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Hell's Half-Acre
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Aven Shore
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
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I highly recommend
- By That Man They Call Shad on 05-05-21
By: Cameron Judd
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North and South
- North and South Trilogy, Book 1
- By: John Jakes
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 30 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Two strangers, young men from Pennsylvania and South Carolina, meet on the way to West Point.... Thus begins this brilliant novel of antebellum America, spanning three generations and chronicling the lives and loves of two great family dynasties. The Hazards and the Mains are brought together in bonds of friendship and affection that neither jealousy nor violence can shatter - until a storm of events sunders the nation and brings the cataclysm of war!
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Captivating novel of the Civil War
- By 9S on 01-12-13
By: John Jakes
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The Curse of Jacob Tracy
- By: Holly Messinger
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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St. Louis in 1880 is full of ghosts - mangled soldiers, tortured slaves, the innocent victims of war - and Jacob Tracy can see them all. Ever since Antietam, when he lay delirious among the dead and dying, Trace has been haunted by the country's restless spirits. The curse cost him his family, his calling to the church, and damn near his sanity. He stays out of ghost-populated cities as much as possible these days, guiding wagon trains west with his pragmatic and skeptical partner, Boz.
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Supernatural meets old West.
- By Mbeasley on 01-16-16
By: Holly Messinger
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Hell at the Breech
- By: Tom Franklin
- Narrated by: Larry Pine
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1897, an aspiring politician is mysteriously murdered in the rural area of Alabama known as Mitcham Beat. His outraged friends - mostly poor cotton farmers - form a secret society, Hell-at-the-Breech, to punish the townspeople they believe responsible. The hooded members wage a bloody year-long campaign of terror that culminates in a massacre where the innocent suffer alongside the guilty.
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Pull up them breeches, son
- By W Perry Hall on 02-04-14
By: Tom Franklin
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Walk on Earth a Stranger
- By: Rae Carson
- Narrated by: Erin Mallon
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend - who might want to be something more. She also has a secret.
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Better than expected
- By elenne on 10-11-15
By: Rae Carson
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The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
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Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
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Varina
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Molly Parker
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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With her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects a life of security as a landowner. He instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history - culpable regardless of her intentions. The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives.
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Read it rather than listen
- By Anonymous on 08-31-18
By: Charles Frazier
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March
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Richard Easton
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.
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Great book, greatly narrated
- By Paula on 07-30-06
By: Geraldine Brooks
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The Taker
- By: Alma Katsu
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting another quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute. But the minute Lanore McIlvrae—Lanny—walks into his ER, she changes his life forever. A mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets, Lanny is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. He is inexplicably drawn to her...despite the fact that she is a murder suspect with a police escort.
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Too dark for my taste
- By Margaret on 05-04-14
By: Alma Katsu
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The Orchardist
- By: Amanda Coplin
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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At the turn of the 20th century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he's found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit from the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion.
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"Somebody tell a joke!"
- By Deborah on 10-29-12
By: Amanda Coplin
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The Irishman's Daughter
- By: V.S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Ireland, 1845. To Briana Walsh, no place on earth is more beautiful than Carrowteige, County Mayo. The small farms that surround the centuries-old Lear House are managed by her father, agent to the wealthy, reckless Sir Thomas Blakely. Tenant farmers sell the oats and rye they grow to pay rent to Sir Thomas, surviving on the potatoes that flourish in the remaining scraps of land. But when the potato crop falls prey to a devastating blight, families Briana has known all her life are left with no food, no resources, and no mercy from the English landowner.
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Wasted a credit
- By Emily Coonce on 05-26-19
By: V.S. Alexander
What listeners say about Hell's Half-Acre
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- cora
- 08-15-19
Bending to the benders
I like the story it was excellent, the narrator I thought didn’t quite have enough excitement to a voice but I guess it went with the times of the story.
I would highly recommend the story excellent.
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- PRR
- 01-21-18
Skillfully told story filled with chills & thrills
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I highly recommend Hell's Half-Acre. It's a fascinating, entertaining, well told tale.
What did you like best about this story?
It's a perfect blend and balance of historical fiction that kept me interested and entertained from beginning to end.
What about Aven Shore’s performance did you like?
Her performance kept me riveted and on the edge of my seat.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Yes, I did have an extreme reaction to this book.
Any additional comments?
I highly recommend this book to anyone fascinated by historical fiction, thrillers, and serial killers.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Fred B. Campbell Jr.
- 04-26-19
Love her, hate her, want to be her
The story based on historical events sucks you in, and the main character gives you multiple emotions all at the same time! By far my favorite character from this amazing writer.
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- JHCork
- 09-03-18
awesome old Western style
the author really captures the imagination and grips the reader. the audio presentation was supurb. the style of writing and the quality of the story are excellent, the ending was so so.
