Beat the Reaper

A Novel

By: Josh Bazell

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan emergency room doctor with an unusual past that is just about to catch up with him. His morning begins with the quick disarming of a would-be mugger, followed by a steamy elevator encounter with a sexy young pharmaceutical rep, topped off by a visit with a new patient - and from there Peter's day is going to get a whole lot worse and a whole lot weirder.

Because that patient knows Peter from his other life, when he had a different name and a very different job. The only reason he's a doctor now is thanks to the Witness Protection Program-and even they can't protect him from the long reach of the New Jersey mob. Now he's got to do whatever it takes to keep his patient alive so he can buy some time...and beat the reaper.

Beat the Reaper is not just the only work that will be compared to Quentin Tarantino's films, Grey's Anatomy, and Chuck Palahniuk - it's also the most original and entertaining debut thriller you'll listen to this year.

©2009 Josh Bazell (P)2009 Josh Bazell

A fun, fast listen

This is not the type of book I usually listen to, but I was hooked from the beginning. I found the main character sympathetic and compelling. A great depiction of someone who does a lot of wrong but still manages to come off as good. I also found the depiction of both the medical world and mob world interesting and enjoyed the book's humor and frankness.

Carol here it is!

If you could sum up Beat the Reaper in three words, what would they be?

Exciting, suspenseful, bloody!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Beat the Reaper?

*SPOILERS*******************************************************************************************

When he ends up locked, waiting in the meat freezer.

What about Robert Petkoff’s performance did you like?

His pacing through out was excellent,

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The killer with a conscience.

Great book. Wish they didn’t force music into it

This goes for every audio book, there is rarely a time when the performance is enhanced by adding music

Over the top

I thought the narrator's angry sounding but matter of fact voice seemed perfect for the writing style.
That said, I only finished it on principle. The medical stuff in the asides was great, but the swashbuckling bravado of the main character was like "House of God" meets "ER" meets Jack Reacher.

Super Exciting

From the first paragraph this book had me hooked. I am a nurse and the medical knowledge of the author was great. It is a non-stop action packed book. One of my favorite of all times.

I want to be this cool when I grow up

What made the experience of listening to Beat the Reaper the most enjoyable?

I loved the true voice and asides that you could almost hear as if they were in your own head.
Talk about true true true picture of urban medicine...well, minus the hitman bit, but that's totally believable.
Sardonic humor was dripping with wry acid and I loved it.

What about Robert Petkoff’s performance did you like?

Loved the voice and tempo

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I waited and waited for Josh's second book, but it just wasn't as good. Hard to be, but I had hoped.

Awesome, intense book

My only wish is that it could have been even longer! I will be recommending it to my friends.

Too much profanity!

The story started well, but it was so coarse, with profanity and lewd innuendo on every page that I returned it for a refund.

Loved this book, not necessarily my cuppa tea.

**A couple of very mild spoilers below**

I want to say first and foremost that this book was very good. It was very action-packed, interesting and the audio quality was gangbusters. I believe another reviewer compared it to being similar to what you would get if Chuck Palahniuk wrote a book combining the best elements of "House" and "The Sopranos". That reviewer was correct. This is a really interesting take on two old themes: hospital dramas and mob movies. The author, being a med student himself, inserts a lot of medical expertise into the book. The protagonist, much like Dr. House, has an off-beat way of approaching his job. He does his job well, isn't necessarily emotionally entangled in his charges and has somewhat of a laissez-faire all-around 'tude. When his former mob life careens into his current med life, a series of flashes backward and forward take place to give you the sum of his character. It is a very interesting character study and there is surely a ton of action going on for adrenaline junkies.

The narration and audio presentation are top notch. I mostly enjoyed the music and sound effects added throughout but once or twice they took me out of the flow of the story.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for an exciting book to read. As a person who loves to re-read books, I probably won't ever re-read this one but I will likely listen to the second part.

Definite "Guy" book

The perfect antithesis to "chic lit" - lots of gratuitous sexual references; lots of testosterone; no lengthy analysis of sparsely mentioned emotions. Heavy on the action scenes with little regard to plausibility... The shark was this long, I swear!