Takers Mad

By: Luke Jerod Kummer

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

A tantalizing drama pulled from New York’s gritty past, Takers Mad guides listeners down a shadowy path to explore a true crime that haunted the Gilded Age.

As newspapers reported in the 1890s, a woman dubbed "Shakespeare" was found dead in a seedy hotel along the waterfront by Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. The chilling scene recalled for press and police alike Jack the Ripper’s victims in London. Panicked New Yorkers worked feverishly to halt that maniac’s spree from expanding across the Atlantic. The city only sighed relief after detectives abruptly arrested a traveling Algerian ex-soldier for the crime.

In this reimagining, our narrator Flora - an aspiring pulp writer who grew up worlds away from Manhattan - arrives at the story over a decade later, after her dreams of a perfect wedding are dashed. It turns out Jacob Riis, the disapproving father of Flora’s new groom, and America’s most famous muckraker, played an unexpected role in this mystery earlier in his career.

As Flora digs into the case, more questions about what really happened in the hotel on that monstrous night begin to reveal themselves. Did the police scapegoat the man arrested for the crime? What about the blood that detectives found? Or did authorities actually let Jack the Ripper walk free? Flora hopes if she unlocks these puzzles, it might win over her father-in-law, plus grant the entrance to New York publishing she craves.

Based on historical research and fresh findings in a real-life case that dominated headlines before the turn of the century, Takers Mad is a ruminative, atmospheric, and sometimes morbidly funny work of literary suspense that follows one of the most memorable heroines in recent crime fiction as she stalks Gotham, confronts corruption, and delves into who really murdered "Shakespeare".

©2021 Luke Jerrod Kummer (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

Excellent!

An aspiring writer named Flora takes the listener on a journey investigating a brutal murder from 1891. The descriptions of the era and locations in New York City and New Jersey were detailed and fascinating. Did not see the ending coming. Fun to listen to and highly recommend!

An amazing story with twist insurance you wouldn’t believe

This is one story of mystery that you just don’t see the incoming it definitely keeps you enthralled with each and every step amazing research work to make the story real I give it thumbs up all the way

An intriguing mystery based on a true story

I had heard vaguely of this story before, but never knew the details. I loved what the author did with it!

holy moly more please

I can't decide if I liked (loved) the story more or the narration. amazing experience and will be seeking out both the author and the narrator. holy batman the amount of amazing research that was accurate (why yes, I went down the Wikipedia rabbithole) but didn't feel forced. and the narrator, sooooo engaging and all of the accents were so accurate and real.

can't get past the narration

I'm sorry to say, but I can't even finish the first chapter, and explore the story because the contrivance that is the narrator's obnoxious supposedly hill country southern accent is just too much. waay too much.

Flora Jumped Off The Page

While not normally a genre that I read, historical fiction, when done right can absolutely knock your socks off. Takers Mad was one of those stories that had me barefoot from almost the beginning. I think it was Kummer’s writing style mixed with the fantastic performance by Khristine Hvam that really sold it for me. Hvam absolutely nails the time period, pacing, and overall feel that I think Kummer was going for.

Going into it, I didn’t have a ton of background on this period or this story. But I dove in headfirst and honestly felt like Kummer had me on the struggling for breath for the rest of the story. It’s not overly fast-paced but it’s perfectly paced, in that it kept me wondering what was next instead of living in the moment. But, I say all of that to say that the character development and the way that each place was talked about knock the pacing out cold. They all worked together so well to tell this interesting and unique story.

As I mentioned above, Hvam is the perfect narrator for this. She captured my attention from the opening lines. Mix that in with Kummer’s writing style and I was enamored. I think every scene that started to “fall off” Hvam would kick it up a notch and just blow me away.

Overall, Takers Mad, while not a story I expected to love… I ended up falling in love with it. Sometimes you need the right story to find a genre you enjoy. And this one was right for me. I think Flora as a character was perfect. She is someone I felt like I could transport into now, changing up the language a bit, and I’d read lots of stories about her. She was one of those “one of a kind” characters that I won’t soon forget.

Exceptional

how she kept up with the different accents and dialects was nothing short of amazing. I truly hope to hear her again. the book was very good. I received it with my audible subscription, and was pleasantly surprised. don't know much about the author but they really did their homework for the time period. that's all. enjoyed very much.

Captivating!

This is the kind of story I needed to help me put my phone down. It pulled me in right from the start as I felt I was being let in on a juicy secret. The imagery is amazing and incredibly immersive. It commanded my attention and thus so was a refreshing respite to my usual days of multitasking.

Unique & mesmerizing

I did enjoy this book, but it takes some getting used to, and it will not appeal to everyone. Although the performance was really good, the way the book is written it was sometimes hard to follow. A lot of the story is told through conversation which goes quickly and often caused me to have to go back and listen again because I wasn’t positive of what I was understanding. I it’s a complicated story, told by a feisty woman with Strong western accent. There are so many twists and turns and names of people to remember, and their stories, that perhaps it might be best to read this book in print rather than listen to it. There was clearly a lot of research done to get the story right, and I appreciate the hard work of the author. I also appreciate the language and colloquialisms that were used throughout by the narrator. I really did not want to give it a 3 because it’s better than that, although four seems a little high to me, and I wished I could’ve given it a 3.5-03.75.

Nice!

Not my typical choice, but I enjoyed this story! I would check out the author and narrator again.