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Blood Standard
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
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Publisher's summary
A novel set in the underbelly of upstate New York that's as hard-boiled and punchy as a swift right hook to the jaw, a classic noir for fans of James Ellroy and John D. Macdonald
Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska - he's tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the money-making scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear. Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn't one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid.
At turns brutally shocking and darkly funny, heartbreaking and cautiously hopeful, Blood Standard is both a high-tension crime novel and the story of a man's second chance - the parts of his past he will never escape, and the parts that will shape his future.
Critic reviews
“Massive, scarred Isaiah is a thug’s thug, but he’s also a well-read student of mythology. He’s indifferent to stab wounds and generates righteous mayhem in his quest. Fans of violent crime fiction will love this one and will be eager to hear more from Isaiah.” (Booklist, starred review)
“Laird Barron’s Blood Standard is stylish, witty, and stupendously entertaining, and it gives us a main character - Isaiah Coleridge, head-cracking classics-quoting half-Maori ex(ish)-gangster - who is entirely unforgettable.” (Lou Berney, Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone)
“Rendered in icy strokes of prose, Laird Barron's Blood Standard is a remarkably self-assured crime novel - at once explosive and intimate, with a tightly wound plot and wonderfully realized characters. And then there's Barron's hero, Isaiah Coleridge. He's got a dead dog named Achilles and bits of Beowulf on his breath and in his teeth. Needless to say, there's not too many like him.” (Michael Harvey, author of Brighton and The Chicago Way)
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Story
The title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Probiscus" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story.
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Agonizingly Dull and Meaningless
- By Zachary on 03-14-20
By: Laird Barron
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Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of twenty-first century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.
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Finally more John Langan in audiobook form
- By Anonymous User on 09-10-23
By: John Langan
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The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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John Langan has, in the last few years, established himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary horror literature. Gifted with a supple and mellifluous prose style, an imagination that can conjure up clutching terrors with seeming effortlessness, and a thorough knowledge of the rich heritage of weird fiction, Langan has already garnered his share of accolades. This new collection includes nine of his substantial stories.
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Forgot the Horror
- By Dylan on 10-04-18
By: John Langan
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The Strange
- By: Nathan Ballingrud
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Since Anabelle’s mother left for Earth to care for her own ailing mother, her days in New Galveston have been spent at school and her nights at her laconic father’s diner with Watson, the family Kitchen Engine and dishwasher, as her only companion. When the Silence came, and communication and shipments from Earth to its colonies on Mars stopped, life seemed stuck in foreboding stasis until the night Silas Mundt and his gang attacked.
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Beautiful prose, good setting, flavorless and derivative and plodding plot.
- By BookWorm on 05-10-23
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The Gods of H. P. Lovecraft
- By: Rachel Caine, Seanan McGuire, Laird Barron, and others
- Narrated by: David Stifel, uncredited
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the 12 principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many New York Times best sellers; full of original fiction; and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson.
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Great story... hard to listen to
- By Lauens on 10-17-16
By: Rachel Caine, and others
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Lost Girl
- By: Adam Nevill
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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How far will he go to save his daughter? How far will he go to get revenge? It's 2053 and runaway climate change has brought civilization to the brink of collapse. Billions are threatened with starvation and mankind is slowly moving north in a world stricken by war, drought and superstorms - easy prey for the pandemics that sweep across the globe. Easy prey, too, for the violent gangs and people-smugglers who thrive in the crumbling world where 'King Death' reigns supreme.
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This is an outstanding novel
- By Midwestbonsai on 06-21-16
By: Adam Nevill
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The Gone World
- By: Tom Sweterlitsch
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship USS Libra - a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows firsthand the mental trauma of time travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.
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What an amazing find!
- By Veronica on 03-07-18
By: Tom Sweterlitsch
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Knockemstiff
- By: Donald Ray Pollock
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, Mark Bramhall, MacLeod Andrews, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In this unforgettable work of fiction, Donald Ray Pollock peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted, but resilient lives of its residents. Spanning a period from the mid-'60s to the late '90s, the linked stories that comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled, and depraved - but irresistibly, undeniably real. Rendered in the American vernacular with vivid imagery and a wry, dark sense of humor, these thwarted and sometimes violent lives jump at the listener with inexorable force.
