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Narrated by:
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Fred Filbrich
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By:
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Dan Simmons
About this listen
Once Joe Kurtz needed revenge - and revenge cost him 11 years in Attica prison. Now Kurtz needs a job, and the price is going to be higher. Out of prison, out of touch, Kurtz signs on with the Byron Farino, Don of a Mob family whose son Kurtz had been protecting on the inside. Farino enlists Kurtz's help to track down the Family's missing accountant - a man with too much knowledge of Family business to have on the loose.
But someone doesn't want the accountant found - and with enemies inside the Family vying for his throne, and turf warfare just around the corner, Farino needs an outsider like Kurtz to flush out who's really behind this latest affront. As the story twists and turns and the body count rises, Kurtz no longer knows who he can trust. Everyone seems to be after something, from the mob boss' sultry yet dangerous daughter, to a hit man named The Dane, an albino killer who is good with a knife, and a dwarf who is armed to the teeth and hell-bent on revenge. Kurtz has always been an ace investigator. Now he's about to discover that to get at the truth, sometimes you have to go after it - hard.
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U.S. Marshal Jameson Arkeley, the country’s foremost authority on vampires, taught police investigator and vampire fighter Laura Caxton everything she knows about monsters. After a bloody war visited upon Gettysburg by an army of vampires, Arkeley gave up his own life to save others—except he didn’t exactly die.
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stupid
- By Koutsunis on 05-06-10
By: David Wellington
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Good People
- By: Marcus Sakey
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean, Dan John Miller
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The $400,000 would take care of the mortgage payments that are starting to back up on Tom and Anna Reed. It would cover the credit-card debt they can't get out from under. It would help them find a way to have the child they desperately want but can't seem to conceive. It is more money than either of them has ever seen in one place. But they have no idea what it's doing in their house.
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What were the producers thinking?
- By cristina on 08-04-13
By: Marcus Sakey
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Night Life
- By: David C. Taylor
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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New York City, 1954. The Cold War is heating up, Senator Joe McCarthy is running a witch hunt for communists in America, the newly formed CIA is fighting a turf battle with the FBI to see who will be the primary United States intelligence agency, and the bodies of murdered young men are turning up all over the city.
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terrific in every way
- By Martha on 04-12-16
By: David C. Taylor
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Whiskey Sour
- Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels Mysteries, Book 1
- By: J. A. Konrath
- Narrated by: Susie Breck, Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself "The Gingerbread Man" is dumping mutilated bodies in her district.
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Like the book but GRAPHIC details
- By Kari on 10-31-09
By: J. A. Konrath
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The Brotherhood of the Wheel
- By: R. S. Belcher
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In AD 1119, a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon - a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order's original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.
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Epic Battle Brewing
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 03-29-16
By: R. S. Belcher
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Men in Blue
- Badge of Honor, Book 1
- By: W. E. B. Griffin
- Narrated by: Michael Russotto
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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W.E.B. Griffin's best-selling series, The Corps and Brotherhood of War, have captured the pride and glory of the military community. Now he reveals a city police force with the same unique blend of realism, drama, and action. Here are the brave men and women behind the badge as you've never seen them before - their hopes and fears, their courage and heroism, sparked by a single, shocking event: The killing of a cop in the line of duty.
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Tremendous Cop story with Mystery and some Romance
- By Bevs Mom on 10-08-12
By: W. E. B. Griffin
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Once a Spy
- A Novel
- By: Keith Thomson
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Drummond Clark was once a spy of legendary proportions. Now Alzheimer's disease has taken its toll and he's just a confused old man who's wandered away from home, waiting for his son to fetch him. When Charlie Clark takes a break from his latest losing streak at the track to bring Drummond back to his Brooklyn home, they find it blown sky high - and then bullets start flying in every direction.
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Off beat thriller
- By Jen on 05-16-10
By: Keith Thomson
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The Book of Spies
- By: Gayle Lynds
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Ann Blake, a rare-book expert and conservator, was imprisoned for a drunk-driving accident that she doesn't remember, one that resulted in the death of her husband, a famous rare-book expert. But she is freed from prison by CIA undercover agent Tucker Anderson in exchange for her help and expertise on the Library of Gold, a legendary collection of books that have been lost to the world for over a century.
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Exciting spy tale, and then....
- By Janice on 05-31-11
By: Gayle Lynds
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The Firefly
- By: P. T. Deutermann
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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At midnight, in a secret medical clinic in Washington, D.C., two foreign doctors and their team are completing plastic surgery on an anonymous client who is changing the appearance of his face, among other things. After the procedure, the client begins to stir - and suddenly the operating room erupts in violence, and the clinic is ablaze.
