-
Ghosts of the Orphanage
- Narrated by: Jodie Harris
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Ghosts of the Orphanage
Buy for $25.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
We Were Once a Family
- A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
- By: Roxanna Asgarian
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
On March 26, 2018, rescue workers discovered a crumpled SUV and the bodies of two women and several children at the bottom of a cliff beside the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators soon concluded that the crash was a murder-suicide, but there was more to the story: Jennifer and Sarah Hart, it turned out, were a white married couple who had adopted the six Black children from two different Texas families in 2006 and 2008. Behind the family's loving facade, however, was a pattern of abuse and neglect that went ignored.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Biased
- By Amazon Customer on 10-05-23
By: Roxanna Asgarian
-
Girls and Their Monsters
- The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America
- By: Audrey Clare Farley
- Narrated by: Kate Udall
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 16
In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution. The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A writer with an agenda
- By Pink Amy on 06-23-23
-
Little, Crazy Children
- By: James Renner
- Narrated by: James Renner
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
In September of 1990, in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, sixteen-year-old Lisa Pruett was on her way to a midnight tryst with her boyfriend when she was viciously stabbed to death only thirty feet from the boy's home. The murder cast a palpable gloom over the upscale community and sparked accusations, theories, and rumors among Lisa's friends and peers. With a fresh perspective and painstaking research, James Renner reconstructs the events leading up to and following that heartbreaking night. What emerges is a portrait of a community seething with dark undercurrents.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book
- By mike on 04-11-24
By: James Renner
-
The Bad Room
- Held Captive and Abused by My Evil Carer. A True Story of Survival.
- By: Jade Kelly
- Narrated by: Caro Clarke
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 46
When Jade Kelly met her new foster mother, she thought her prayers had been answered. Kindly Carol Docherty was everything her violent, drug-addicted mother was not. Loving and nurturing, she fed and clothed 10-year-old Jade and offered a life free of fear from near constant abuse. Or so Jade thought. As soon as social workers in Lancashire stopped their regular checks on Jade’s progress, Carol turned. Over the next six years Jade and three other girls were effectively kept prisoner in a bedroom she called the ‘bad room’ and subjected to unrelenting physical and mental abuse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Heartbreaking but inspiring
- By Granna Of 4 on 04-01-24
By: Jade Kelly
-
House of Secrets
- By: Lowell Cauffiel
- Narrated by: J. Rodney Turner
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
For years, Eddie Lee Sexton ruled his large family like Charles Manson. The depraved patriarch dominated his ragged brood of twelve children mentally, physically, and sexually, and enforced every cruelty imaginable, from vicious beatings to raping his daughters and fathering their children. Finally, in 1992, Sexton's eighteen-year-old daughter Machelle, seeking refuge in a women's shelter, revealed the shocking, sordid details of her father's abuse to authorities. As the law attempted to catch up to Eddie Lee Sexton, he moved his family to a mobile home in western Florida.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good writing, poor narration
- By Andrew C on 04-04-24
By: Lowell Cauffiel
-
What the Dead Know
- Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator
- By: Barbara Butcher
- Narrated by: Barbara Butcher
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 324
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 299
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 299
Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous—she loved it. Butcher (yes, that is her real name, and she has heard all the jokes) spent day in and day out investigating double homicides, gruesome suicides, and most heartbreaking of all, underage rape victims who had also been murdered.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Didn’t Want The Book To End
- By Becky Sullivan on 06-29-23
By: Barbara Butcher
-
We Were Once a Family
- A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
- By: Roxanna Asgarian
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
On March 26, 2018, rescue workers discovered a crumpled SUV and the bodies of two women and several children at the bottom of a cliff beside the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators soon concluded that the crash was a murder-suicide, but there was more to the story: Jennifer and Sarah Hart, it turned out, were a white married couple who had adopted the six Black children from two different Texas families in 2006 and 2008. Behind the family's loving facade, however, was a pattern of abuse and neglect that went ignored.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Biased
- By Amazon Customer on 10-05-23
By: Roxanna Asgarian
-
Girls and Their Monsters
- The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America
- By: Audrey Clare Farley
- Narrated by: Kate Udall
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 16
In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution. The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A writer with an agenda
- By Pink Amy on 06-23-23
-
Little, Crazy Children
- By: James Renner
- Narrated by: James Renner
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
In September of 1990, in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, sixteen-year-old Lisa Pruett was on her way to a midnight tryst with her boyfriend when she was viciously stabbed to death only thirty feet from the boy's home. The murder cast a palpable gloom over the upscale community and sparked accusations, theories, and rumors among Lisa's friends and peers. With a fresh perspective and painstaking research, James Renner reconstructs the events leading up to and following that heartbreaking night. What emerges is a portrait of a community seething with dark undercurrents.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book
- By mike on 04-11-24
By: James Renner
-
The Bad Room
- Held Captive and Abused by My Evil Carer. A True Story of Survival.