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The Agony of Living It
- By Darwin8u on 02-12-20
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All the Fiends of Hell
- By: Adam Nevill
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The red night of bells heralds global catastrophe. Annihilation on a biblical scale. Seeing the morning is no blessing. The handful of scattered survivors are confronted by blood-red skies and an infestation of predatory horrors that never originated on earth. An occupying force intent on erasing the remnants of animal life from the planet. Across the deserted landscapes of England, bereft of infrastructure and society, the overlooked can either hide or try to outrun the infernal hunting terrors. Until a rumour emerges claiming that the sea may offer an escape.
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Excellent supernatural post-apocalypse
- By Bruce on 04-11-24
By: Adam Nevill
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The Fisherman
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.
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The Horror of Loss
- By Jim N on 04-20-17
By: John Langan
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Small Town Horror
- By: Ronald Malfi
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home.
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Slow Build up, Amazing story
- By Chris on 06-07-24
By: Ronald Malfi
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Lovecraft's Monsters
- By: Neil Gaiman, Ellen Datlow - editor
- Narrated by: Bernard Clark
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Prepare to meet the wicked progeny of the master of modern horror. In Lovecraft's Monsters, H. P. Lovecraft's most famous creations--Cthulhu, Shoggoths, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yog-Sothoth, and more--appear in all their terrifying glory. Each story is a gripping new take on a classic Lovecraftian creature. Contributors include such literary luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Karl Edward Wagner, Elizabeth Bear, and Nick Mamatas.
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PURPLE WARMTH
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-04-17
By: Neil Gaiman, and others
What listeners say about Blood Standard
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-23-21
Modern detective with historical angst
Enjoyed this intro book. It wasn’t detective by the numbers yet felt familiar in its story arc. Some characters are two dimensional but rather than a dig it’s probably true to more than we know. The path to redemption will be bumpy and bloody but worthy of the effort for Coleridge.
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- Rich Tate
- 06-24-19
The next great American mystery author.
If you love an old fashioned mystery and gallons of spilled blood, Laird Barron is your man.
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1 person found this helpful
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- It's Me
- 08-13-20
A Hard Listen
This was hard to listen to for a couple of reasons. In general I liked the narrator's voice and characters but the pauses drove me nuts. I listen at 2x speed normally and adjust based the narration as I can't stand the normal slower than talking speed narration. This however was like read a sentence, pause way to long for dramatic effect and let it sink in, read the next sentence, pause for dramatic effect, read the next sentence, pause for dramic effect, and so on. If you think it was annoying reading that, listen to the book.
It's almost as if the author or publishing house said, we need to lengthen the time of this somehow and came up with the decidedly bad idea to lenghten the time between sentences. I don't know if it was due to my faster than 1x listening habits that contributed to the annoying nature of this or not but talk about distracting.
The story seemed to have its moments and was interesting but it also sometimes dragged in minutia in description that didn't further anything but probably added to the word count and therefore length.
If this was re-engineered to make the narration smooth it would probably be worth the listen. Instead my recommendation is to skip it. I will not be listening to any additional books in this series.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Kyle
- 06-14-22
An excellent mystery novel, narrated wonderfully!
So yeah, everyone is great in this. Writer, narrator, they’re great. William DeMeritt does a great job playing a semi-retired mob hitman out to save a friends missing daughter.
The overarching mystery is fun to follow, even if the ending is rough. If you like mysteries, you’ll enjoy this new attempt at the genre. If you don’t like em…. Maybe start with something Patterson.
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- Luke B.
- 06-19-21
5 is the highest rating. So 5 it is.
The book is not what I was looking for, until I listened to it and found that it was exactly what I wanted, even though not exactly what I had expected.
I thought this was going to be more of a cop detective mystery with some horror elements. Should've paid closer attention. This cat's no rat, nor cop. Also, a stellar narrator who has a million different voices that all come so naturally. That was pleasant.
Anyway, story was great, characters great, doesn't glorify criminals but it does shine a magnifying glass on their world, and it ain't pretty. But Isaiah Coleridge doesn't take lightly the killing of innocents, and criminals don't appreciate this weakness in him. Oh well, he is much better on this side of the law anyway, or at least acting according to his own needs.
Listen to this one.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Mark
- 09-05-18
This one was OK
This one was OK, with enough twists and turns to hold my interest. It may have lost a little direction in the latter stages but I'm interested to see Laird Barron's next effort. With a bit more polish he has the potential to reach lofty heights as a story teller.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jash
- 12-29-22
Good but not awesome
Typical crime novel, was a stepping stone for me for the next horror novels in the same series that’s what i am interested in.
