-
Pick-Up
- Narrated by: Benjamin Charles
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
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 $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
First published as an unheralded paperback original, Pick-Up is an authentic underground classic, an explosive bulletin from the urban underbelly of mid-1950s America. It was Charles Willeford’s second novel, after a rough and wandering earlier life that had taken him from Depression-era hobo camps and soup kitchens to wartime battlefields. The unblinking story of two lost and self-destructive drifters - a failed painter working as a counterman in a cheap diner and a woman in flight from domestic violence - trying to find a place for themselves in the back streets of San Francisco, Pick-Up is hardboiled writing at its nihilistic best: Willeford’s preferred title for the book was Until I Am Dead. Its bleak vision of life beyond the edge is haunted by rape, racism, alcoholism, suicide, and inescapable poverty, yet shot through with a tenderness and compassion sustained against all odds in a society offering few breaks to its outcasts and misfits. Pick-Up’s many twists and violent turns culminate in an ending that continues to surprise, confirming it as what critic Woody Haut has called “a razor-sharp narrative that rips open the genre”.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this classic Miami crime story and thriller, from the writer acclaimed for his Hoke Moseley novels, a man's life is threatened when he discovers his new lover is married.
-
The Shark-Infested Custard
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Mike Carnes, Dan Bitner, Josh Goodman, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Larry Dolman is a rather literal-minded ex-cop who now works private security. Eddie Miller is an airline pilot who's studying to get his real estate license. Don Luchessi is a silver salesman who's separated from his wife, but too Catholic to get a divorce. Hank Norton is a drug company rep who gets four times as many dames as any of the other guys. When a friendly bet goes horribly awry, they find themselves with two dead bodies on their hands and a homicidal husband in the wings - and acting more like hardened criminals than upstanding citizens.
-
-
Wild times back in Florida
- By GioSailor on 09-21-24
-
Something About a Soldier
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Dan McGowan
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This funny, rich, raunchy autobiography re-creates the adventures of a very young soldier in the US Army at the height of the Depression. Charles Willeford was 16 in 1935 when he signed up and was sent to the Philippines. And the Philippines of those days was like a place out of another century. Willeford’s job was to fuel aircraft whose pilots treated him and his buddies almost like slaves. At night, however, he was a lord, fully exploring a great, timeless, and sensual city with a multitude of women available - even on a private’s pay.
-
-
A window into a writers past
- By Maracapozzi on 04-29-23
-
Cockfighter
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Jim Steele
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A former professional boxer, actor, horse trainer and radio announcer, Charles Willeford is best known for his Miami-based crime novels featuring hard-boiled detective Hoke Moseley, including Miami Blues and Sideswipe. Of Cockfighter, Harry Crews said, “Charles Willeford renders the sport with such knowledge and attention to detail that...had the almost inexpressible impression of being on my knees again beside the great fighting pits of the southern circuit.
-
-
Great Author, Great Story
- By Paraskevi on 01-06-21
-
Writing & Other Blood Sports
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Willeford was a man of letters in all senses of the word. Poet, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and raconteur, his early paperback novels with their existential/immobilized heroes were the creations (to paraphrase Chandler) of a man not himself immobilized - a man who, instead, with his trademark black-humored prose, doggedly examined the mind-thrumming banalities of our materially sated but intellectually befuddled postwar world, crafting a body of work that is only now, 50-some years after his first appearance in print, beginning to be widely appreciated.
-
-
Loved The Immobilized Hero
- By Rich S. on 07-05-21
-
Miami Blues
- Hoke Moseley, Book 1
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious Eldorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn't think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over 10 years of cases, wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures.
-
-
Proof it can be done!
- By LadySpeaker on 10-07-15
-
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this classic Miami crime story and thriller, from the writer acclaimed for his Hoke Moseley novels, a man's life is threatened when he discovers his new lover is married.
-
The Shark-Infested Custard
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Mike Carnes, Dan Bitner, Josh Goodman, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Larry Dolman is a rather literal-minded ex-cop who now works private security. Eddie Miller is an airline pilot who's studying to get his real estate license. Don Luchessi is a silver salesman who's separated from his wife, but too Catholic to get a divorce. Hank Norton is a drug company rep who gets four times as many dames as any of the other guys. When a friendly bet goes horribly awry, they find themselves with two dead bodies on their hands and a homicidal husband in the wings - and acting more like hardened criminals than upstanding citizens.
