Exit Wounds

Nineteen Tales of Mystery from the Modern Masters of Crime

By: Dean Koontz, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Elly Griffiths, Dennis Lehane, Joe R. Lansdale

Narrated by: full cast

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Exit Wounds is a thrilling anthology of crime stories written by masters of the genre, including Dean Koontz, Val McDermid, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Elly Griffiths, Dennis Lehane, Joe R. Lansdale, and others.

After an introduction by the editors, Paul B. Kane and Marie O’Regan, this collection includes the following stories:

• “The Bully” by Jeffery Deaver
• “Dead Weight” by Fiona Cummins
• “Like a Glass Jaw” by Mark Billingham
• “On The Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier” by John Connolly
• “The Pitcher” by Sarah Hilary
• “Disciplined” by Martyn Waites
• “The Consumers” by Dennis Lehane
• “Voices Through the Wall” by Alex Gray
• “Wet with Rain” by Lee Child
• “Happy Holidays” by Val McDermid
• “Fool You Twice” by Steph Broadribb
• “Lebensraum” by Christopher Fowler
• “Dancing Towards the Blade” by Mark Billingham
• “Kittens” by Dean Koontz
• “Take My Hand” by A. K. Benedict
• “Dressed to Kill” by James Oswald
• “Booty and the Beast” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “The New Lad” by Paul Finch
• “The Recipe” by Louise Jensen

The full list of narrators includes Kate Reading, Austin Rising, Marisa Calin, Matthew Lloyd Davies, Alan Smyth, Peter Noble, Derek Perkins, Courtney Patterson, Alison Larkin, Robert Fass, Justine Eyre, Jennifer Woodward, Helen Lloyd, Ron Butler, Rachel Jacobs, Shiromi Arserio, Ralph Lister, Ralph Lister, and James Langton.

"Voices Through the Wall" © 2009 by Alex Gray. Originally published in Shattered: Every Crime Has a Victim. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Wet with Rain" © 2014 by Lee Child. Originally published in Belfast Noir. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Happy Holidays" © 2008 by Val McDermid. Originally published in the Daily Mail. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Fool You Twice" © 2019 by Marland Broadribb, Ltd. "Lebensraum" © 2019 by Christopher Fowler. "Dancing Towards the Blade" © Mark Billingham, Ltd. A version of this story was first published in Men from Boys, edited by John Harvey. Published by William Heinemann, Ltd., 2003. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Kittens" © 1966 by Dean Koontz. Originally published in The Reflector, Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania; revised edition ©1995 by Dean R. Koontz. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Take My Hand" © 2019 by A. K. Benedict. "Dressed to Kill" © 2019 by James Oswald. "Booty and the Beast" © 1995 by Joe R. Lansdale. Originally published in Archon Gaming. Reprinted by permission of the author. "The New Lad" © 2019 by Paul Finch. "The Recipe" © 2019 by Louise Jensen.

©2019 Introduction © 2019 by Paul B. Kane & Marie O'Regan. "The Bully" © 2019 by Jeffery Deaver. "Dead Weight" © 2019 by Fiona Cummins. "Like a Glass Jaw" © 2015 by Mark Billingham, Ltd. This story was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015 as part of the series Blood, Sweat, and Tears. "On The Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier" © 2016 by John Connolly. Originally published in Night Music: Nocturnes 2. Reprinted by permission of the author. "The Pitcher" © 2019 by Sarah Hilary. "Disciplined" © 2019 by Martyn Waites. "The Consumers" © 2012 by Dennis Lehane. Originally published in Mystery Writers of America present Vengeance. Reprinted by permission of the author. (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Entertaining!

I enjoyed it. The stories we're interesting and kept my attention. They were just long enough to deliver an unexpected surprise ending in some cases.

For the haters that wrote the negative reviews: First, learn how to spell. It validates your complaints. Second, If you don't understand foreign accents, get out of the house more. It's a diverse world out there.

Don't waste your money.

I am a big Audable fan. But this is one of the worse things I have ever bought. My bad choice but hope you don't make the same mistake.

Thé narrators were all bad guys.

I only listen to a few. I don't really like it when the bad guys get away with it.

UGH.

Could not get into this, Boring. I tried to give it a chance, but it as a laborious effort.

Dam waste of time

I have never liked to read short stories. I do no know what possesed me to actually try and listen. Even the Dean Koontz short was stupid. That was the only reason for listening. Bunch of British brogue. Wasted time.

Not what I was looking for.

Thought it was more like a favorite author of mine as it came up in an author search. Some not bad. Didn’t finish it.

Exit wounds

My favorite authors but not any likable subject! Yuck! I did not enjoy any story.

Exit Wounds

I’m not into this type of literature. Some stories a bit too brutal for me.

Not my kind of stories

Boy, I struggled to finish this book. I kept asking myself why I wanted to finish it. I don't care for the narrator's or the stories. Very few I would have chosen to read.

Difficult to Follow Narrators

It is unfortunate that many of the narrators are difficult to understand. I skipped over five or six chapters because of this. The stories I could understand were great.

Great collection with one exception

Nearly at the end of this excellent collection, but wanted to comment on the dreadful narration of Val Mcdermids story. Unfortunately it features Carol Jordan and Tony Hill., and the narrator has ascribed dreadful unsuitable accents to both, and is not a very good at male voices. What a shame.

Great twists

Really enjoyed these stories. Most twists were obvious, but the stories and their delivery was entertaining.

Disappointing from such a good set of authors

I was hoping for more, but ended up with much less, with mediocre stories from some very talents authors.

Dreadful

I think I know how a teacher feels now when they have to read through the creative writing essays of a class of GCSE students. I got to about a third of the way through before deleting the book, every story was terrible and I just couldn’t take it anymore. Save your money and the time it takes to listen to this because although you might be able to get your money back you’ll never get the tone back that you wasted.

Don't waste you time

Short stories which don't have any pretence at literature should have a twist at the end, particularly when they are marketed as mysteries.
There is no twist in most of these, just a feeling when you get to the end that you have wasted your time listening. Who curated these stories and decided they were worthy of inclusion? I'm returning the title with about half still unlisted to.

One narrator let this down

Interesting and thought provoking short stories.
One narrator ruined one story for me by trying to put an accent to each character. However, overall the rest of the collection is worth a listen.

Meh

I couldn't get settled reading this book, some of the stories felt rushed and incomplete.
I can't really put my finger on one that I can say I enjoyed.

only just okay

I feels like each of the authors contributed a tale they didn't want to put any more work into so most of the tales feel incomplete or unpolished . Still you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Not worth a credit

19 short stories which are not in the least worth reading or even reviewing !

A mish mash of hit and miss stories

Don't bother. it's not bad enough for 1 star but don't waste your time.