Children of Chicago
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
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sofia Willingham
-
By:
-
Cynthia Pelayo
About this listen
This horrifying retelling of the Pied Piper fairytale set in present-day Chicago is an edge-of-your-seat, chills-up-the-spine thrill ride.
When Detective Lauren Medina sees the calling card at a murder scene in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, she knows the Pied Piper has returned. When another teenager is brutally murdered at the same lagoon where her sister's body was found floating years before, she is certain that the Pied Piper is not just back, he's looking for payment he's owed from her. Lauren's torn between protecting the city she has sworn to keep safe, and keeping a promise she made long ago with her sister's murderer. She may have to ruin her life by exposing her secrets and lies to stop the Pied Piper before he collects.
©2021 Cynthia Pelayo (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Babysitter Lives
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Isabella Star LaBlanc, Stephen Graham Jones - acknowledgments
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms doesn’t mean jack if you choke on test day. But tomorrow is also Halloween, and the twins are eager to show off their costumes—Ron is a nurse, in an old-fashioned white skirt-uniform, and Desi has an Authentic Squaw costume, complete with buckskin and feathered headdress. Excitement is in the air.
-
-
Huh
- By Amanda Lyn on 02-21-23
-
Mister Magic
- A Novel
- By: Kiersten White
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Kiersten White
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.
-
-
pleasantly surprised
- By Garland on 04-02-24
By: Kiersten White
-
Just Like Home
- By: Sarah Gailey
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family.
-
-
Haunted People in a Haunted Place
- By Gus on 11-15-22
By: Sarah Gailey
-
The Devil Takes You Home
- A Novel
- By: Gabino Iglesias
- Narrated by: Jean-Marc Berne
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Buried in debt due to his young daughter’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: Hijack a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. But the path to reward or ruin is never as straight as it seems.
-
-
Interesting story ruined by the main character.
- By AJ on 08-03-22
By: Gabino Iglesias
-
Chasing the Boogeyman
- By: Richard Chizmar
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI, are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman - and he’s playing games with them.
-
-
waited for something.. anything to happen
- By lucerobear on 08-18-21
By: Richard Chizmar
-
Ghost Story
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" ( Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.
-
-
Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
- By Jaimie on 07-17-12
By: Peter Straub
-
The Babysitter Lives
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Isabella Star LaBlanc, Stephen Graham Jones - acknowledgments
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms doesn’t mean jack if you choke on test day. But tomorrow is also Halloween, and the twins are eager to show off their costumes—Ron is a nurse, in an old-fashioned white skirt-uniform, and Desi has an Authentic Squaw costume, complete with buckskin and feathered headdress. Excitement is in the air.
-
-
Huh
- By Amanda Lyn on 02-21-23
-
Mister Magic
- A Novel
- By: Kiersten White
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Kiersten White
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.
-
-
pleasantly surprised
- By Garland on 04-02-24
By: Kiersten White
-
Just Like Home
- By: Sarah Gailey
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family.
-
-
Haunted People in a Haunted Place
- By Gus on 11-15-22
By: Sarah Gailey
-
The Devil Takes You Home
- A Novel
- By: Gabino Iglesias
- Narrated by: Jean-Marc Berne
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Buried in debt due to his young daughter’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: Hijack a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. But the path to reward or ruin is never as straight as it seems.
-
-
Interesting story ruined by the main character.
- By AJ on 08-03-22
By: Gabino Iglesias
-
Chasing the Boogeyman
- By: Richard Chizmar
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI, are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman - and he’s playing games with them.
-
-
waited for something.. anything to happen
- By lucerobear on 08-18-21
By: Richard Chizmar
-
Ghost Story
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" ( Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.
-
-
Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
- By Jaimie on 07-17-12
By: Peter Straub
-
My Heart Is a Chainsaw
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Cara Gee
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life.