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- Kyle
- 06-25-18
Well Played
Blood Standard beautifully fits Barron’s tone with all the grit and wit of his earlier work while holding on to the air dark mystery that I will always associate with him.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Mitchell Strasner
- 10-20-20
Great story
Story was great, there’s a lot of depth to the characters and twists turns to keep guessing.... good mystery and in-depth into thug life
Narration was so very good.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Alex Sumner
- 06-11-21
Great book with good narration that gets better.
I've enjoyed Laird Barron's horror stories and was looking forward to listening to his foray into hardboiled detective fiction, a favorite genre of mine. If you've read LB before, you'll know he's all about the slow burn. Small disquieting things happen to the main character as the story unfolds, accumulating and multiplying as it progresses, with tension and dread ratcheting up throughout, till it all comes together at the coup de grâce.
Blood Standard follows along those lines too. So rather than a classic murder mystery, it's more of a melding of elements from both genres. Isaiah Coleridge is the main character. We learn about his life as an enforcer for the mob, the fall out of his choices, where he ends up as a consequence and then, finally, the missing person element that sparks his investigation. When he starts digging into her life, looking for clues, he finds more than he bargained for.
I enjoyed the story a lot. Isaiah Coleridge's wit and erudite dialog is very amusing as he interacts with the other characters. The story itself is about many things. Organized crime, gangs, police corruption, medical duplicity, hillbillies, aryan nation, shady deals, the seedy underbelly of society, a wholesome horse ranch and Reba, the troubled teen that's mixed up in all of it that's gone missing.
Isaiah also has precognitive abilities that give him a bit of a heads up on how to handle the many dangerous situations he finds himself in. He sees warnings about individuals or events to come and has wild dreams that could be his mind's way of dealing with his subconscious issues. Or they're visions. Take your pick.
The narration. *sigh* I'm on the fence about it. (Probably spoiled by the last few books I've listened to that were awesome.) Not sure if William DeMeritt was new to narrating when he performed on Blood Standard, but he's not doing Isaiah justice. He has an excellent voice. Its deep tone is pleasant to listen to, but he lacks range, especially at the beginning. He starts out reading the story, instead of narrating it. There's no differentiation between descriptive sections and Isaiah's dialog which results in a lack of clarity as events unfold. Many of the characters exchanges (in Alaska especially) sound like all one voice, which leaves the interaction muddy and muted. There are sparks of vividness in Blood Standard, where everything comes alive, but that occurs well into the book. Much of the story blends together and unfortunately (and this is a total bummer) there's no timing to his delivery. So frustrating. Comedic timing. Dramatic timing. It's not there. A hesitation or a pause could've added a lot of impact to what's being said or enhanced the exchange, adding bite to a sarcastic comment. William DeMeritt's delivery is very workmanlike, so Isaiah's best wise cracks are read in the same cadence as the rest of the narrative, which was such a missed opportunity. I found myself wanting to say, Hey! Don't just throw the line away like that! The wise cracking PI is what makes hardboiled detective stories. (Also - grammar police warning! Lunge is mispronounced through the entire book. Reba lunged a horse several times at the farm in their lunge ring and Reba's grandmother is observed lunging a difficult horse there as well. Instead of saying 'luhnj' (to lengthen), William DeMeritt says lung, like the organ. Lung-ed, lung-ing, the lung ring, making me cringe every time.)
Laird Barron's writing is quick and intelligent with a lot of things being communicated subtly and overtly at the same time. It's a pity that's only glimpsed intermittently through Blood Standard. I guess this is an example of the difference between a good narrator and a great one. The potential is there for William DeMeritt. He has a lot of the elements already. He just has to up his game in the emoting department. Adding expression to the dialog, capturing the rhythm of the story and letting it breathe will make his narration a great listening experience. By the midway point to the end of the book he exhibited more range, with many of the characters that were vague at the start, now stepping off the page, crisp and distinct. Hopefully his performance keeps improving through the rest of the series.
Overall I enjoyed Blood Standard. It still has LB's signature disquieting horror elements (supernatural and mundane) mixed in with the grimness and stylish elements of hardboiled fiction. It's not a 'fun' mystery. It's more of a turning over the rocks and seeing what unpleasant things are exposed kind of story, with engaging characters, interesting scenarios and lyrical descriptions. I love his writing style and am happy there's two more stories available to listen to.
I'm on to the next book, Black Mountain.
ETA: Don't stop here! The narration is excellent in Black Mountain and Worse Angels. (The stories too.) I'm adding another star from my original review. It's well worth listening to the whole series.
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