Earl Swagger, Hunter’s tough ex-Marine, reappears here in a tale both biblical and bestial. Investigating a disappearance, Swagger and his friend, Sam Vincent, visit Thebes State Penal Farm (Colored) in 1951 Mississippi and barely escape with theirlives. What they witness convinces them that the place must be erased from the Earth; Swagger rounds up some old war buddies (real-life hero Audie Murphy among them) to get the job done. The reading is fully voiced; the menace in the prison guards’ drawls reinforces the cruelty of their actions. Sam, whose no-kill insistence gets them into trouble in the first place, is appropriately stuffy. William Dufris makes you see the buildings and the surrounding swamps, hear the dogs, experience the misery of the inmates. If you can take the graphic violence, somehow made more graphic in audio, this is a winner.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2002
Duration: 18 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Sound Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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