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Great stuff... no place to quit.
- By karen on 06-17-12
By: P. T. Deutermann
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First to Kill
- By: Andrew Peterson
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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When you're the best at what you do, it's not always easy to walk away. Nathan McBride was retired. The trained Marine sniper and covert CIA operative had put the violence of his former life behind him. But not anymore. A deep-cover FBI agent has disappeared along with one ton of powerful Semtex explosive, enough to unleash a disaster of international proportions. The U.S. government has no choice but to coax Nathan out of retirement.
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Sniper thriller par excellence
- By Ed on 06-17-09
By: Andrew Peterson
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Perfect example of audio over print
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Outstanding, haunting work from a master of sci fi
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Achaeans and robots and post-humans, oh my
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Genius writing, great book
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All Violence is an Exercise in Power
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Who Wrote 'the Fifth Heart?'
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Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, first encounters General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at Little Bighorn. He believes - as do the holy men of his tribe - that the legendary general's ghost entered him at that moment and will remain with him until Sapa convinces him to leave.
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Perfect example of audio over print
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Outstanding, haunting work from a master of sci fi
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Achaeans and robots and post-humans, oh my
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Genius writing, great book
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Blood will curdle in Calcutta. In the most crime-ridden city, nightmares become real and evil is defined by frightening occurrences. When an American family finds themselves encircled by the terrors of this land, lurid events befall them and life takes on a new meaning - death. Winner of the World Fantasy Award, Song of Kali will chill the blood and frighten even the most jaded of horror fans.
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needs a different reader
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ordered an abridgment by mistake!
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The year is 1924 and the race to summit the world's highest mountain has been brought to a terrified pause by the shocking disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, high on the shoulder of Mt. Everest. By the following year, three climbers - a British poet and veteran of the Great War, a young French Chamonix guide, and an idealistic young American - find a way to take their shot at the top.
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Great story, great detail
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Darwin Minor travels a dangerous road. A Vietnam veteran turned reluctant expert on interpreting the wreckage of fatal accidents, Darwin uses science and instinct to unravel the real causes of unnatural disasters. He is very, very good at his job.
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Not Simmons' masterwork, but highly entertaining
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By: Dan Simmons
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Summer of Night
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It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic childhood. But amid the sun-drenched cornfields, their loyalty will be pitilessly tested.
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Go Ahead...Take A Stroll Down Horror Lane
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By: Dan Simmons
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The Crook Factory
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At the height of World War II, the famous writer Ernest Hemingway sought permission from the U.S. government to operate a spy ring out of his house in the Cuban countryside. This much is true... It is the summer of ’42 and FBI agent Joe Lucas has come to Cuba at the behest of J. Edgar Hoover to keep an eye on Hemingway. The great writer has assembled a ragtag spy ring that he calls the “Crook Factory” to play a dangerous game of amateur espionage. But then Lucas and Hemingway, against all the odds, uncover a critical piece of intelligence - and the game turns deadly.
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Really well researched spy novel
- By Brian on 07-08-11
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The men onboard HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the Terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape.
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Very good then, NOT
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By: Dan Simmons
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Carrion Comfort
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Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves. Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events.
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Idk who needs to see this, but TRIGGER WARNING
- By WBA on 11-05-19
By: Dan Simmons
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Flashback
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Die nahe Zukunft: Die USA stehen vor dem Kollaps, doch der Bevölkerung ist das völlig egal, denn sie sind abhängig von einer Droge namens Flashback...
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Twenty years ago, a nine-year-old boy was swept away by powerful waves on a remote Oregon beach, his body lost to the sea. Only a stone memorial remains to mark his tragic death. For most of her life, Amanda Dufresne had no idea she had an older brother named Dennis Owens, or that he had died. Adopted as a baby, she learned about him while looking into her late birth mother, and is curious to know more about this lost sibling. A solitary young woman, Amanda has always felt distanced from the world around her. Her brain works differently from others, leaving her feeling set apart.
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I loved this book
- By Kelly on 10-07-24
By: Rene Denfeld
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A Kiss before Dying
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- Unabridged
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Known for his looks and charm, a young man obsessed with wealth and status will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He sets his sights on a beautiful and innocent college student named Dorothy, intent on marrying her for her family’s money. But when Dorothy becomes pregnant, his careful plans start to unravel, and he begins to take cold, calculating, and drastic measures to protect his future.