-
-
Wild times back in Florida
- By GioSailor on 09-21-24
-
Something About a Soldier
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Dan McGowan
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This funny, rich, raunchy autobiography re-creates the adventures of a very young soldier in the US Army at the height of the Depression. Charles Willeford was 16 in 1935 when he signed up and was sent to the Philippines. And the Philippines of those days was like a place out of another century. Willeford’s job was to fuel aircraft whose pilots treated him and his buddies almost like slaves. At night, however, he was a lord, fully exploring a great, timeless, and sensual city with a multitude of women available - even on a private’s pay.
-
-
A window into a writers past
- By Maracapozzi on 04-29-23
-
Cockfighter
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Jim Steele
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A former professional boxer, actor, horse trainer and radio announcer, Charles Willeford is best known for his Miami-based crime novels featuring hard-boiled detective Hoke Moseley, including Miami Blues and Sideswipe. Of Cockfighter, Harry Crews said, “Charles Willeford renders the sport with such knowledge and attention to detail that...had the almost inexpressible impression of being on my knees again beside the great fighting pits of the southern circuit.
-
-
Great Author, Great Story
- By Paraskevi on 01-06-21
-
Writing & Other Blood Sports
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Willeford was a man of letters in all senses of the word. Poet, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and raconteur, his early paperback novels with their existential/immobilized heroes were the creations (to paraphrase Chandler) of a man not himself immobilized - a man who, instead, with his trademark black-humored prose, doggedly examined the mind-thrumming banalities of our materially sated but intellectually befuddled postwar world, crafting a body of work that is only now, 50-some years after his first appearance in print, beginning to be widely appreciated.
-
-
Loved The Immobilized Hero
- By Rich S. on 07-05-21
-
Miami Blues
- Hoke Moseley, Book 1
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious Eldorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn't think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over 10 years of cases, wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures.
-
-
Proof it can be done!
- By LadySpeaker on 10-07-15
-
The Burnt Orange Heresy
- A Novel
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fast-talking, backstabbing, womanizing, and fiercely ambitious art critic James Figueras will do anything - blackmail, burglary, and beyond - to make a name for himself. When an unscrupulous collector offers Figueras a career-making chance to interview Jacques Debierue, the greatest living - and most reclusive - artist, the critic must decide how far he will go to become the art-world celebrity he hungers to be. Will Figueras stop at the opportunity to skim some cream for himself or push beyond morality's limits to a bigger payoff?
-
-
Portrait of an Artist as a Immobilized Hero
- By Rich S. on 07-05-21
-
Stick
- By: Elmore Leonard
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After serving time for armed robbery, Ernest "Stick" Stickley is back on the outside and trying to stay legit. But it's tough staying straight in a crooked town - and Miami is a pirate's paradise, where investment fat cats and lowlife drug dealers hold hands and dance. And when a crazed player chooses Stick at random to die for another man's sins, the struggling ex-con is left with no choice but to dive right back into the game. Besides, Stick knows a good thing when he sees it....
-
-
Can't beat this with a stick (sorry).
- By Richard Delman on 05-14-12
By: Elmore Leonard
-
The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By
- By: Georges Simenon, Sian Renyolds - Translator
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brilliant new translation of one of Simenon's best loved masterpieces. 'A certain furtive, almost shameful emotion...disturbed him whenever he saw a train go by, a night train especially, its blinds drawn down on the mystery of its passengers.' Kees Popinga is a respectable Dutch citizen and family man. Then he discovers that his boss has bankrupted the shipping firm he works for - and something snaps.
By: Georges Simenon, and others
-
A Rage in Harlem
- A Grave Digger & Coffin Ed Novel
- By: Chester Himes
- Narrated by: Samuel L. Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson ( Pulp Fiction, Star Wars films), fresh off the success of his uproarious, Audie-nominated performance of the mock children’s book Go the F**k to Sleep, delivers a swaggering, darkly-humored rendering of Chester Himes’ classic first novel.
-
-
Go the f--k to Audible and get this now!
- By Julie W. Capell on 03-22-12
By: Chester Himes
-
Leonard and Hungry Paul
- By: Ronan Hession
- Narrated by: John Hopkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story of two friends who ordinarily would remain uncelebrated. It finds a value and specialness in them that is not immediately apparent and prompts the idea that maybe we could learn from the people that we overlook in life.