- By: Jade Kelly
- Narrated by: Caro Clarke
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 46
When Jade Kelly met her new foster mother, she thought her prayers had been answered. Kindly Carol Docherty was everything her violent, drug-addicted mother was not. Loving and nurturing, she fed and clothed 10-year-old Jade and offered a life free of fear from near constant abuse. Or so Jade thought. As soon as social workers in Lancashire stopped their regular checks on Jade’s progress, Carol turned. Over the next six years Jade and three other girls were effectively kept prisoner in a bedroom she called the ‘bad room’ and subjected to unrelenting physical and mental abuse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Heartbreaking but inspiring
- By Granna Of 4 on 04-01-24
By: Jade Kelly
-
House of Secrets
- By: Lowell Cauffiel
- Narrated by: J. Rodney Turner
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
For years, Eddie Lee Sexton ruled his large family like Charles Manson. The depraved patriarch dominated his ragged brood of twelve children mentally, physically, and sexually, and enforced every cruelty imaginable, from vicious beatings to raping his daughters and fathering their children. Finally, in 1992, Sexton's eighteen-year-old daughter Machelle, seeking refuge in a women's shelter, revealed the shocking, sordid details of her father's abuse to authorities. As the law attempted to catch up to Eddie Lee Sexton, he moved his family to a mobile home in western Florida.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good writing, poor narration
- By Andrew C on 04-04-24
By: Lowell Cauffiel
-
What the Dead Know
- Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator
- By: Barbara Butcher
- Narrated by: Barbara Butcher
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 324
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 299
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 299
Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected lifeline: a job at the Medical Examiner’s Office in New York City. The second woman ever hired for the role of Death Investigator in Manhattan, she was the first to last more than three months. The work was gritty, demanding, morbid, and sometimes dangerous—she loved it. Butcher (yes, that is her real name, and she has heard all the jokes) spent day in and day out investigating double homicides, gruesome suicides, and most heartbreaking of all, underage rape victims who had also been murdered.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Didn’t Want The Book To End
- By Becky Sullivan on 06-29-23
By: Barbara Butcher
-
A Fever in the Heartland
- The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Timothy Egan
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 911
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 827
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 826
The Roaring Twenties—the Jazz Age—has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This is a must read!
- By V. Richmond on 04-14-23
By: Timothy Egan
-
A Thread of Violence
- A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder
- By: Mark O'Connell
- Narrated by: Mark O'Connell
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
Malcolm Macarthur was a well-known Dublin socialite. Suave and urbane, he passed his days mingling with artists and aristocrats, reading philosophy, living a life of the mind. But by 1982, his inheritance had dwindled to almost nothing, a desperate threat to his lifestyle. Macarthur hastily conceived a plan: He would commit bank robbery, of the kind that had become frightfully common in Dublin at the time. But his plan spun swiftly out of control, and he needlessly killed two innocent civilians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Compelling
- By Simon Blue on 10-16-23
By: Mark O'Connell
-
Starvation Heights
- Dangerous Women: True Crime Stories
- By: Gregg Olsen
- Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
In 1911 two British heiresses, Claire and Dora Williamson, read a brochure about a revolutionary fasting treatment that promised a lifetime of good health. The sanatorium in the village of Olalla, west of Seattle, was surrounded by a beautiful forest, sparkling waters and fresh air. The sisters agreed it sounded perfect and exactly the restorative holiday they needed. But within a month of arriving, under the supervision of Doctor Linda Burfield Hazzard, Claire and Dora began to realise the frightening truth – they were not patients but prisoners at the isolated sanitorium.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent true crime story!