-
-
struggle with keeping up with the whole book
- By Suzanne Davis on 09-19-21
-
Ankle Snatcher
- Creature Feature Collection
- By: Grady Hendrix
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marcus grew up believing his father killed his mother—then blamed it on the boogeyman under the bed. Always leave the lights on, his father warned, or the boogeyman will get you. Marcus still heeds the superstition, especially when he invites his new girlfriend over. Is Marcus haunted by a creature or has he just inherited his father’s murderous delusions? The night will tell.
-
-
Great!
- By Rebecca D. on 11-11-23
By: Grady Hendrix
-
Mexican Gothic
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
-
-
Lacking, Disappointing, Not Developed
- By Bitten and Seven Forever on 07-10-20
-
Mary
- An Awakening of Terror
- By: Nat Cassidy
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary is a quiet middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself. But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things. Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. What she finds instead are visions of terrifying mutilated specters that come with increasing regularity.
-
-
Stunning!
- By Damien TerraFina on 09-12-22
By: Nat Cassidy
-
The Year of the Witching
- By: Alexis Henderson
- Narrated by: Brianna Colette
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet's word is law, Immanuelle Moore's very existence is blasphemy. Her mother's union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement. But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches.
-
-
Meh
- By Elizabeth F. Therneau on 09-15-20
By: Alexis Henderson
-
Silver Nitrate
- By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Narrated by: Gisela Chipe
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy.
-
-
Good story but the narrator…
- By MAW on 07-21-23
-
Ninth House
- By: Leigh Bardugo
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang, Michael David Axtell
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
-
-
UTTERLY DISAPPOINTED.
- By Tavan Hiestand on 11-21-19
By: Leigh Bardugo
-
Winterset Hollow
- By: Jonathan Edward Durham
- Narrated by: Jonathan Edward Durham
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has wanted their favorite book to be real, if only for a moment. Everyone has wished to meet their favorite characters, if only for a day. But be careful in that wish, for even a history laid in ink can be repaid in flesh and blood, and reality is far deadlier than fiction...especially on Addington Isle.
-
-
Absolutely LOVED this tale!!
- By Eliza W. on 05-13-22
-
Head Like a Hole
- By: Andrew Van Wey
- Narrated by: Tom Jordan
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the mid-'90s. Grunge and flannel are fading as the Spice Girls and Hot Topic conquer the malls. Cherry gloss glistens on the lips of the youth. Modems hiss as America comes online. And in a fog-drenched cove at the edge of New England, something terrible awakens when a fisherman reels in a gruesome catch: the remains of a young woman. Remains still pulsing with furious life.
-
-
Very Original Horror Story
- By Mistsofjade on 12-12-22
By: Andrew Van Wey
-
Paranoid
- By: Lisa Jackson
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are people in Edgewater, Oregon, who think that twenty years ago, Rachel Gaston got away with murder. But Rachel still has no idea how a foolish teenaged game turned deadly - or who replaced her soft pellet air gun with a real weapon. When a figure jumped out at her from the darkness, she fired without thinking. By the time she recognized her half-brother, Luke, it was too late.
-
-
This was an awesome book!
- By Leigh on 07-16-19
By: Lisa Jackson
-
The Book of Accidents
- A Novel
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, George Newbern
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister walked in the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again...to Oliver.
-
-
not worth my time.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-26-21
By: Chuck Wendig
-
The Tenant
- By: Katrine Engberg
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a young woman is found brutally murdered in her own apartment with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. Soon, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist - and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows.
-
-
THOROUGHLY enjoyed this!!!
- By Mary C. Garrison on 02-10-20
By: Katrine Engberg
Related to this topic
-
Inherit the Bones
- A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery, Book 1
- By: Emily Littlejohn
- Narrated by: Harper Landry
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Secrets and lies can’t stay buried forever in Cedar Valley. In the summer, hikers and campers pack the small Colorado town’s meadows and fields. And in the winter, skiers and snowboarders take over the mountains. Season by season, year after year, time passes, and the lies, like the aspens and evergreens that surround the town, take root and spread deep. Now, someone has uncovered the lies, and it is his murder that continues a chain of events that began almost 40 years ago.
