The Girls of Murder City
Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago
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The Girls of Murder City
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Narrated by:
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Peter Berkrot
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By:
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Douglas Perry
About this listen
Chicago, 1924. There was nothing surprising about men turning up dead in the Second City. Life was cheaper than a quart of illicit gin in the gangland capital of the world. But two murders that spring were special - worthy of celebration. So believed Maurine Watkins, a wanna-be playwright and a "girl reporter" for the Chicago Tribune, the city's "hanging paper".
Newspaperwomen were supposed to write about clubs, cooking, and clothes, but the intrepid Miss Watkins, a minister's daughter from a small town, zeroed in on murderers instead. Looking for subjects to turn into a play, she would make "Stylish Belva" Gaertner and "Beautiful Beulah" Annan - both of whom had brazenly shot down their lovers - the talk of the town. Love-struck men sent flowers to the jail, and newly emancipated women sent impassioned letters to the newspapers. Soon more than a dozen women preened and strutted on "Murderesses' Row" as they awaited trial, desperate for the same attention that was being lavished on Maurine Watkins's favorites.
In the tradition of Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City and Karen Abbott's Sin in the Second City, Douglas Perry vividly captures Jazz Age Chicago and the sensationalized circus atmosphere that gave rise to the concept of the celebrity criminal. Fueled by rich period detail and enlivened by a cast of characters who seemed destined for the stage, The Girls of Murder City is crackling social history that simultaneously presents the freewheeling spirit of the age and its sober repercussions.
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Fans of the award-winning musical Chicago will find plenty to like in The Girls of Murder City. Though it doesn’t have the catchy songs or choreographer Bob Fosse’s fancy footwork, this nonfiction look at the women who inspired the show gives plenty of salacious behind-the-scenes details about the murder trials that fascinated an entire city.
In 1924, aspiring reporter Maureen Watkins earned a spot on the crime beat at the Chicago Tribune, where she covered the sensational stories of alleged killers Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan. Gaertner and Annan were just two (although the most famous two) of the women on Murderesses’ Row, a wing that housed pretty young things awaiting trial for killing their husbands or lovers. Watkins’ editor made the most of her sweet temper and sympathetic looks, dispatching her for quotes and interviews that other reporters couldn’t get and it paid off: Watkins’ front-page stories were must-reads, filled with her own voice and style, that she turned into a play called Chicago in 1926. The story of Gaertner and Annan, now immortalized as Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, also inspired a silent film, a Broadway musical, and a movie that earned the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2003.
Nonfiction books can get a little dull, but author Douglas Perry has plenty of spicy material to work with. He seamlessly weaves old newspaper articles, research, quotes, and commentary into a story about our obsession with celebrity murderers, while incorporating the biggest issues of the Jazz age including Prohibition and the rise of feminism. Narrator Peter Berkrot shifts from facts to scandal with an effortlessly smooth reading; Supporting characters including Watkins’ rival reporters, the murderesses’ cuckolded husbands, the murder victims’ widows, and the lawyers who turned the cases into an opportunity for fame get their own individual voices. Berkrot gives Gaertner and Annan readings that show how they walked the line between cold-blooded killers and coquettish young women making The Girls of Murder City a solid listen for history buffs, Law & Order fans, and Broadway lovers alike. Blythe Copeland
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 557
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Roger "Butch" Karp has been around New York long enough to realize that the judicial system can be dirty and cynical. But he still believes in justice. So when a vicious sociopath tries to dodge a brutal murder charge by convincing the court he is incompetent to stand trial, Karp teams up with firecracker Assistant DA Marlene Ciampi to unleash the full force of their relentless energy, hardboiled wit, and passion for the truth to put the killer away for good. They will accept no lesser plea.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Decent LIsten
- By Ted on 08-31-14
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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 2,119
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,901
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,909
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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A Bright and Guilty Place
- Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age
- By: Richard Rayner
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 37
In A Bright and Guilty Place, an exhilarating tale of murder in L.A., Richard Rayner finds the source of the city's darkness in real-life events that unfolded in the 1920s, when the booming early years of L.A. started to shade into the Depression, and the city of sunshine revealed the hidden darkness and corruption at its heart.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Didn't hold my interest
- By Hopesurvives on 11-03-17
By: Richard Rayner