- By Colleen T. Mizeres on 01-26-23
By: Gregg Olsen
-
The Red Ripper
- Inside the Mind of Russia's Most Brutal Serial Killer
- By: Peter Conradi
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3
By the time he was brought to trial in 1992, Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo had killed more than fifty women and children, often sexually abusing them and leaving their bodies mutilated beyond recognition. Although he was initially arrested in 1984, the police lacked enough evidence to pin the unsolved murders on him and he was able to torture and kill dozens more before his eventual conviction.
By: Peter Conradi
-
The Teacher's Pet
- By: Hedley Thomas
- Narrated by: Hedley Thomas
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
If you thought you knew the story of The Teacher's Pet, get ready to be shocked. Hedley Thomas takes you behind the scenes with a blow-by-blow account of one of the most intriguing and enduring murder mysteries of our time - the crime, the podcast investigation, the sexual exploitation of teenage students, the courtroom drama - and how justice was finally delivered.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very well done.
- By Mary Katherine Lobel on 01-15-24
By: Hedley Thomas
-
Girl Hidden: A Memoir
- By: Jesse Rene Gibbs
- Narrated by: Lessa Lamb
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
Echoing among the Blue Ridge Mountains were the cries of newborn babies that disappeared into the night. The screams of children nearly drowned out by the sound of crickets. A girl, hidden and waiting to be found, terrified, and confused. The fireflies sparkling in the woods, bringing light to darkled places.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful Story
- By JMAR001 on 04-13-22
By: Jesse Rene Gibbs
-
Unsafe
- By: Cathy Glass
- Narrated by: DeNica Fairman
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 33
Damian is just seven when he is taken in by foster carer Cathy Glass. His mother, Rachel, loves her three young children dearly, but she is vulnerable, naïve and unable to cope on her own. Cathy sets about helping Damian overcome his eating issues, with the hope that he will eventually return home. But when Rachel’s new boyfriend, Troy, arrives on the scene, Cathy becomes deeply concerned. She soon realises that Damian and his siblings are in great danger.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Cathy's so caring and inspiring to act with better behaviour on my part
- By Robert Karp on 04-25-24
By: Cathy Glass
-
True Crime Explicit Anthology
- 7 Book True Crime Explicit Collection, Book 1
- By: Genoveva Ortiz, True Crime Seven
- Narrated by: Michael Goodrick
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
There is a torture mom in this collection whom many true crime audiences still can’t forgive and forget even till today. Together with six other serial killers, they have done it all, from torturing to cannibalism to killing hundreds.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The story of seven serial killers
- By Steven Gerweck on 03-20-23
By: Genoveva Ortiz, and others
-
The Delphi Murders
- The Quest to Find ‘The Man on the Bridge’
- By: Nic Edwards, Brian Whitney
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 303
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 280
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 281
On February 13, 2017, two Indiana teenagers, Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, went for a walk in the woods near the abandoned Monon High Bridge. They never returned home.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Huge disappointment
- By Aleshia L. Hunley on 04-23-23
By: Nic Edwards, and others
-
The Snake and the Spider
- Abduction and Murder in Daytona Beach
- By: Karen Kingsbury
- Narrated by: Nikki Zakocs
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20
Best friends Daryl Barber and James Boucher were responsible, and their parents trusted them to spend Spring Break at Daytona Beach unchaperoned. When the boys missed their agreed-upon daily check-ins, their parents were disappointed. When they failed to come home on their planned return date, their parents were terrified. They could not have known that their innocent sons would encounter two violent men on the Florida coast. They could not have imagined the torture their children would endure before their bodies turned up four months later in a Florida swamp.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating but horrible story we’ll told
- By Gracie on 11-13-23
By: Karen Kingsbury
-
Nobody Loves Me
- Bobby’s True Story of Neglect, Secrets and Abuse
- By: Maggie Hartley
- Narrated by: Penny McDonald
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18
Three siblings arrive at Maggie's door after being taken into care. Teachers of eight-year-old Bobby spotted bruises while he was getting changed for PE and his dad, Lee, and stepmother, Brianna, have been uncooperative and hostile to Social Services. While they investigate, Bobby, as well as Brianna's daughters, Melodie and Poppy, are all placed in Maggie's care. But as the children settle in, a thought won't let Maggie go. While Melodie and Poppy are clean, well-fed and immaculately dressed, Bobby is pale, severely underweight and crawling with lice.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 04-23-24
By: Maggie Hartley
-
While You Were Out
- An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
- By: Meg Kissinger
- Narrated by: Meg Kissinger
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 165
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 165
Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger’s family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard. But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful memoir
- By Maureen Shannon O'Leary on 09-12-23
By: Meg Kissinger
Publisher's summary
A shocking expose of the dark, secret history of Catholic orphanages - the violence, abuse, and even murder that took place within their walls - and a call to hold the powerful to account.
