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
An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.
Author Hale presents the case of his young cousin Haley's disappearance on Cave Mountain in 2001 and the ensuing search and rescue operation, the largest in Arkansas history. Hale connects this with the murder of 3-year-old Bethany by a small and isolated religious sect decades earlier on the same mountain. Narrating these two stories in a low, slightly gruff tone, Hale weaves together family anecdotes, Ozark lore, local and broader history, and Christian theology. While the two cases are intriguing, the work lacks focus and contains extraneous details.
An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 9 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063398153
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2026
A fascinating look into the history and operations of the worldwide Mafia, replete with revelations and insights.
This may be one of the most comprehensive works on organized crime ever written, beginning with crime organizations more than a thousand years before the Mafia existed. Nathan Osgood carefully delivers the work, allowing listeners to take in the sometimes-incredible implications. Perhaps Gingeras could have scaled back the first two hours of the work, which detail the rise of criminal organizations like Japan's yakuza, China's tongs, and many others over the centuries before finally getting to the modern-day Mafia. But once he gets to the late 1800s, the audiobook comes to life as the roots of the Mafia are laid bare and facts fly like bullets on Valentine's Day.
A fascinating look into the history and operations of the worldwide Mafia, replete with revelations and insights.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
Duration: 14 hrs, 35 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668104569
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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