• Beneath the Skin

  • The Sam Hunter Case Files
  • By: Jonathan Maberry
  • Narrated by: Ray Porter
  • Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,973 ratings)

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Beneath the Skin  By  cover art

Beneath the Skin

By: Jonathan Maberry
Narrated by: Ray Porter
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Publisher's summary

A collection of short stories featuring Sam Hunter, from best-selling author Jonathan Maberry!

Sam Hunter is a bit of an animal. He's a former Twin Cities cop who lost his badge because of excessive force. Abusive husbands, child molesters, and other lowlifes wound up looking like they'd been mauled by a dog...or a wolf.

Now Sam's a low-rent PI in Philadelphia. He takes the kinds of cases no one wants. His clients are usually on the fringes of society. The kind who are prey for all manner of predators - human and otherwise.

When Sam takes on a client, they become part of his pack, and no one protects their own better than a werewolf. At least the kind of werewolf like Sam, who comes from a long, long line of Benandanti - also known as "the hounds of God".

Stories in this collection include "Like Part of the Family", "Toby's Closet", "Crazy Town", "We All Make Sacrifices", and "A House in Need of Children".

©2016 Jonathan Maberry (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Beneath the Skin

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

SO, CLICHE I ALMOST LAUGHED

CLICHE, SURE F IT
This is pretty much a repeat of Jan-Michael and Selkie86's reviews. All these stories are repetitive. Maberry actually repeats the word, cliché several times, as if to let you know he is being so. To me, it is kind of like when someone on facebook, starts a tirade on politics and starts it off with "I am probably going to lose some friends over this", as if that statement excuses all the mean things they are about to say. Acknowledging that you are cliché, does not excuse it in my book.

YOUR A F ING PIXAR FILM
Sam Hunter is a clichéd, noir, werewolf. He runs into vampires, cthula monsters, other werewolves, evil spirits and shape changing ghosts. Not once does he face a challenge. Before these monsters strike out and attack, they allow Hunter to talk, discuss and debate. In this we often get morality lessons. The discussion never works, but that is okay, cause Hunter's wolf his stronger and faster than all other monsters. The endings are always anti-climatic. As other reviewers mention, these stories start out good, but Maberry runs out of time, so Hunter turns into a wolf, kicks ass and all is good in the world. Nothing makes Hunter madder that when women and children are abused. Once they become clients, they are his pack and he must protect them. In most of the stories the women are weak and helpless. Hunter always gives his clients, their money back. That worked for the A-Team, cause they would get money from the bad guys, but how this works for Hunter is beyond me. These stories seem more like advertisements for the Pine Deep Novels.

Ray Porter
Porter saves these stories. They are worth getting, in order to hear him. As long as you know what you are getting into, these are not awful. The monsters are pretty good. If only some of them could have been a challenge for the mighty werewolf.

IF YOUR DRIVING TO A POINT, TAKE AN EXIT

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54 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Probably would be better if they were longer

Ray Porter does a fine job as usual.

This is not the strongest Mayberry work. I think there was potential here but the stories are so short that there's not a lot beyond a quick setup and a bloody conclusion. That's fine for one or two but beyond that it's boring.
It's like Mayberry needs more time to build up a head of steam.
There's a lot of fantasy creature P.I. stories out there so there needed to be more here.

Oddly, though I found this collection disappointing, it convinced me to give the much longer pine deep series a chance.

Some problematic vocabulary

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43 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Love Maberry, but story was a bit repetitive

Jonathan Maberry is one of my favorite authors with one of my favorite book series, the Joe Ledger novels. That being said, this compilation of short stories was repetitive and lackluster with a touch of running in place. The story lines would start strong and draw you in but ultimately end in the same manner. Each story would include the same lines from the character over and over, i.e. "I hate people that hurt women and children", "once I take on a case, the client becomes part of my pack" and "I didn't take money from the client". It would have been refreshing to see how Sam Hunter dealt with a case that didn't involve women and children and if he actually cashed a damn check once in a while. How the hell does he pay for anything? Overall the compilation wasn't terrible but I was expecting a lot more out of it.

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39 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Buy it... just because Ray Porter narrates!

I don't really care for short stories... but these are pretty good. However... Ray Porter makes them really good!!!

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The X-files meets the Maltese Falcon

This is a fun read - the writing is funny and clever, the narration is exceptional and the stories are interesting but not too deep. A less than successful werewolf detective that takes on supernatural cases. The way Mayberry writes is perfect for the way Porter narrates - makes for a very easy read with some laugh out loud moments interspersed between somewhat suspenseful stories. Worth the credit.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • RJ
  • 01-05-17

Wonderful stories.

Five short horror stories by the master Jonathan Maberry. I usually do not like short stories, but Maberry is an exception, especially with the extraordinary Ray Porter (aka Joe Ledger) as narrator. These stories highlight the character Sam Hunter who is a private investigator and also a werewolf. I’m sure the concept could be a standalone novel. Wonderful stories.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable

This was my first real experience with Sam Hunter. I did read some of the Pine Deep stuff, but didn't remember him. In any case, these short stories were pretty enjoyable, although they did feel "light". I'm going to assume they were just side stories designed to give fans some Sam while not altering the main continuity.

That said, I'm unsure if I'd seek out more of the series. While Sam's world seemed interesting, nothing I heard led me to want to dive deeper into it. Also, it's probably more Maberry than anything else, but Sam has that exaggerated since of morality that leads to annoyingly long moments of reflection and lecturing. It's one of the things that annoys me about the Ledger series.

As always, Ray Porter is an EXCELLENT narrator!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great supernatural detective short stories

if Joe ledger's detective persona was a werewolf, then you would have Sam hunter. more or less. ray porter's amazing narrating wouldn't help but also remind me of Joe. not a bad thing, but there it is. great series of short supernatural detective stories. I hope to see more or a full novel in the future.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Read this book!

Some of the best stories by one of my favorite authors, read by my favorite narrator! Fun, creepy,detective thrills that satisfy. Great book.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

enjoyable short stories

werewolves, vampires, and ghosts, it's ask in these short stories, I love Ray Porter as a narrator... and Jonathan Mayberry Rocks!

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9 people found this helpful