-
-
intriguing
- By Anonymous User on 06-26-19
By: Emily Littlejohn
-
Paranoid
- By: Lisa Jackson
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are people in Edgewater, Oregon, who think that twenty years ago, Rachel Gaston got away with murder. But Rachel still has no idea how a foolish teenaged game turned deadly - or who replaced her soft pellet air gun with a real weapon. When a figure jumped out at her from the darkness, she fired without thinking. By the time she recognized her half-brother, Luke, it was too late.
-
-
This was an awesome book!
- By Leigh on 07-16-19
By: Lisa Jackson
-
The Nightmare Man
- By: J. H. Markert
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.
-
-
The Nightmare Man
- By Kate Miffitt on 03-19-23
By: J. H. Markert
-
The Delta Devlin Collection, Books 1-3
- By: Matthew Mather
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Tom Taylorson, Robin Eller
- Length: 30 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this trio of sci-fi techno thrillers, a female police detective turned Interpol officer with a rare vision mutation is up against a serial killer and potential apocalyptic disaster. This set includes The Dreaming Tree, Meet Your Maker, and Out of Time.
-
-
enjoyed character discovery
- By A.D. on 08-21-24
By: Matthew Mather
-
The Vanishing Season
- By: Joanna Schaffhausen
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She's an officer in sleepy Woodbury, Massachusetts, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number 17 in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only victim who lived. When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday - the day she was kidnapped so long ago - Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous.
-
-
Engaging mystery debut!
- By robbie mcgraw on 06-15-18
-
When a Stranger Comes to Town
- By: Michael Koryta
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Janina Edwards, Fajer Al-Kaisi, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.
-
-
The narrators are outstanding here.
- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 05-16-21
By: Michael Koryta
-
Inherit the Bones
- A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery, Book 1
- By: Emily Littlejohn
- Narrated by: Harper Landry
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Secrets and lies can’t stay buried forever in Cedar Valley. In the summer, hikers and campers pack the small Colorado town’s meadows and fields. And in the winter, skiers and snowboarders take over the mountains. Season by season, year after year, time passes, and the lies, like the aspens and evergreens that surround the town, take root and spread deep. Now, someone has uncovered the lies, and it is his murder that continues a chain of events that began almost 40 years ago.
-
-
intriguing
- By Anonymous User on 06-26-19
By: Emily Littlejohn
-
Paranoid
- By: Lisa Jackson
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are people in Edgewater, Oregon, who think that twenty years ago, Rachel Gaston got away with murder. But Rachel still has no idea how a foolish teenaged game turned deadly - or who replaced her soft pellet air gun with a real weapon. When a figure jumped out at her from the darkness, she fired without thinking. By the time she recognized her half-brother, Luke, it was too late.
-
-
This was an awesome book!
- By Leigh on 07-16-19
By: Lisa Jackson
-
The Nightmare Man
- By: J. H. Markert
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.
-
-
The Nightmare Man
- By Kate Miffitt on 03-19-23
By: J. H. Markert
-
The Delta Devlin Collection, Books 1-3
- By: Matthew Mather
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Tom Taylorson, Robin Eller
- Length: 30 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this trio of sci-fi techno thrillers, a female police detective turned Interpol officer with a rare vision mutation is up against a serial killer and potential apocalyptic disaster. This set includes The Dreaming Tree, Meet Your Maker, and Out of Time.
-
-
enjoyed character discovery
- By A.D. on 08-21-24
By: Matthew Mather
-
The Vanishing Season
- By: Joanna Schaffhausen
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She's an officer in sleepy Woodbury, Massachusetts, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number 17 in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only victim who lived. When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday - the day she was kidnapped so long ago - Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous.
-
-
Engaging mystery debut!
- By robbie mcgraw on 06-15-18
-
When a Stranger Comes to Town
- By: Michael Koryta
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Janina Edwards, Fajer Al-Kaisi, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.
-
-
The narrators are outstanding here.
- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 05-16-21
By: Michael Koryta
-
The Last Place You Look
- By: Kristen Lepionka
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody knows what happened to Sarah Cook. The beautiful blonde teenager disappeared 15 years ago, the same night her parents were brutally murdered in their suburban Ohio home. Her boyfriend, Brad Stockton - black and from the wrong side of the tracks - was convicted of the murders and is now on death row. Though he's maintained his innocence all along, the clock is running out. His execution is only weeks away when his devoted sister insists she spied Sarah at an area gas station.
-
-
Alcoholic PI
- By Karwyn on 05-17-18
By: Kristen Lepionka
-
The Stranger Behind You
- A Novel
- By: Carol Goodman
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist Joan Lurie has written a seething article exposing a notorious newspaper tycoon as a sexual predator. But the night it goes live, she is brutally attacked. Traumatized and suffering the effects of a concussion, she moves into a highly secure apartment in Manhattan called the Refuge, which was at one time a Magdalen Laundry. Joan should be safe here, so how can she explain the cryptic incidents that are happening?
-
-
MeToo Redux
- By SB on 07-10-21
By: Carol Goodman
-
All the Dark Places
- By: Terri Parlato
- Narrated by: Christina Moore, Stephanie Cozart
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Snow falls softly outside Molly Bradley’s home on a frigid January night. Inside, half a dozen close friends are gathered to celebrate the fortieth birthday of Molly’s psychologist husband, Jay. Candlelight gleams against dark wood, wine flows, and the house rings with laughter. Everybody loves Jay, Molly most of all. Yet next morning, Molly discovers Jay dead on the floor of his office, his throat brutally slashed.
-
-
Story meh, Rita was GREAT
- By Monica on 01-21-23
By: Terri Parlato
-
The Echo Killing
- A Mystery
- By: Christi Daugherty
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A city of antebellum architecture, picturesque parks, and cobblestone streets, Savannah moves at a graceful pace. But for Harper McClain, the timeless beauty and culture that distinguishes her home’s Southern heritage vanishes during the dark and dangerous nights. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Not even finding her mother brutally murdered in their home when she was 12 has made her love Savannah any less.
-
-
Wow! Great Book
- By Amazon Customer on 04-30-18
-
All the Pretty Girls
- Taylor Jackson, Book 1
- By: J. T. Ellison
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a local girl falls prey to a sadistic serial killer, Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene – the prior victim’s severed hand.
-
-
Distracting subplot and uninteresting characters
- By Ed on 05-13-10
By: J. T. Ellison
-
Red Creek
- A Horror Novel
- By: Nathan Hystad
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once a best-selling horror author, Paul Alenn is in a slump. His wife and daughter are across the country, moved away to the West Coast, leaving him alone in his Central Park-adjacent New York townhouse. When his sister calls, asking for help packing up his estranged mother’s house in his old hometown, Red Creek, he decides to put the past behind him and face his demons.
-
-
Story lacked... understanding
- By Sara on 02-21-19
By: Nathan Hystad
-
Liar, Liar
- By: Lisa Jackson
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, ex-beauty queen Didi Storm worked the Vegas strip as a celebrity impersonator. Now, in death, she’s finally getting the publicity she always craved. To the police, it looks like suicide, or a stunt gone wrong. Her estranged daughter, Remmi, knows the answer isn’t so simple. Though dressed in Didi’s clothes and wig, the broken body on the sidewalk isn’t Didi...
-
-
Tons of Lead-Up; Crammed up ending
- By celeste curley on 07-30-18
By: Lisa Jackson
-
The Amateurs
- By: Sara Shepard
- Narrated by: Renee Chambliss
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As soon as Seneca Frazier sees the post on the Case Not Closed website about Helena Kelly, she's hooked. Helena's high-profile disappearance five years earlier is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It's the reason she's a member of the site in the first place. So when Maddy Wright, her best friend from the CNC site, invites Seneca to spend spring break in Connecticut looking into the cold case, she immediately packs her bag.
-
-
Most irritating narrator ever!