-
-
Monty Python and Forest Gump created 2 sons.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-12-22
By: Ronan Hession
-
One Good Deed
- By: David Baldacci
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1949. When war veteran Aloysius Archer is released from Carderock Prison, he is sent to Poca City on parole with a short list of dos and a much longer list of don'ts: do report regularly to his parole officer, don't go to bars, certainly don't drink alcohol, do get a job - and don't ever associate with loose women. The small town quickly proves more complicated and dangerous than Archer's years serving in the war or his time in jail.
-
-
Superior Historical Crime novel!!
- By shelley on 07-24-19
By: David Baldacci
-
The Deep Blue Good-By
- A Travis McGee Novel, Book 1
- By: John D. MacDonald
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.
-
-
Before the A-Team, there was Travis McGee
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-12-16
-
Pop. 1280
- By: Jim Thompson
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nick Corey is a terrible sheriff on purpose. He doesn't solve problems, enforce rules or arrest criminals. He knows that nobody in tiny Potts County actually wants to follow the law and he is perfectly content lazing about, eating five meals a day, and sleeping with all the eligible women. Still, Nick has some very complex problems to deal with. Two local pimps have been sassing him, ruining his already tattered reputation.
-
-
Camus of Crime Fiction
- By Darwin8u on 06-14-15
By: Jim Thompson
-
An Unattractive Vampire
- By: Jim McDoniel
- Narrated by: Drew Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After three centuries trapped underground, thousand-year-old Yulric Bile, also known as The Cursed One, The Devil's Apprentice, He Who Worships the Slumbering Horrors, awakens only to find that no one believes he is a vampire. Apparently he's just too ugly. Modern vampires, he soon discovers, are pretty, weak, and, most disturbing of all, good.
-
-
Blood, Guts and lots of laughs!
- By Aaron on 08-27-16
By: Jim McDoniel
-
Lowdown Road
- By: Scott Von Doviak
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the summer of '74 . . . Richard Nixon has resigned from office, CB radios are the hot new thing, and in the great state of Texas two cousins hatch a plan to drive $1 million worth of stolen weed to Idaho, where some lunatic is gearing up to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle. But with a vengeful sheriff on their tail and the revered and feared marijuana kingpin of Central Texas out to get his stash back, Chuck and Dean are in for the ride of their lives—if they can make it out alive . . .
-
-
hmm... what have I been sold?
- By Joe on 12-24-23
By: Scott Von Doviak
-
The Chrysalids
- By: John Wyndham
- Narrated by: Noah Reid
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Strorm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, his niece Rosalind and their friends have their own secret aberration that would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badland....
-
-
It is awfully exciting
- By S. Corney on 11-27-21
By: John Wyndham
-
Five Decembers
- By: James Kestrel
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever. The trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves; and though the U.S. doesn't know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor. Spanning the entirety of World War II, Five Decembers is a beautiful, masterful, powerful novel that will live in your memory forever.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 10-10-22
By: James Kestrel
Related to this topic
-
79 Park Avenue
- By: Harold Robbins
- Narrated by: Julia Duvall, Rick Slade
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
79 Park Avenue starts on the seedy streets of inner New York City and ends on luxurious Park Avenue. Over time Marja claws her way from street urchin to stripper, ultimately becoming the madam of a Mob-owned pleasure empire. Marja--now known as Maryann--provides access to the city's most exciting and sensual escorts. But when Maryann runs afoul of the law, endangering her empire and angering the Mob, she must face an ambitious prosecutor who stands to benefit by bringing down the call-girl ring.
-
-
Good novel from 65 years ago!
- By Wayne on 08-27-20
By: Harold Robbins
-
The Lonely Lady
- By: Harold Robbins
- Narrated by: Maria Debonair
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet JeriLee Randall, aspiring actress, ambitious writer, and sexual powerhouse. It is this ambition that takes her away from her tiny hometown of Port Clare and sets her on a collision course with her future. Surviving on determination and seduction, she makes her way to Broadway and then on to Hollywood. The bright lights mask a deeper darkness, and JeriLee is quickly drawn into a world of greed, drugs, casting couches, and smooth-talking power players.
-
-
The Lonely Lady
- By Shelly-Ann Brown on 02-25-21
By: Harold Robbins
-
The Recognitions
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 47 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter of the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals" - pictures the painters themselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indistinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch - cannot even recognize.