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The Devil's Gentleman
- Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 194
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Story4 out of 5 stars 176
The wayward son of a revered Civil War general, Roland Molineux enjoyed good looks, status, and fortune - hardly the qualities of a prime suspect in a series of shocking, merciless cyanide killings. Molineux's subsequent indictment for murder led to two explosive trials and a sex-infused scandal that shocked the nation. Bringing to life Manhattan's Gilded Age, Schechter captures all the colors of the tumultuous legal proceedings.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Book Without an Accompanying Wiki Page Is Always A Treat
- By Carolina on 02-27-17
By: Harold Schechter
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Wasted
- Inside the Robert Chambers-Jennifer Levin Murder
- By: Linda Wolfe
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
On an August night in 1986, Jennifer Levin left a Manhattan bar with Robert Chambers. The next morning, her strangled, battered body was found in Central Park. Linda Wolfe goes beyond the headlines and media hype to recreate a story of a teenager whose immigrant mother was determined to make a better life for her son, a petty thief and drug user who'd been expelled from the best schools. Wasted powerfully depicts the freewheeling 1980s society that spawned a generation steeped in violence and the fatal impulses that drove Robert Chambers to kill.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A very thorough reporting for the time
- By Amazon Customer on 12-28-16
By: Linda Wolfe
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Devil in the Grove
- Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
- By: Gilbert King
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,335
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,093
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2,084
Arguably the most important American lawyer of the 20th century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the US Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and to cost him his life. In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve....
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5 out of 5 stars
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the fight for civil rights
- By Jean on 01-17-14
By: Gilbert King
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No Lesser Plea
- Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, Book 1
- By: Robert K. Tanenbaum
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 633
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 561
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Story4 out of 5 stars 557
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Roger "Butch" Karp has been around New York long enough to realize that the judicial system can be dirty and cynical. But he still believes in justice. So when a vicious sociopath tries to dodge a brutal murder charge by convincing the court he is incompetent to stand trial, Karp teams up with firecracker Assistant DA Marlene Ciampi to unleash the full force of their relentless energy, hardboiled wit, and passion for the truth to put the killer away for good. They will accept no lesser plea.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Decent LIsten
- By Ted on 08-31-14
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In Contempt
- By: Christopher A. Darden, Jess Walter - contributor
- Narrated by: Christopher Darden
- Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 186
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 156
This number-one New York Times best seller is an unflinching look at what the television cameras could not show: behind-the-scenes meetings, the deteriorating relationships between the defense and prosecution teams, the taunting, baiting, and pushing matches between Darden and Simpson, the intimate relationship between Darden and Marcia Clark, and the candid factors behind Darden's controversial decision for Simpson to try on the infamous glove, and much more.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Author-narrated/well-written - yet abridged
- By J.Chin on 06-28-16
By: Christopher A. Darden, and others
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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 463
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 221
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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Sin in the Second City
- Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
- By: Karen Abbott
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 329
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 207
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Story4 out of 5 stars 207
Karen Abbott's colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters; their world-famous brothel, the Everleigh Club; and the perennial clash between our nation's hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots culminates in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers. Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America's journey from Victorian-era propriety to 20th-century modernity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book - brilliant narrator!
- By Z. Halley on 04-17-10
By: Karen Abbott
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Satan's Circus
- Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century
- By: Mike Dash
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 64
They called it Satan's Circus, a square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the 20th century, murder was so common in the vice district that few people were surprised when the loudmouthed owner of a shabby casino was gunned down on the steps of its best hotel.
