."
-
-
even better than the TV show
- By Allison Payne on 04-21-20
By: Giles Blunt
-
Aurora
- A Novel
- By: David Koepp
- Narrated by: Rupert Friend
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son. Then the lights go out—not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.
-
-
The Best of Us
- By James Munoz on 09-09-22
By: David Koepp
-
Report from Engine Co. 82
- By: Dennis Smith
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Report from Engine Co. 82 is the story of one company of New York firefighters battling unimaginable death and destruction every day. Dennis Smith worked as a firefighter in the South Bronx, New York City, and the graphic detail and gripping prose of this firefighting classic drives the most important, accomplished, terrifying audiobook ever published on firefighting.
-
-
stog was good
- By Bagladybl on 08-24-21
By: Dennis Smith
-
Cop Town
- By: Karin Slaughter
- Narrated by: Kathleen Early
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Atlanta, 1974: It's Kate Murphy's first day on the job, and the Atlanta Police Department is seething after the murder of an officer. Before the day has barely begun, she already suspects she's not cut out to be a cop. Her male uniform is too big, she can't handle a gun, and she's rapidly learning that the APD is hardly a place that welcomes women. Worse still, in the ensuing manhunt she'll be partnered with Maggie Lawson, a cop with her own ax to grind.
-
-
Outstanding, Gutsy Crime Novel Read by a Master
- By Chip Atkinson on 07-08-14
By: Karin Slaughter
-
Nick of Time
- By: John Gilstrap
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nicki Janssen's days are numbered, but she refuses to accept her fate lying down. Defying her father and doctors, she hits the road with a pocketful of cash, a bus ticket - and a romantic fantasy of riding off with her childhood crush. Handsome, dangerous Brad Ward is facing a different kind of sentence. Sent to prison for felony murder, he has escaped and rekindled his relationship with Nicki. But when Nicki's father joins forces with a deputy sheriff, the search for the runaways ignites a manhunt.
By: John Gilstrap
-
Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See
- By: Juliann Garey
- Narrated by: Dan Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her tour-de-force first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade travels the world giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years.
-
-
Psychosis or Syphilis?
- By Vira on 04-02-13
By: Juliann Garey
-
Raising Stony Mayhall
- By: Daryl Gregory
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman's arms is a baby - stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda, and he begins to move.The family hides the child - whom they name Stony - rather than turn him over to authorities who would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow....
-
-
You'll wish you lived as much as this undead boy
- By Maryland on 10-27-11
By: Daryl Gregory
What listeners say about Bad Call
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- IowaGreyhound
- 03-15-22
Interesting look at life as an ambulance driver
Gives a view at being an ambulance driver in NYC in the days before EMTs. Interesting stories and a colorful look at people and patients in all walks of life. Pretty short and I listened to most in one setting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sharlotte
- 03-14-22
Fantastic!
This is a definite five-star book: exciting, educational, eye-opening, and very well-narrated. Scardino has real talent for writing and holding his reader cast under his spell!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jenny
- 04-19-21
such a well written memoir!
I loved every single bit if it. such a great mind for detail and the narration was great
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
- AK
- 08-01-18
Short Stories of Experiences on an Ambulance
This is an interesting individual Account over a period of several years, working on an ambulance. If someone is considering a career in this field, this will be a good book to listen to.
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
- Catherine G. Brady
- 06-02-22
Challenges of Ambulance Psychology
As a retired E.M.T./combat medic and physician assistant, I found this book true to the medical experience, as well as masterfully written and performed. The language is raw at times, but very true to the situations in which it is used.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrei Arkhipov
- 08-19-18
<Can’t make this up> stories
This book puts you in the life of an ambulance worker. From start to end it is filled with stories of death and survival under unusual circumstances and action that would be hard to make up if you tried, unless you’d been there. The author overlays the very graphic depictions with what goes through the mind of someone working in this tough profession. All together this makes for a very captivating read. If you are into nonfiction books that transcend you into a part of the world that you don’t normally get to see – this book is for you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elizabeth
- 12-09-18
Finished in One Sitting
I’m an artist in the midst of the holiday season, which means that in the year’s last quarter I spend around 16 hrs a day working on orders at my drafting table. 16 hours that I am desperate to fill with distractions.
This was one fantastic distraction! Time flew with each engrossing chapter until with dismay, I realized the book was finished and I’d listened to the entire thing in one go.
Mike Scardino provides an intense, unrelenting glimpse inside a NYC ambulance. This isn’t a novel about body horror and death, though, even as both are present (it is an ambulance, after all). Mr. Scardino’s perspective is equally beautiful and reflective as it is weary and jaded. With each hardship, he manages to leave one thoughtful instead of bogged down with angst.
Overall, a great listen! In three words: sobering, engrossing, and thoughtful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- PCF
- 03-10-19
I loved this book!
There is something about this book that cannot be explained. You just need to listen to it. The narrator did a phenomenal job! His voice portrayed what I am sure the author intended. I wish every audible book was as well done as this one. This new EMT takes the listener along for a ride on the calls he goes on and explains things as if they are happening in the present tense. It is a very unique approach to writing. He'll say something like "Now we're going up to the 6th floor. I'm opening the door to the apartment now." I do think this book was hilarious at times and that might have been my medical background appreciating the dark humor of it. The calls they go on are sometimes shocking, other times just sad. He explains in detail what he goes through giving anyone considering this profession an earful. I really enjoyed this book and basically listened nearly straight through.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Holley
- 04-16-22
Eye Opener
I selected based on the title and could not turn it off. Truly an eye opener for this sort of storytelling, great narration and an understandable ending.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. Frost
- 01-26-23
Well worth a listen
This turned out to be a very entertaining book. I had never thought about how many behind the scenes stories an EMT could tell. The timeframe was from the late 60's, which is very different from today, but that made it even more fun to listen to.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!