-
-
Breathtaking, Dizzying, Stimulating, Funny
- By andrew on 11-17-10
By: William Gaddis
-
Quarry
- A Quarry Novel, Book 1
- By: Max Allan Collins
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quarry doesn't kill just anybody these days. He restricts himself to targeting other hitmen, availing his marked-for-death clients of two services: eliminating the killers sent after them, and finding out who hired them…and then removing that problem, as well. So far he's rid of the world of nobody who would be missed. But this time he finds himself zeroing in on the grieving family of a missing cheerleader. Does the hitman's hitman have the wrong quarry in his sights?
-
-
The great Max Allan Collins
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 09-25-16
-
Joy in the Morning
- A Novel
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Though only 18, Annie travels alone halfway across the country to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law - and there they marry. But Carl and Annie’s first year together is much more difficult than they anticipated as they find themselves in a faraway place with little money and few friends. With hardship and poverty weighing heavily upon them, they come to realize that their greatest sources of strength, loyalty, and love will help them make it through.
-
-
Another Wonderful Betty Smith Audio Book
- By 20eagle16 on 01-25-21
By: Betty Smith
-
Disturbing the Peace
- By: Richard Yates
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To all appearances, John Wilder has all the trappings of success, circa 1960: a promising career in advertising, a loving family, a beautiful apartment, even a country home. John's evenings are spent with associates at quiet Manhattan lounges and his weekends with friends at glittering cocktail parties. But something deep within this seemingly perfect life has long since gone wrong.
-
-
7 hours and 27 minutes pure blisd
- By Mia on 01-05-13
By: Richard Yates
-
79 Park Avenue
- By: Harold Robbins
- Narrated by: Julia Duvall, Rick Slade
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
79 Park Avenue starts on the seedy streets of inner New York City and ends on luxurious Park Avenue. Over time Marja claws her way from street urchin to stripper, ultimately becoming the madam of a Mob-owned pleasure empire. Marja--now known as Maryann--provides access to the city's most exciting and sensual escorts. But when Maryann runs afoul of the law, endangering her empire and angering the Mob, she must face an ambitious prosecutor who stands to benefit by bringing down the call-girl ring.
-
-
Good novel from 65 years ago!
- By Wayne on 08-27-20
By: Harold Robbins
-
The Lonely Lady
- By: Harold Robbins
- Narrated by: Maria Debonair
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet JeriLee Randall, aspiring actress, ambitious writer, and sexual powerhouse. It is this ambition that takes her away from her tiny hometown of Port Clare and sets her on a collision course with her future. Surviving on determination and seduction, she makes her way to Broadway and then on to Hollywood. The bright lights mask a deeper darkness, and JeriLee is quickly drawn into a world of greed, drugs, casting couches, and smooth-talking power players.
-
-
The Lonely Lady
- By Shelly-Ann Brown on 02-25-21
By: Harold Robbins
-
The Recognitions
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 47 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter of the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals" - pictures the painters themselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indistinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch - cannot even recognize.
-
-
Breathtaking, Dizzying, Stimulating, Funny
- By andrew on 11-17-10
By: William Gaddis
-
Quarry
- A Quarry Novel, Book 1
- By: Max Allan Collins
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quarry doesn't kill just anybody these days. He restricts himself to targeting other hitmen, availing his marked-for-death clients of two services: eliminating the killers sent after them, and finding out who hired them…and then removing that problem, as well. So far he's rid of the world of nobody who would be missed. But this time he finds himself zeroing in on the grieving family of a missing cheerleader. Does the hitman's hitman have the wrong quarry in his sights?
-
-
The great Max Allan Collins
- By Bradley Paul Valentine on 09-25-16
-
Joy in the Morning
- A Novel
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Though only 18, Annie travels alone halfway across the country to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law - and there they marry. But Carl and Annie’s first year together is much more difficult than they anticipated as they find themselves in a faraway place with little money and few friends. With hardship and poverty weighing heavily upon them, they come to realize that their greatest sources of strength, loyalty, and love will help them make it through.
-
-
Another Wonderful Betty Smith Audio Book
- By 20eagle16 on 01-25-21
By: Betty Smith
-
Disturbing the Peace
- By: Richard Yates
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To all appearances, John Wilder has all the trappings of success, circa 1960: a promising career in advertising, a loving family, a beautiful apartment, even a country home. John's evenings are spent with associates at quiet Manhattan lounges and his weekends with friends at glittering cocktail parties. But something deep within this seemingly perfect life has long since gone wrong.