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4 out of 5 stars
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New York, N.Y
- By Robert on 07-11-07
By: Mike Dash
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House of Evil
- The Indiana Torture Slaying
- By: John Dean
- Narrated by: John Glouchevitch
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
In the heart of Indianapolis in the mid-1960s, through a twist of fate and fortune, a pretty young girl came to live with a 37-year-old mother and her seven children. What began as a temporary childcare arrangement between Sylvia Likens's parents and Gertrude Baniszewski turned into a crime that would haunt cops, prosecutors, and a community for decades to come. When police found Sylvia's emaciated body, with a chilling message carved into her flesh, they knew that she had suffered tremendously before her death.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Horrific
- By Karri on 05-29-18
By: John Dean
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Incendiary
- The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling
- By: Michael Cannell
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4 out of 5 stars 147
Long before the specter of terrorism haunted the public imagination, a serial bomber stalked the streets of 1950s New York. The race to catch him would give birth to a new science called criminal profiling. Grand Central, Penn Station, Radio City Music Hall - for almost two decades, no place was safe from the man who signed his anonymous letters "FP" and left his lethal devices in phone booths, storage lockers, even tucked into the plush seats of movie theaters.
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5 out of 5 stars
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16 Years NYC Held Hostage
- By in1ear (John Row) on 04-27-17
By: Michael Cannell
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The Onion Field
- By: Joseph Wambaugh
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 895
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 757
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Story4 out of 5 stars 750
Hollywood. Saturday night. A broken taillight leads to a routine traffic stop. It shouldn’t have changed the lives of the four men involved, but it did. The Onion Field is the frighteningly true story of a fatal collision of destinies that would lead two young cops and two young robbers to a deserted field on the outskirts of Los Angeles, towards a bizarre execution and its terrible aftermath.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Haunting
- By Avalon on 03-03-13
By: Joseph Wambaugh
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Wild Justice
- By: Phillip Margolin
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 438
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 259
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 256
Phillip Margolin, best selling author of The Undertaker's Widow, introduces the world to the first genuinely monstrous psychopath of the new century. Also available abridged.
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4 out of 5 stars
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De gustibus...
- By Susan on 01-23-11
By: Phillip Margolin
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The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals
- By: Michelle Morgan
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 226
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 203
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Story4 out of 5 stars 204
A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Doesn’t question it’s sources enough
- By Emily Stoneking on 11-27-18
By: Michelle Morgan
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Sidney Sheldon's Angel of the Dark
- By: Sidney Sheldon, Tilly Bagshawe
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 326
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 277
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 273
It was his first big murder case - and one of the bloodiest and most violent crimes LAPD detective Danny McGuire would ever encounter. Andrew Jakes, an elderly multimillionaire art dealer, had been brutally murdered in his Hollywood home, his lifeless body tied to his naked young wife. Raped and beaten, the lovely Angela Jakes had barely survived the attack herself. Gazing into her deep, soulful eyes, Danny swore that he'd find the psychopath behind this barbarous act.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A great book with a surprising ending
- By Norwegian kebler on 11-04-12
By: Sidney Sheldon, and others
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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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The Surgeon's Wife
- A True Story of Obsession, Rage, and Murder
- By: Kieran Crowley
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 228
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 208
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Story4 out of 5 stars 204
In the summer of 1985, in his exclusive Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, Robert Bierenbaum, a prominent surgeon and certified genius, strangled his wife Gail to death. He then drove her body to an airstrip in Caldwell, N.J., and dumped it into the Atlantic Ocean from a single-engine private plane. The next day he reported her missing.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well Written
- By Susie Q on 12-21-17
By: Kieran Crowley
What listeners say about The Girls of Murder City
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anne
- 04-21-15
Fairly well
This book, despite being slightly less enthralling then hoped for turned out to be a great insight into Chicago as a city in the late 1800's and early 1900's and a great insight Into the play that was born forth from it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- zoomcity
- 07-31-11
Some books should be read
This is a book that I would have liked better if I'd read it instead of listening to it. The pace is very quick and there were so many characters. If you lose your concentration at the wrong time, you'll be rewinding like I did--wait, who is she? If I'd had the photos that are in the book, it would have greatly enhanced the story. I tried to find photos online, on Mr. Perry's site, but I had to go to the library for the full experience. Not all the photos in the book are online.
Still, it's a fun read for fans of Chicago, like me. I wish there weren't two chapters on Leopold and Loeb. I know Maurine Watkins, etc., covered their story, but still...too much.
I'm glad I listened.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Alexis
- 06-10-15
Boring
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
Someone into Chicago's political history
Any additional comments?
I couldn't make it past the past two hours. The narrator was bland and there were way too many historical notes covering up the actual story to enjoy it.
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1 person found this helpful