Narrator Michael Prichard's clipped, flat reading of police reports and court testimony in this audiobook is similar to the style of 1960s TV cops like Jack Webb's Joe Friday and Robert Stack's Eliot Ness. (Not coincidentally, both actors make important appearances in this memoir.) When the audiobook veers into personal recollections, Prichard takes the flatline off his delivery and swings with Ellroy's prose. The author juggles three balls in his powerful, sprawling true-crime memoir, written in 1996. There is the story of Ellroy's mother's murder and his attempts to solve it, his evolution from hooligan to crime writer, and his reflections on Los Angeles-based crimes against women from the Black Dahlia to Nicole Brown Simpson. Some listeners may be distracted by audible edits in this otherwise fine production.
Pub Date: July 23, 2019
Duration: 14 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593148372
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
James Michener tells the real stories behind the man and his books. The recording is read with skill and consistency although the reader does little to enhance the robust, larger-than-life incidents related in the book. Due to the first-person narrative format, there is no opportunity for the narrator to change his voice. This makes some chapters monotonous as they go on and on in the typical Michener style. The listener may also become confused because the stories are not told chronologically. This is not a great choice for the audio format, but Michener fans may stick with it to the end.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
In a quest for a sense of inner contentment and self-worth, Gloria Steinem brings the reader on a journey of investigation and discovery. Steinem reads the text herself in a straightforward and friendly, but not intimate, presentation which is so easy to listen to it invites repetition--thus ensuring the painless relearning of the lessons of the book. It's difficult to tell from the reading that this audiobook is abridged; each section can stand alone. Nonetheless, the listener wished the book were unabridged. Steinem left me wanting to learn more.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Dove Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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