Ghosts of the Orphanage is the result of ten years of investigation by award-winning journalist Christine Kenneally. What she has uncovered is shocking, yet it was all hiding in plain sight.
Terrible things, abuse, both physical and psychological, and even deaths have happened in orphanages all over the world for many years. The survivors have been telling what happened to them for a long time, but no one has been listening. Authorities have too often been unwilling to accept their stories. And a victim's options for recourse have been limited by the years it has taken many survivors to process their trauma, tell their stories, and pursue legal action.
Centering on St. Joseph's, a Catholic orphanage in Vermont, Kenneally investigates and shares the stories of survivors. She has fought to expose the truth and hold the powerful - many of them Catholic priests and nuns - to account. And it is working. As these stories have come to light, the laws in Vermont have been forced to change, including the statute of limitations on prosecuting them.
Told with human compassion, novelistic detail and a powerful sense of purpose, Ghosts of the Orphanage is not only a gripping story but a reckoning. It is proof that real evil lurks at the edges of our society, and that, if we have the courage, we can bring it into the light and defeat it.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
A Death in White Bear Lake
- The True Chronicle of an All-American Town
- By: Barry Siegel
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. Twenty years later, she set out to find him - only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday. Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. To all appearances, they were a normal Midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Really, really good book.
- By Danette on 12-23-20
By: Barry Siegel
-
Remembering Satan
- A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
Remembering Satan is a lucid, measured, yet absolutely riveting inquest into a case that destroyed a family, engulfed a small town, and captivated an America obsessed by rumors of a satanic underground. It follows the increasingly bizarre accusations and confessions, as well as the claims and counterclaims of police, FBI investigators, and mental-health professionals.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lawrence Wright missed important details
- By Mark Carras on 06-05-22
By: Lawrence Wright
-
Secrets and Wives
- The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy
- By: Sanjiv Bhattacharya
- Narrated by: Sanjiv Bhattacharya
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 140
What do we really know about modern practicing polygamists - not fictional ones like the Henrickson family on HBO’s Big Love? We’ve seen the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the news, the underage brides in pioneer dresses on a Texas ranch. But the FLDS is just one of many groups that have broken with mainstream Mormonism to follow those parts of Joseph Smith’s doctrine disavowed by the LDS Church. Gaining unprecedented access to these communities, journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya reveals a shadow country....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great stories (+), religious amateur hour (-)
- By Douglas on 09-26-13
-
Without a Prayer
- The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult
- By: Susan Ashline
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar - he'd practiced witchcraft, conspired to murder his parents, and committed unspeakable crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his parents and sister. Lucas was brought to the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door. Nine members of Lucas' church would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Depravity of the Human Soul
- By J. Miller on 01-31-20
By: Susan Ashline
-
Mitka’s Secret
- A True Story of Child Slavery and Surviving the Holocaust
- By: Steven W. Brallier, Joel N. Lohr, Lynn G. Beck
- Narrated by: Trevor Thompson
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
This is Mitka’s account of facing the past, confronting his captors, connecting with lost relatives, and finding peace in the rediscovery of his origins. For Mitka, this also meant reclaiming his Jewish heritage - a journey that gave him a new sense of purpose and freedom from the lingering effects of trauma that had filled his life to that point. By the end, Mitka’s Secret is less a story of survival and more one of redemption and transformation - from hidden suffering to abundant joy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This should be a movie!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-11-21
By: Steven W. Brallier, and others
-
Becoming Ms. Burton
- From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women
- By: Susan Burton, Cari Lynn
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 272
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 239
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 241
Susan Burton's world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Susan self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine then to crack. As a resident of South Los Angeles, a Black community under siege in the War on Drugs, it was but a matter of time before Susan was arrested. She cycled in and out of prison for over 15 years; never was she offered therapy or treatment for addiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Compelling
- By Jean on 06-18-17
By: Susan Burton, and others
-
A Death in White Bear Lake
- The True Chronicle of an All-American Town
- By: Barry Siegel
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. Twenty years later, she set out to find him - only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday. Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. To all appearances, they were a normal Midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Really, really good book.