- By Hilary on 04-06-17
By: Sara Shepard
-
Dragonfly Summer
- By: J.H. Moncrieff
- Narrated by: Natalie Gold
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jo Carter never thought she'd return to Clear Springs, Minnesota. But when the former journalist receives a cryptic note about the disappearance of her friend Sam twenty years before, she's compelled to find out what really happened. During her investigation, she learns another high school friend has died in a mysterious accident. Nothing is as it seems, and Jo must probe Clear Springs' darkest corners and her own painful and unreliable memories to discover the truth - and save herself from the killer who could still be on the hunt.
-
-
Home is not always where the heart is...
- By shelley on 02-15-20
By: J.H. Moncrieff
-
Immoral
- By: Brian Freeman
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a riveting debut thriller that has drawn comparisons to masters of the genre like Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly, Brian Freeman weaves obsession, sex, and revenge into a story that grips the reader with vivid characters and shocking plot twists from the first minute to the last.
-
-
Intrigue in Minnesota.
- By Byron on 08-25-13
By: Brian Freeman
-
Don't Look for Me
- A Novel
- By: Wendy Walker
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life. She doesn't want to be found. Or at least, that's the story. The car abandoned miles from home. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family that couldn’t be put back together. They called it a “walk away.” It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over. But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke?
-
-
Better than Gone Girl!
- By Kristen Harris on 09-17-20
By: Wendy Walker
-
One Last Child
- Tallman's Valley Detectives, Book 1
- By: Anni Taylor
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was summer in the mountains when five small children vanished from their nursery school picnic. The heat was stifling that day, the tinkle of an ice-cream van in the air.... Three-and-a-half years later, in the dead of winter, the children are returned to their families...one by one. All except for Ivy - the granddaughter of Homicide Detective Kate Wakeland. The other four children say Ivy is dead.
-
-
Amazing book and amazing narration!
- By Jeffrey Yauch on 08-12-20
By: Anni Taylor
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Devil's Creek
- By: Todd Keisling
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
About 15 miles west of Stauford, Kentucky, lies Devil's Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord's Church of Holy Voices - a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god. And like most legends, there's truth buried among the roots and bones.
-
-
Cults, Monsters, Small-town Weirdoes and their Persecutors... it's Perfect
- By Aaron AuBuchon on 02-09-24
By: Todd Keisling
-
Camp Slaughter
- By: Sergio Gomez
- Narrated by: Jeremy Frazier
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s a local legend. No one is sure if this “Camp Slaughter” place is real or not. But a group of college kids renting out a cabin deep in the woods of Pennsylvania will soon realize the truth. They’ll realize the danger, too. Or rather, the cannibal out in the woods will bring the danger to them...
-
-
Bad All Around
- By Kristia P. on 08-14-24
By: Sergio Gomez
-
The Book of Accidents
- A Novel
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, George Newbern
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister walked in the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again...to Oliver.
-
-
not worth my time.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-26-21
By: Chuck Wendig
-
Ararat
- By: Christopher Golden
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Christopher Golden's Ararat is the heart-pounding tale of an adventure that goes wrong - on a biblical scale. When an earthquake reveals a secret cave hidden inside Mount Ararat in Turkey, a daring, newly engaged couple are determined to be the first ones inside...and what they discover will change everything. The cave is actually a buried ancient ship that many quickly come to believe is Noah's Ark. When a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses.
-
-
Chilling then dragged on too long.....
- By Barbara on 05-17-17
-
Knock Knock
- By: S. P. Miskowski
- Narrated by: Karin Allers
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of S. P. Miskowski's novel-length fairy tale are three restless girls, best friends stuck in the backwater of Skillute, Washington, in the late 1960s. Their neighbors and families are petty or poor, or both. They warn the girls not to wander into the dense forest. Something evil lurks there, people say. The girls are not convinced. During a playful oath, they wander too far into the woods. Their mistake unleashes a malignant spirit that terrorizes Skillute for the next 50 years.
-
-
A unique coming of age
- By Lindsay on 06-19-24
By: S. P. Miskowski
-
When the Reckoning Comes
- A Novel
- By: LaTanya McQueen
- Narrated by: Kara Young
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder. But now Mira is back to attend Celine's wedding at the plantation.
