AudioFile Golden Voice Simon Vance navigates former double agent/journalist John Russell through his eighth adventure. It's the bad old days of the 1950s. The Cold War is heating up, Russia and the U.S. are at loggerheads in postwar Berlin, McCarthy's witch hunt is in full swing in America, and espionage is rampant. Russell's partner, successful TV actress Effi Koenen, is to be honored at a Berlin film festival. Despite the political turmoil, they decide to return to Berlin, their former home. Vance's calm, even presentation underplays the danger Russell faces from the KGB agents he betrayed and from those named in his current exposé of companies that worked with the Nazis during WWII. Vance's deft performance keeps things edgy and listeners engaged.
Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
Duration: 11 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798891783751
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Grisham fans will hang in there until the end, but for many, this may prove a challenging listening experience.
What happens when American couples enjoying their dream honeymoons in Paris are kidnapped? Grisham, the master of the legal thriller, delivers a complex thriller of global terrorism. While narrator Michael Beck is excellent at male characters with American accents, his female characters and his pronunciation of French place names and words are jarring. Further, listeners will need to pay close attention in order to follow the shifting points of view and the introductions of new characters and settings. Unfortunately, the writing has the emotional intensity of an after-action report. The exceptions are the brutal torture scenes, which are painful to listen to.
Grisham fans will hang in there until the end, but for many, this may prove a challenging listening experience.Pub Date: today
Duration: 12 hrs, 14 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593830154
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
With her talent for distinct voices, Huber will keep listeners fully engaged and entertained from beginning to end.
In this third addition to The Martini Club series, narrator Hillary Huber masterfully performs the returning characters plus many new players—the good and the just pretending to be good. Martini Club member and former CIA agent Ingrid Slocum is managing a conference on potential global health disasters. When one of the prominent speakers, a Russian defector, is murdered, the Martini Club members are forced to return to their spy roots, sending Ingrid and former and current colleagues on a precarious adventure. With the assistance of the local chief of police, they investigate a series of murders mysteriously tied to a botched operation from their past.
With her talent for distinct voices, Huber will keep listeners fully engaged and entertained from beginning to end.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781511354622
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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