- By Danette on 12-23-20
By: Barry Siegel
-
Remembering Satan
- A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
Remembering Satan is a lucid, measured, yet absolutely riveting inquest into a case that destroyed a family, engulfed a small town, and captivated an America obsessed by rumors of a satanic underground. It follows the increasingly bizarre accusations and confessions, as well as the claims and counterclaims of police, FBI investigators, and mental-health professionals.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lawrence Wright missed important details
- By Mark Carras on 06-05-22
By: Lawrence Wright
-
Secrets and Wives
- The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy
- By: Sanjiv Bhattacharya
- Narrated by: Sanjiv Bhattacharya
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 140
What do we really know about modern practicing polygamists - not fictional ones like the Henrickson family on HBO’s Big Love? We’ve seen the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the news, the underage brides in pioneer dresses on a Texas ranch. But the FLDS is just one of many groups that have broken with mainstream Mormonism to follow those parts of Joseph Smith’s doctrine disavowed by the LDS Church. Gaining unprecedented access to these communities, journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya reveals a shadow country....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great stories (+), religious amateur hour (-)
- By Douglas on 09-26-13
-
Without a Prayer
- The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult
- By: Susan Ashline
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar - he'd practiced witchcraft, conspired to murder his parents, and committed unspeakable crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his parents and sister. Lucas was brought to the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door. Nine members of Lucas' church would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Depravity of the Human Soul
- By J. Miller on 01-31-20
By: Susan Ashline
-
Mitka’s Secret
- A True Story of Child Slavery and Surviving the Holocaust
- By: Steven W. Brallier, Joel N. Lohr, Lynn G. Beck
- Narrated by: Trevor Thompson
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
This is Mitka’s account of facing the past, confronting his captors, connecting with lost relatives, and finding peace in the rediscovery of his origins. For Mitka, this also meant reclaiming his Jewish heritage - a journey that gave him a new sense of purpose and freedom from the lingering effects of trauma that had filled his life to that point. By the end, Mitka’s Secret is less a story of survival and more one of redemption and transformation - from hidden suffering to abundant joy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This should be a movie!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-11-21
By: Steven W. Brallier, and others
-
Becoming Ms. Burton
- From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women
- By: Susan Burton, Cari Lynn
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 272
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 239
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 241
Susan Burton's world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Susan self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine then to crack. As a resident of South Los Angeles, a Black community under siege in the War on Drugs, it was but a matter of time before Susan was arrested. She cycled in and out of prison for over 15 years; never was she offered therapy or treatment for addiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Compelling
- By Jean on 06-18-17
By: Susan Burton, and others
-
One Day
- The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America
- By: Gene Weingarten
- Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
On New Year’s Day 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Gene Weingarten asked three strangers to, literally, pluck a day, month, and year from a hat. That day - chosen completely at random - was Sunday, December 28, 1986, by any conventional measure a most ordinary day. Weingarten spent the next six years proving that there is no such thing. That Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s turned out to be filled with comedy, tragedy, implausible irony, cosmic comeuppances, kindness, cruelty, heroism, cowardice, genius, idiocy, and much more....