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- J.J.
- 08-27-19
A MUST LISTEN!
I was completely drawn in to this story! I just couldn't turn it off!! I highly recommend it! The performance was incredible!I can't wait to listen to more books narrated by Aven Shore!
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- Midwestbonsai
- 07-27-18
Macabre Story of the Benders
Hell’s Half Acre, written by Nicholas Nicastro, is a fictionalized tale of the true story of The Bloody Benders, a family of serial killers living in Labette County, Kansas from around 1869 to 1871. The protagonist is Kate Bender who comes to be a part of the Bender family after her real father loses the 6-year old Kate to a better gambler named Clarity. Clarity takes Kate to live with Elmira, a woman he knows in some unsavory way. There are innuendos about the abuse that Kate suffers in Elmira’s care, but it is not developed in the story. Kate is apparently a replacement for Elmira’s lost daughter, although we never learn what happened to her.
As Kate gets older, she and Elmira hook up with John Bender, Sr. and his “son,” John Bender, Jr. and their bloody killing streak begins.
There is one point where Kate becomes Miss Professor Kate and does tarot readings, collecting a dollar per reading. She then evolves into a healer. There was not enough if any, explanation of how she went from a six-year-old replacement daughter to a twenty-something who knew how to read tarot cards and perform healings – nothing connected the dots for me. Also, there was no definitive explanation of why the family killed people – whether it was for money, or for the thrill. I don’t want to give away the ending, but I found it implausible. The idea of the ending was good but it needed more information earlier in the story to weave it in.
I didn’t view the book as a horror story, like a Stephen King book, but more a macabre story because of the cold brutality of the Benders. I enjoyed the story, and I didn’t realize it was based on a true story until after I finished the audiobook.
Aven Shores’ narration was nice for the voice of Kate, but it felt like all the men had the same voice. When I first heard Kate’s real father’s voice, I thought he was Irish, then realized it was supposed to be a German accent. She also uses the British pronunciation of the word shōne as shŏn enough that it distracted me because it seemed out of character for Kate to pronounce it that way. When a word seems mispronounced to me – I look it up and find it is a perfectly fine, as these two pronunciations are, so I try to get over it! Aven has a beautiful, melodic voice, that reminded me of Dakota Channing. Her voice is very soothing and I would like her to read me to sleep every night.
I’m not a fan of the use of music to differentiate between the prologue and chapters. It was only used twice and I was happy it stopped early on. I had a few technical difficulties in listening to the book. My copy randomly stopped and wouldn’t start again multiple times. Because I listened to it on something other than Audible, I couldn’t tell where I was in the book, and even though my mp3 player was set to return to the place I left off – it almost always took me back to the beginning. The copy I listened to also repeats chapter 4. These may be things that could have been repaired by deleting it and re-downloading, and this is the first time I’ve listened to an audiobook on something other than Audible so it may just be the app I was using.
Bottom-line: In chapter four when they are on the train, it is so expertly written that I felt like I was sitting in one of the seats on the train, experiencing everything the other passengers did. But there were also parts of the story that needed more development to fill in the gaps. Overall, it was a story that I’m still thinking about – I just wish there was a little more meat!
Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.
Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Deedra
- 05-09-21
Hell's Half-Acre
I loved this book!A young girl is traded in a card game and becomes part of a family of murderers.Based on a true story.Aven Shore was a terrific narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
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- Kayla potthoff
- 03-30-20
A good read
I liked the fact that this was based on a true. I did feel sorry for kate!! Yes,yes, i know many won't agree. I couldn't believe the end about the old man. It was a twisted tale. Money and greed!! Now the narrator was not bad. Her voice was good. The only thing is she read almost as if to put u to sleep. Which she actually did to me a couple of times. I would recommend this read to someone who likes historical fiction or darker stories. It was interesting.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-19-19
🎇 5 out of 5. Love It
Wow, Man. Well done Nicholas Nicastro, I love your interpretation of this family’s bloody murder spree. Listening to this story was like travelling back to a time and place when just surviving, an making ends meat was a dayly struggle, an beeing a immigrant trying to find your way in a new country when racism was a part of life would have been difficult enough. This book has a little of everything, an i especially love the ending. It was a real page turner LOL. I’ve been a true crime fan for many years, so naturally, when I read the summary I was intrigued.Nicholas’s decision to choose Aven Shore as the narrater for this novel was a real game changer. Aven has a Broadcast quality voice that is easy on the ears, and the fact that she was prepared to devote her self to the task of learning the accents needed to make this an awesome listening experience was for me the iceing on the cake. I hope you the reader and listener enjoy this story as I did. Thanks heaps to Nicholas Nicastro, Aven Shore, an everyone who made it possible to release this as an audiobook
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- Dianne Williams
- 08-15-22
history
based on historical events is not usually something I'm interested in but this good.
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