-
-
7 hours and 27 minutes pure blisd
- By Mia on 01-05-13
By: Richard Yates
-
The Folded Leaf
- By: William Maxwell
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is a classic novel from one of our most honored writers - the author of such acclaimed works as So Long, See You Tomorrow and All the Days and Nights. The Folded Leaf is the serenely observed yet deeply moving story of two boys finding one another in the Midwest of the 1920s, when childhood lasted longer than it does today and even adults were more innocent of what life could bring.
-
-
Midwestern Misfits
- By David on 03-17-15
By: William Maxwell
-
The Color of Money
- By: Walter Tevis
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years after he conquered the underground pool circuit in The Hustler, "Fast" Eddie Felson is playing exhibition matches with former rival Minnesota Fats in shopping malls. With one failed marriage and years of running a pool hall behind him, Eddie is now ready to regain the skills needed to compete in a world of pool that has changed dramatically since he left.
-
-
if you play,,, you'll live it !!!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-12-20
By: Walter Tevis
-
After the First Death
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was all too frighteningly familiar. For the second time in his life, Alex Penn wakes up in an alcoholic daze in a cheap hotel room off Times Square and finds himself lying next to the savagely mutilated body of a young woman. After the first death, he was convicted of murder and imprisoned, then released on a technicality. But this time he has to find out what happened during the blackout and why, before the police do.
By: Lawrence Block
-
The Sins of the Fathers
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hooker was young, pretty...and dead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again--that's where Matthew Scudder comes in.
-
-
Good introduction to a popular series
- By Sharron on 12-26-11
By: Lawrence Block
-
A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
-
-
Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
-
Men Without Women
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Stacy Keach
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1927, Men Without Women represents some of Hemingway's most important and compelling early writing. In these 14 stories, Hemingway begins to examine the themes that would occupy his later works: the casualties of war, the often uneasy relationship between men and women, sport and sportsmanship.
-
-
Avoid this pointless drivel
- By Bernard van Biljon on 07-01-19
By: Ernest Hemingway
-
Red Harvest
- By: Dashiell Hammett
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain. From the author of The Maltese Falcon.
-
-
Great story, great narration, terrible reccording
- By yep on 08-21-14
By: Dashiell Hammett
-
The Hustler
- By: Walter Tevis
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To Fast Eddie Felsen, a young pool hustler, there was only one thing that mattered: to make the big time and the big money in the world of pool by beating the best in the country. Hustling suckers in small towns for good stake money was practice for his goal, and when he felt ready he went to Bennington's pool hall in Chicago to find Minnesota Fats. Eddie and Fats pit nerve against skill in a fantastic match over an unbroken 36 hours.
-
-
Love Tevis in general
- By Darryl on 07-01-16
By: Walter Tevis
-
The Grand Dark
- By: Richard Kadrey
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of the Sandman Slim series, a lush, dark, stand-alone fantasy built off the insurgent tradition of China Mieville and M. John Harrison - a subversive tale that immerses us in a world where the extremes of bleakness and beauty exist together in dangerous harmony in a city on the edge of civility and chaos. The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war’s horrifying despair.
-
-
Kadrey does it again!
- By Lilah Quinn on 06-14-19
By: Richard Kadrey
-
The 42nd Parallel
- By: John Dos Passos
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first entry in John Dos Passos's celebrated U.S.A. trilogy paints a grand picture of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.
-
-
Powerful document of an all-too-familiar past
- By Ryan on 06-01-13
By: John Dos Passos
-
Night Life
- By: David C. Taylor
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
terrific in every way
- By Martha on 04-12-16
By: David C. Taylor
-
Factotum
- By: Charles Bukowski
- Narrated by: Christian Baskous
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next.
-
-
Enjoyable
- By I Ate Your Pug For Lunch and It was Tasty on 12-26-13
By: Charles Bukowski
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Miami Blues
- Hoke Moseley, Book 1
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious Eldorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn't think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over 10 years of cases, wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures.
-
-
Proof it can be done!
- By LadySpeaker on 10-07-15
-
High Priest of California
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She was leaning against the door. Her smile was a sickly twisted grimace; the sort a prisoner gives a judge when he's asked if he has anything to say before he's sentenced. Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic of hard-boiled fiction, Charles Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue, and lust set in San Francisco in the early '50s.
-
-
thoroughly unpleasant classic willeford
- By Alex halladay on 06-08-23
-
Cockfighter
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Jim Steele
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A former professional boxer, actor, horse trainer and radio announcer, Charles Willeford is best known for his Miami-based crime novels featuring hard-boiled detective Hoke Moseley, including Miami Blues and Sideswipe. Of Cockfighter, Harry Crews said, “Charles Willeford renders the sport with such knowledge and attention to detail that...had the almost inexpressible impression of being on my knees again beside the great fighting pits of the southern circuit.