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I'm giving this book more credit for its concept
- By J. F. Boyd on 12-24-19
By: Gene Weingarten
-
My Name Is Why
- By: Lemn Sissay
- Narrated by: Lemn Sissay, Richard Burnip, Zoe Mills
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 83
At the age of 17, after a childhood in an fostered family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. Here Sissay recounts his life story. It is a story of neglect and determination. Misfortune and hope. Cruelty and triumph.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
My immediate thoughts after reading My Name is Why
- By Pamela Horitani on 10-09-20
By: Lemn Sissay
-
Amazing Grace
- The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation
- By: Jonathan Kozol
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
The children we meet through the deepening friendships that evolve between Janathan Kozol and their families defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented on TV and in newspapers. Tender, generous, and often religiously devout, they speak with painful clarity about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not hardened them. "It's not like being in a jail," says 15-year-old Isabel. "It's more like being hidden."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Roots of Change are in Education
- By T. C. Pile on 06-05-20
By: Jonathan Kozol
-
Furious Hours
- Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
- By: Casey Cep
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,387
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,190
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,194
Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the reverend. Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, needs a Southern narrator
- By Joseph Wu on 06-06-19
By: Casey Cep
-
Our Little Secret
- The True Story of a Teenage Killer and the Silence of a Small New England Town
- By: Kevin Flynn, Rebecca Lavoie
- Narrated by: Aven Shore
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 241
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 203
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
For 20 years Daniel Paquette's murder in New Hampshire went unsolved. It remained a secret between two high school friends until Eric Windhurst's arrest in 2005. What was revealed was a crime born of adolescent passion between Eric and Daniel's stepdaughter, Melanie - redefining the meaning of loyalty, justice, and revenge.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A
- By Diana Hart 33 on 04-28-21
By: Kevin Flynn, and others
-
I Let Him Go
- By: Denise Fergus
- Narrated by: Siân Polhill-Thomas
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 123
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 112
A truly inspiring and heartbreaking book from the mother of little James Bulger - whose murder by two young boys shocked the world. On 12th February 1993, Denise's life changed forever. As she was running errands at New Strand Shopping Centre, she let go of her two-year-old son's hand to take out her purse. Denise never saw her son again. In this extraordinary and heart-wrenching audiobook comes the unflinching account of that terrible day from James Bulger's mother, Denise.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I am with heavy heart after reading this
- By Amazon Customer on 01-30-19
By: Denise Fergus
-
Invisible Child
- Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
- By: Andrea Elliott
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 680
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 598
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 592
Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Narration is completely over the top
- By Heather on 10-14-21
By: Andrea Elliott
-
The Ungrateful Refugee
- What Immigrants Never Tell You
- By: Dina Nayeri
- Narrated by: Dina Nayeri
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 116
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned-refugee camp. Eventually, she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing story of resilience and compassion
- By PAH on 09-06-19
By: Dina Nayeri
-
The Chief Witness
- Escape from China's Modern-Day Concentration Camps
- By: Sayragul Sauytbay, Alexandra Cavelius
- Narrated by: Xifeng Brooks
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 64
Born in China’s northwestern province, Sayragul Sauytbay trained as a doctor before being appointed a senior civil servant. But her life was upended when the Chinese authorities incarcerated her. Her crime? Being Kazakh, one of China’s ethnic minorities. The northwestern province borders the largest number of foreign nations and is the point in China that is the closest to Europe. In recent years, it has become home to more than 1,200 penal camps - modern-day gulags that are estimated to house three million members of the Kazakh and Uyghur minorities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Must Read!
- By Stephanie on 12-22-21
By: Sayragul Sauytbay, and others
-
My Life Among the Serial Killers
- Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers
- By: Helen Morrison M.D., Harold Goldberg
- Narrated by: Helen Morrison
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 445
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 183
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 181
Dr. Helen Morrison has profiled more than 80 serial killers around the world. What she has learned about them will shatter every assumption you've ever had about the most notorious killers known to man.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Boring reader,boring writing
- By P. Minor on 02-03-08
By: Helen Morrison M.D., and others
-
A Cold-Blooded Business
- Adultery, Murder, and a Killer's Path from the Bible Belt to the Boardroom
- By: Marek Fuchs
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 364
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 331
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 325
In 1959, Olathe, Kansas was made famous by the murder of the Clutter family and Truman Capote's ground-breaking book on the crime, In Cold Blood. But fewer know that Olathe achieved notoriety again in 1982, when a member of Olathe's growing Evangelical Christian population, a gentle man named David Harmon, was bludgeoned to death while sleeping - the force of the blows crushing his face beyond recognition.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
GOOD TRUE CRIME STORY
- By The Louligan on 08-17-14
By: Marek Fuchs
-
The Girls
- An All-American Town, a Predatory Doctor, and the Untold Story of the Gymnasts Who Brought Him Down
- By: Abigail Pesta
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
The Girls is a profound exploration of trust, ambition, betrayal, and self-discovery. Award-winning journalist Abigail Pesta unveils this deeply reported narrative at a time when the nation is wrestling with the implications of the MeToo movement. How do the women who grew up with Nassar reconcile the monster in the news with the man they once trusted? In The Girls, we learn that their answers to that wrenching question are as rich, insightful, and varied as the human experience itself.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Don’t waste a credit
- By Timothy McCarthy on 11-12-19
By: Abigail Pesta