-
-
I don’t think I’m the audience
- By Mia on 02-10-22
By: LaTanya McQueen
-
Devil's Creek
- By: Todd Keisling
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
About 15 miles west of Stauford, Kentucky, lies Devil's Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord's Church of Holy Voices - a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god. And like most legends, there's truth buried among the roots and bones.
-
-
Cults, Monsters, Small-town Weirdoes and their Persecutors... it's Perfect
- By Aaron AuBuchon on 02-09-24
By: Todd Keisling
-
Camp Slaughter
- By: Sergio Gomez
- Narrated by: Jeremy Frazier
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s a local legend. No one is sure if this “Camp Slaughter” place is real or not. But a group of college kids renting out a cabin deep in the woods of Pennsylvania will soon realize the truth. They’ll realize the danger, too. Or rather, the cannibal out in the woods will bring the danger to them...
-
-
Bad All Around
- By Kristia P. on 08-14-24
By: Sergio Gomez
-
The Book of Accidents
- A Novel
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, George Newbern
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister walked in the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again...to Oliver.
-
-
not worth my time.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-26-21
By: Chuck Wendig
-
Ararat
- By: Christopher Golden
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Christopher Golden's Ararat is the heart-pounding tale of an adventure that goes wrong - on a biblical scale. When an earthquake reveals a secret cave hidden inside Mount Ararat in Turkey, a daring, newly engaged couple are determined to be the first ones inside...and what they discover will change everything. The cave is actually a buried ancient ship that many quickly come to believe is Noah's Ark. When a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses.
-
-
Chilling then dragged on too long.....
- By Barbara on 05-17-17
-
Knock Knock
- By: S. P. Miskowski
- Narrated by: Karin Allers
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of S. P. Miskowski's novel-length fairy tale are three restless girls, best friends stuck in the backwater of Skillute, Washington, in the late 1960s. Their neighbors and families are petty or poor, or both. They warn the girls not to wander into the dense forest. Something evil lurks there, people say. The girls are not convinced. During a playful oath, they wander too far into the woods. Their mistake unleashes a malignant spirit that terrorizes Skillute for the next 50 years.
-
-
A unique coming of age
- By Lindsay on 06-19-24
By: S. P. Miskowski
-
When the Reckoning Comes
- A Novel
- By: LaTanya McQueen
- Narrated by: Kara Young
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder. But now Mira is back to attend Celine's wedding at the plantation.
-
-
I don’t think I’m the audience
- By Mia on 02-10-22
By: LaTanya McQueen
-
Boys in the Valley
- By: Philip Fracassi
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
St. Vincent's Orphanage for Boys. Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania. Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work, learn, and worship. Peter Barlow, orphaned as a child by a gruesome murder, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future...a family. Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, occult symbols carved into his flesh. His death releases an ancient evil that spreads like sickness, infecting St. Vincent's and the children within.
-
-
Absolutely deserves five stars
- By wisconsinclark on 08-04-24
By: Philip Fracassi
-
Loteria
- By: Cynthia Pelayo
- Narrated by: Lori Barkin, Leonel Garza, Andrew Joseph Perez
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mexican board game of Lotería is a game of chance—similar to bingo. However, in Lotería instead of matching up numbers on a game board, players match up images. There are 54 cards in the Lotería game, and for this short story collection you will find one unique story per card based on a Latin American myth, folklore, superstition, or belief—with a slant towards the paranormal and horrific. In this deck of cards you will find murderers, ghosts, goblins and ghouls. This collection features creatures and monsters, vampires, werewolves and more.
-
-
This was good
- By alsimvilla on 03-09-24
By: Cynthia Pelayo
-
Forgotten Sisters
- A Novel
- By: Cynthia Pelayo
- Narrated by: Natalie Duke, B.J. Harrison
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River. They’re tethered to a disquieting past, and with nowhere else to go, nothing can part them from their family home. Not the maddening creaks and disembodied voices that rattle the old walls. Not the inexplicable drownings in the area, or the increasing number of bodies that float by Anna’s window. To stave off loneliness, Anna has a podcast, spinning ghostly tales of Chicago’s tragic history. But when Anna captures the attention of an ardent male listener, she awakens to the possibilities of a world outside.
-
-
Boring
- By motorsprint on 09-20-24
By: Cynthia Pelayo
-
The Deep
- By: Nick Cutter
- Narrated by: Corey Brill
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A strange plague called the "Gets" is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget - small things at first, like where they left their keys... then the not-so-small things like how to drive, or the letters of the alphabet. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily - and there is no cure. But now, far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, deep in the Marianas Trench, an heretofore unknown substance hailed as "ambrosia" has been discovered - a universal healer, from initial reports.
-
-
Extreme animal abuse warning
- By Kassandra Escandell on 03-21-20
By: Nick Cutter
-
Suffer the Children
- By: Craig Dilouie
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as listeners are introduced to Herod's Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave, and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were, but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds 10 pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back?
-
-
Brilliant, Well Done!!!!!
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-08-16
By: Craig Dilouie
-
The Hacienda
- By: Isabel Cañas
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal, Lee Osorio
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined. Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her. Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.
-
-
Latine Gothic Horror
- By Mary Rodriguez on 03-07-23
By: Isabel Cañas
What listeners say about Children of Chicago
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cecilia Copeland
- 07-09-22
Dark modern fairytale
I highly recommend this Bram Stoker Award Nominated story. It does not disappoint. Read her stuff if you are into horror or dark fantasy. Looking forward to reading more of Pelayo’s work!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephen W Strout
- 07-04-23
Thrilling twist on classic fairy tales!
I loved the story. A great and dark spin on folklore and fairy tales. Can't wait to get to the next book in the series.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- latasha
- 08-10-21
more like this please!
I loved this story! Cynthia blended real life and fairy tales together so well. I would love to read or listen to more stories like this.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LiRo
- 03-09-23
Suspenseful Writing
Whew! This book kept me on my toes. Being from Chicago I could of course imagine each location described and that made the story come to life easily. Cynthia Pelayo’s writing style is easy to read and captures you from the first sentence.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chelsea Woods
- 06-11-21
Great story!
Great story, especially since I live in Chicago. My only complaint is the narration; it was so robotic, almost like the computer voice that answers when you call Walgreens.
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
- Amazon Customer
- 11-29-21
Great Story
The storyline was different and that is refreshing. I read another review that said there were no likeable characters... I totally agree. The author added Chicago History and Literary Foklore in the plot. I felt like I was constantly learning while I was moving along with the storyline. It's definitely dark. Overall I'd say pretty good listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RiotousLevity
- 03-15-22
Great Detail of the Chicago Setting
being from the Chicago area it was really delightful to hear all the place names and culture called out. I thought the storytelling from the point of view of the lead character was done well. a good combination of description and dialogue as well as their own inner thoughts and feelings
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tyler D Bell
- 10-26-22
Did Not Finish - Dull, pointless, and badly read
Really just a dull, meandering book so far and I don't know that I'll continue. I'm going to give it another shot before the end, but I doubt much will change in my overall opinion. Pelayos prose is rough and boring, lacking any sort of rhythm or poetry and her narrative isn'tuch better. Bog standard lady detective nonsense with a massive, unconscionable amount of Chicago jammed into every other paragraph.
The narration is the worst part. Sofia Willingham couldn't narrate a Pop Tarts box without making me want to gouge my ears out. She does this weird, atonal upspeak thing the entire time that is just awful, and her character voices are completely uninspired. Probably she's normally a voice over artist for insurance company answering services and should stick to that going forward.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Persis
- 06-30-23
Too much unrelated history
The story wanders off into a history lesson more often than not for the city, the books and makes it hard to connect the dots to the big story.
And oh my goodness the protagonist is annoying and not well rounded-
The narrator is why I stayed but the story is meeehhhh
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!