Robert Petkoff is especially effective at narrating this account in which the author’s judgments heavily dominate the narrative. L.A. TIMES reporter Pringle’s painstaking multi-year investigation, starting in 2016, pitted him against the prestigious University of Southern California and his own editors, who did not want to run afoul of the city’s most influential advertiser—or its friends. The news story involved the married dean of USC’s Keck School of Medicine, his drug habit, and his drug-addicted 22-year-old girlfriend, whom he repeatedly sprung from rehab. Pringle’s no-holds-barred journalism is dramatic listening, and Petkoff keeps a brisk pace, maintaining suspense and narrative tension even through passages that are repetitive. Petkoff takes on the author’s gripes and ruminations, along with his passion, indignation, and abiding sense of justice—for a true-crime story as compelling as any novel.
Pub Date: July 19, 2022
Duration: 9 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250856586
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A clear, enraging audiobook about a dangerous abuser, narrated skillfully and with care.
One of Gabra Zackman's strengths is her ability to narrate nonfiction so eloquently. This deeply researched audiobook unwinds a tragic and enraging story about a master manipulator. Paul Skalnik spent decades getting close to people, deceiving them with lies about his accomplishments, taking advantage of them, and disappearing. He never truly paid for his crimes, which included falsely implicating others and abusing multiple women and girls. He was aided by a legal system all too willing to give him lenient sentences and no real accountability. Zackman conveys this work with a humanity that connects with the heart of the injustices committed and the people who were affected.
A clear, enraging audiobook about a dangerous abuser, narrated skillfully and with care.Pub Date: July 14, 2026
Duration: 7 hrs, 58 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217159673
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
Through no fault of the narrator, the audiobook as a whole isn’t that compelling.
This investigation into the rise and fall of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is detailed but less than thrilling. The author, a sociologist and journalist, thoroughly describes ELF’s targeted acts of arson, which began in the mid-’90s. ELF members' motivations to save Western forests from the death spiral of logging andgeneralconsumption of the natural world are well explored. Dan John Miller’s voice is arresting, and his pacing keeps the audio moving briskly. But the ELF members’ backstories aren't interesting or memorable, and their eventual capture by law enforcement isn’t dramatic. More salient is hearing how the group’s arson attacks led the Department of Justice to begin prosecuting any act of environmental protest as terrorism. Wolfe narrates the epilogue with heartfelt dejection, cataloging current environmental catastrophes that ELF members were so impassioned to prevent.
Through no fault of the narrator, the audiobook as a whole isn’t that compelling.Pub Date: June 23, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 22 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217338771
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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