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WOW 🤩
- By Ronita St on 10-31-24
By: Ira Levin
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The Terror: Booktrack Edition
- A Novel
- By: Dan Simmons
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The men on board the HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. But what they don't expect is a monstrous predator lurking behind the Arctic ice. When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a horrifying end, Captain Francis Crozier takes command, leading his surviving crewmen on a last desperate attempt to flee south across the ice.
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A truly horrific story of fortitude.
- By Jersey Steininger on 12-31-21
By: Dan Simmons
What listeners say about Hardcase
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Daniel
- 05-04-22
its ok.
im new to detective books, but this was a little bland. the coice acting was good but the characters where 2d. it was good enough for me to try book 2.
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-01-17
Not believable in the slightest but incredible fun
Joe Kurz is a very straight-forward ex-Private Investigator; jailed for a decade for a revenge killing he most willingly committed and whom we join as he is released back into the world of 2001 (I think) to restart life on the outside. Subsequently a *lot* of characters get involved and a surprising number of events occur in what is a pretty short story (6 hours of audio, 300ish pages). The characters are mostly the ones you expect to find in a detective story but there are some surprising gems like Pruno and Soul Dad.
This is Dan Simmons' (of Hyperion fame) foray into the hardboiled detective-noir genre. I wasn't sure what to expect from him in this genre, mostly that's why I read it, to see what he did after his science fiction triumphs. Other writers have made a good job of melding sci-fi and detective-noir (Alastair Reynolds' Century Rain for instance), but this is straight up detective story and it's very good! One of the more interesting things for me was the fact that this is set in a modern time compared to the majority of other books in this genre and I enjoyed this style of story-telling with more modern trappings. I was surprised to find some recurring themes from Hyperion here: the story of Abraham pops in ever so briefly, in a chapter packed so full of whacky references that it'll keep me going for months with side-reading (starting with the angel Mastema).
There were very few chapters that were reasonable points to pause at, I almost always needed to find out what happened next, and the final twenty chapters were just one long twisty turny crescendo. None of it is believable in the slightest, but it's an incredible amount of fun and rather unputdownable! Why this hasn't been made into a Jason Statham movie is beyond me.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kevin Thompson
- 02-15-24
excellent detective book
excellent book I can't wait to get the other books in the series I'm ready for them...great listens
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- soliDEOgloria
- 02-07-15
Just more really good Dan Simmons
I've read most of his works and have not been let down yet. Hardcase has simply obligated me to buy all the Joe Kurtz "hard" to put down reads.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Aleks
- 12-28-23
a great start to the series
Kurz gets battered and bruised, and is generally sleep deprived throughout. I picture Wilem Dafoe has got to be Kurz
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- Darwin8u
- 06-26-20
Hard
"Mistah Kurtz, he dead."
- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Dan Simmons writes fantastic science fiction and horror, but love to jump genres. Hardcase is his first book in his (so far) three book Joe Kurtz series. Joe is a well-read (allusions in the novel to Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Epictetus, Tom Wolfe, and Shakespeare) private detective who gets sent to prison for 11-years after his partner is killed and he takes revenge on the killers. As the titles of all the books suggest, the Joe Kurtz novels put the HARD into hard-boiled. The action is fast, the plots are fairly inventive (if a bit too coincidental), but largely distracting and enjoyable. This is thriller escapism without too many regrets. The setting is in the Niagara Falls, Buffalo region. In someways, this feels like a mixture of John Wick meets the Continental Op.
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5 people found this helpful
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- BookWorm
- 05-25-15
Another Excellent Dan Simmons Book
I've been reading Dan Simmons for years. I had read Hardcase years ago before the audio version was available and loved it. I just finished listening to the audiobook version and it was fantastic from start to finish. I've already purchased the next book in the series, Hard Freeze, and look forward to listening to that. Hardcase features an exciting story, excellent fleshed out characters and even good villains. Joe Kurtz is a no nonsense hardboiled detective. The people in the story act and talk like you'd expect real people and the narration was perfect. Hardcase reminds me very much of the style of writing and characters you'd find in a really good Elmore Leonard novel (examples include Gold Coast, Stick, Swag and Mr. Paradise). Other Dan Simmons audiobooks I've enjoyed (multiple times each) include: Flashback, Illium and Carrion Comfort. The Joe Kurtz series is new to audio and I hope he releases Joe Kurtz #3 soon.
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4 people found this helpful