-
-
Great Author, Great Story
- By Paraskevi on 01-06-21
-
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this classic Miami crime story and thriller, from the writer acclaimed for his Hoke Moseley novels, a man's life is threatened when he discovers his new lover is married.
-
The Killer Inside Me
- By: Jim Thompson
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone in the small town of Central City, Texas loves Lou Ford. A deputy sheriff, Lou's known to the small-time criminals, the real-estate entrepreneurs, and all of his coworkers - the low-lifes, the big-timers, and everyone in-between - as the nicest guy around. He may not be the brightest or the most interesting man in town, but nevertheless, he's the kind of officer you're happy to have keeping your streets safe. The sort of man you might even wish your daughter would end up with someday. But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen.
-
-
Much better than those ratings indicate.
- By Ron on 01-17-12
By: Jim Thompson
-
Made in Miami
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art student Ralph Tone is working in Miami as a bellboy. He meets Hollywood hopeful Maria Duigan and falls head over heels for the ambitious beauty. As Ralph fuels his obsession by booze, pills, and lack of sleep, they both quickly become entangled with sleazy pornographer Donald McKay.
-
Miami Blues
- Hoke Moseley, Book 1
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious Eldorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn't think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over 10 years of cases, wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures.
-
-
Proof it can be done!
- By LadySpeaker on 10-07-15
-
High Priest of California
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She was leaning against the door. Her smile was a sickly twisted grimace; the sort a prisoner gives a judge when he's asked if he has anything to say before he's sentenced. Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic of hard-boiled fiction, Charles Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue, and lust set in San Francisco in the early '50s.
-
-
thoroughly unpleasant classic willeford
- By Alex halladay on 06-08-23
-
Cockfighter
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Jim Steele
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A former professional boxer, actor, horse trainer and radio announcer, Charles Willeford is best known for his Miami-based crime novels featuring hard-boiled detective Hoke Moseley, including Miami Blues and Sideswipe. Of Cockfighter, Harry Crews said, “Charles Willeford renders the sport with such knowledge and attention to detail that...had the almost inexpressible impression of being on my knees again beside the great fighting pits of the southern circuit.
-
-
Great Author, Great Story
- By Paraskevi on 01-06-21
-
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this classic Miami crime story and thriller, from the writer acclaimed for his Hoke Moseley novels, a man's life is threatened when he discovers his new lover is married.
-
The Killer Inside Me
- By: Jim Thompson
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone in the small town of Central City, Texas loves Lou Ford. A deputy sheriff, Lou's known to the small-time criminals, the real-estate entrepreneurs, and all of his coworkers - the low-lifes, the big-timers, and everyone in-between - as the nicest guy around. He may not be the brightest or the most interesting man in town, but nevertheless, he's the kind of officer you're happy to have keeping your streets safe. The sort of man you might even wish your daughter would end up with someday. But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen.
-
-
Much better than those ratings indicate.
- By Ron on 01-17-12
By: Jim Thompson
-
Made in Miami
- By: Charles Willeford
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art student Ralph Tone is working in Miami as a bellboy. He meets Hollywood hopeful Maria Duigan and falls head over heels for the ambitious beauty. As Ralph fuels his obsession by booze, pills, and lack of sleep, they both quickly become entangled with sleazy pornographer Donald McKay.
What listeners say about Pick-Up
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeff Adamo
- 03-29-23
Gritty Fun That Revels in Genre
The narrator really delivers. His voice is grave and demands your attention.
The plot is a little thin, and there's a pretty clear delineation between the first act and the rest of the book that feels like the author wanted to end it there but then decided against it.
If you like adverbs you'll get as many as you want.
I was immersed beginning to end.
I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about the big reveal.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- GioSailor
- 08-27-24
Brilliant
This was really well written, both the unusual story and the well defined characters. It does feel very heavy at the start with all the excessive drinking, but gets very interesting as it goes - the second half is brilliant indeed. Narrator has a great tone and voice, except does not differentiate between character voices, not a big issue in this story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vincent
- 10-31-21
one of CWs best
Earlier Willeford thay is one of his strongest. didnt love the narrator at first but he settled in and ended up being very good i thought. the novel is fantastic with an explosive ending that made me want to pick up the book and do it all over again
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful