Death in the Air
The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City
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Death in the Air
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Narrated by:
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Graeme Malcolm
About this listen
A real-life thriller in the vein of The Devil in the White City, Kate Winkler Dawson's debut, Death in the Air, is a gripping, historical narrative of a serial killer, an environmental disaster, and an iconic city struggling to regain its footing.
In winter 1952, London automobiles and thousands of coal-burning hearths belched particulate matter into the air. But the smog that descended on December fifth of 1952 was different; it was a type that held the city hostage for five long days. Mass transit ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets, and 12,000 people died. That same month, there was another killer at large in London: John Reginald Christie, who murdered at least six women. In a braided narrative that draws on extensive interviews, never-before-published material, and archival research, Dawson captivatingly recounts the intersecting stories of the these two killers and their longstanding impact on modern history.
©2017 Kate Winkler Dawson (P)2017 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China
- By: Paul French
- Narrated by: Erik Singer
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 438
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 386
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Story4 out of 5 stars 387
Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives - one British and one Chinese - race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever.
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5 out of 5 stars
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When history can be stranger than fiction
- By Jeremy on 01-04-13
By: Paul French
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Dark Tide
- The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
- By: Stephen Puleo
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 377
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 328
Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters were playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like, "a roaring surf," one of them said later. Like, "a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence," said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window - "Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!" A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour.
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3 out of 5 stars
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INTERESTING STORY - ABOUT 2x TOO LONG
- By The Louligan on 09-07-14
By: Stephen Puleo
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The Wicked Boy
- The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
- By: Kate Summerscale
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 332
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 298
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Story4 out of 5 stars 297
Early in the morning of Monday, July 8, 1895, 13-year-old Robert Coombes and his 12-year-old brother, Nattie, set out from their small, yellow-brick terraced house in East London to watch a cricket match at Lord's. Their father had gone to sea the previous Friday, the boys told their neighbors, and their mother was visiting her family in Liverpool. Over the next 10 days, Robert and Nattie spent extravagantly, pawning their parents' valuables to fund trips to the theatre and the seaside. But as the sun beat down on the Coombes house, a strange smell began to emanate.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing True Story
- By Lisa Belle on 01-08-17
By: Kate Summerscale
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Triangle
- The Fire That Changed America
- By: David Von Drehle
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 230
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 204
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
On March 25, 1911, as workers were getting ready to leave for the day, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village. Within minutes it spread to consume the building's upper three stories. Firemen who arrived at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders simply weren't tall enough. People on the street watched in horror as desperate workers jumped to their deaths. It was the worst disaster in New York City history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but Loong
- By JAS on 04-21-18
By: David Von Drehle
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To Sleep with the Angels
- The Story of a Fire
- By: David Cowan, John Kuenster
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 104
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Story5 out of 5 stars 104
If burying a child has a special poignancy, the tragedy at a Catholic elementary school in Chicago more than 50 years ago was an extraordinary moment of grief. One of the deadliest fires in American history, it took the lives of 92 children and three nuns at Our Lady of the Angels School, left many families physically and psychologically scarred for life, and destroyed a close-knit working-class neighborhood.
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5 out of 5 stars
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amazingly gripping
- By Jeremiah Rubottom on 10-12-18
By: David Cowan, and others
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Psycho USA
- Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 215
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 199
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Story4 out of 5 stars 197
In the horrifying annals of American crime, the infamous names of brutal killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy, and Berkowitz are writ large in the imaginations of a public both horrified and hypnotized by their monstrous, murderous acts. But for every celebrity psychopath who's gotten ink for spilling blood, there's a bevy of all-but-forgotten homicidal fiends studding the bloody margins of US history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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True crime enthusiast's dream
- By Athelsten on 08-24-17
By: Harold Schechter
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The Colony
- The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles on Molokai
- By: John Tayman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 266
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4 out of 5 stars 113
In 1866, 12 men and women and one small child were forced aboard a leaky schooner and cast away to a natural prison on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Two weeks later, a dozen others were exiled, and then 40 more, and then 100 more. Tracked by bounty hunters and torn screaming from their families, the luckless were loaded into shipboard cattle stalls and abandoned in a lawless place where brutality held sway. Many did not have leprosy, and most of those who did were not contagious.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting
- By Matt on 10-31-06
By: John Tayman
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Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors: And Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 16
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 442
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 374
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Story4 out of 5 stars 371
It’s a chilling reality that homicide investigators know all too well: The last face most murder victims see is not that of a stranger, but of someone familiar. Whether only an acquaintance or a trusted intimate, such killers share a common trait that triggers the downward spiral toward death for someone close to them: They are masters at hiding who they really are. Their clever masks let them appear safe, kind, and truthful. They are anything but - and almost no one can detect the murderous impulses buried deep in their psyches.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Evil People Do
- By Dianne on 02-14-13
By: Ann Rule
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No Regrets: And Other True Cases
- And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 11)
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 135
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 135
A ship's pilot legendary for guiding mammoth freighters through the narrows of Puget Sound, Rolf Neslund was a proud Norwegian, a ladies' man, and a beloved resident of Washington State's idyllic Lopez Island. Virtually indestructible even into his golden years, he made electrifying headlines more than once: after a ship he was helming crashed into the soaring West Seattle Bridge, causing millions in damages; and following his inexplicable disappearance at age 80. Was he a suicide, a man broken by one costly misstep? Had he run off with a lifelong love? Or did a trail of gruesome evidence lead to the home Rolf shared with his wife, Ruth?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally...worth it!
- By Luv lots on 09-04-13
By: Ann Rule
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Schindler's List
- By: Thomas Keneally
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 516
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 471
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Story5 out of 5 stars 468
An “extraordinary” (New York Review of Books) novel based on the true story of how German war profiteer and factory director Oskar Schindler came to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any other single person during World War II. In this milestone of Holocaust literature, Thomas Keneally, author of The Book of Science and Antiquities and The Daughter of Mars, uses the actual testimony of the Schindlerjuden — Schindler’s Jews — to brilliantly portray the courage and cunning of a good man in the midst of unspeakable evil.
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5 out of 5 stars
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really well done
- By Neil H. Greenberg on 03-09-19
By: Thomas Keneally
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Tinseltown
- Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood
- By: William J. Mann
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,121
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,903
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,911
By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies - including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Everybody's a dreamer...
- By Steven on 01-08-15
By: William J. Mann
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The Circus Fire
- A True Story of an American Tragedy
- By: Stewart O'Nan
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 238
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 165
In 1944, the big top of Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford caught fire during the middle of an afternoon performance. Nine thousand people were inside. In seconds, the big top was burning out of control. The toll of the fire, and its circumstances, haunt Hartford to the present day. But it is the intense, detailed narrative - before, after, and especially during the panic under the burning tent - that will remain with listeners long after they finish this book.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Harrowing and brilliantly detailed
- By P. M. Morris on 09-14-08
By: Stewart O'Nan
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The Devil in the White City
- Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30,668
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25,336
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25,325
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Rich Read!
- By D on 09-18-03
By: Erik Larson
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A Death in Belmont
- By: Sebastian Junger
- Narrated by: Kevin Conway
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 465
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 223
In 1963, with the city of Boston already terrified by a series of savage crimes known as the Boston Stranglings, a murder occurred in Belmont, just a few blocks from the house of Sebastian Junger's family, a murder that seemed to fit exactly the pattern of the Strangler. Roy Smith, a black man who had cleaned the victim's house that day, was convicted, but the terror of the Strangler continued.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Susanna on 01-13-15
By: Sebastian Junger
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Paradise Falls
- The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story5 out of 5 stars 79
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible work of everyday people
- By J. C. Edens on 11-20-24
By: Keith O'Brien
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The Poisoner's Handbook
- Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
- By: Deborah Blum
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,575
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,950
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,939
In The Poisoner's Handbook, Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating book marred by production errors
- By Reagan Kelly on 03-02-10
By: Deborah Blum
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Hell's Princess
- The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,525
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,330
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,331
In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana “murder farm". Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Can a book about a serial killer be entertaining?
- By Lori Hanson on 05-08-18
By: Harold Schechter