Listen free for 30 days
-
The Executioner's Song
- Narrated by: Maxwell Hamilton
- Length: 42 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £31.39
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s a story that most people know, told here in an unforgettable way – an audio masterpiece that rivals the best thrillers, thanks to Capote genre-defining words and Brick’s subtle but powerful characterizations. On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Exploring new grounds
- By Mrs R Cofie on 02-08-19
-
Justice Redeemed
- Darren Street, Book 1
- By: Scott Pratt
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years ago, Darren Street made a name for himself as the man who rooted out corruption in the district attorney's office. Now the hotheaded young lawyer is in the public eye yet again - this time, accused of murder. Jalen Jordan retained Street for what seemed to be a minor traffic violation, but when evidence turned up linking Jordan to the death of two boys, Street wanted out of the case.
-
-
Excellent!
- By VJ on 05-10-17
-
Sign of the Cross: A Collins-Burke Mystery, Book 1
- By: Anne Emery
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Monty Collins is a sharp-tongued public defender who just wants to represent an upstanding character for a change. A priest with something to hide isn't quite what he had hoped for, but when the literate, arrogant, and tight-lipped Father Brennan Burke is implicated in the strange murder of a young woman, Monty doesn't just take the case - the case takes him. When Burke won't come clean, Monty is forced to play private detective, traveling into his client's past. Things look good for the case until another body is found....
-
-
A very current issue
- By susanna on 08-04-13
-
Oswald's Tale
- An American Mystery
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 29 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In perhaps his most important literary feat, Norman Mailer fashions an unprecedented portrait of one of the great villains - and enigmas - in United States history. Here is Lee Harvey Oswald - his family background, troubled marriage, controversial journey to Russia, and return to an "America [waiting] for him like an angry relative whose eyes glare in the heat."
-
-
The best account I have ever read
- By Margaret on 23-04-17
-
Harlot's Ghost
- A Novel
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 48 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With unprecedented scope and consummate skill, Norman Mailer unfolds a rich and riveting epic of an American spy. Harry Hubbard is the son and godson of CIA legends. His journey to learn the secrets of his society - and his own past - takes him through the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the "momentous catastrophe" of the Kennedy assassination. All the while, Hubbard is haunted by women who were loved by both his godfather and President Kennedy.
-
-
Excellent piece of work.
- By Hot lips on 07-02-22
-
Revenge
- Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors
- By: Tom Bower
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The British Royal Family believed that the dizzy success of the Sussex wedding, watched and celebrated around the world, was the beginning of a new era for the Windsors. Yet, within one tumultuous year, the dream became a nightmare. In the aftermath of the infamous Megxit split and the Oprah Winfrey interview, the Royal Family's fate seems persistently threatened.
-
-
Better than most fiction
- By 451 on 21-07-22
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s a story that most people know, told here in an unforgettable way – an audio masterpiece that rivals the best thrillers, thanks to Capote genre-defining words and Brick’s subtle but powerful characterizations. On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Exploring new grounds
- By Mrs R Cofie on 02-08-19
-
Justice Redeemed
- Darren Street, Book 1
- By: Scott Pratt
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years ago, Darren Street made a name for himself as the man who rooted out corruption in the district attorney's office. Now the hotheaded young lawyer is in the public eye yet again - this time, accused of murder. Jalen Jordan retained Street for what seemed to be a minor traffic violation, but when evidence turned up linking Jordan to the death of two boys, Street wanted out of the case.
-
-
Excellent!
- By VJ on 05-10-17
-
Sign of the Cross: A Collins-Burke Mystery, Book 1
- By: Anne Emery
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Monty Collins is a sharp-tongued public defender who just wants to represent an upstanding character for a change. A priest with something to hide isn't quite what he had hoped for, but when the literate, arrogant, and tight-lipped Father Brennan Burke is implicated in the strange murder of a young woman, Monty doesn't just take the case - the case takes him. When Burke won't come clean, Monty is forced to play private detective, traveling into his client's past. Things look good for the case until another body is found....
-
-
A very current issue
- By susanna on 08-04-13
-
Oswald's Tale
- An American Mystery
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 29 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In perhaps his most important literary feat, Norman Mailer fashions an unprecedented portrait of one of the great villains - and enigmas - in United States history. Here is Lee Harvey Oswald - his family background, troubled marriage, controversial journey to Russia, and return to an "America [waiting] for him like an angry relative whose eyes glare in the heat."
-
-
The best account I have ever read
- By Margaret on 23-04-17
-
Harlot's Ghost
- A Novel
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 48 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With unprecedented scope and consummate skill, Norman Mailer unfolds a rich and riveting epic of an American spy. Harry Hubbard is the son and godson of CIA legends. His journey to learn the secrets of his society - and his own past - takes him through the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the "momentous catastrophe" of the Kennedy assassination. All the while, Hubbard is haunted by women who were loved by both his godfather and President Kennedy.
-
-
Excellent piece of work.
- By Hot lips on 07-02-22
-
Revenge
- Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors
- By: Tom Bower
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The British Royal Family believed that the dizzy success of the Sussex wedding, watched and celebrated around the world, was the beginning of a new era for the Windsors. Yet, within one tumultuous year, the dream became a nightmare. In the aftermath of the infamous Megxit split and the Oprah Winfrey interview, the Royal Family's fate seems persistently threatened.
-
-
Better than most fiction
- By 451 on 21-07-22
-
The Fight
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaïre, two African American boxers were paid five million dollars apiece to fight each other. One was Muhammad Ali, the aging but irrepressible "professor of boxing." The other was George Foreman, who was as taciturn as Ali was voluble. Observing them was Norman Mailer, a commentator of unparalleled energy, acumen, and audacity.
-
-
The story you thought you knew
- By Jack Herbert on 15-04-21
-
The Naked and the Dead
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: John Buffalo Mailer
- Length: 26 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially for the occasion by Norman Mailer.
-
-
absorbing
- By L Skipper on 18-01-17
-
The Armies of the Night
- History as a Novel, the Novel as History
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Armies of the Night chronicles the famed October 1967 March on the Pentagon, in which all of the old and new Left - hippies, yuppies, Weathermen, Quakers, Christians, feminists, and intellectuals - came together to protest the Vietnam War. Alongside his contemporaries, Mailer went, witnessed, participated, suffered, and then wrote one of the most stark and intelligent appraisals of the 1960s.
-
Without Mercy
- Obsession and Murder Under the Influence
- By: Gary Provost
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On any Sunday morning in the Florida Redlands, Dee Casteel might have served you pancakes at the IHOP. She was a hard-working, cheerful waitress, one of the nicest people you'd ever want to know. She was also a three-bottle-a-day alcoholic, hopelessly in love with the IHOP's manager, Allen Bryant. Bryant wanted his live-in lover, IHOP owner Art Venecia, dead. And Dee Casteel helped him to arrange it.
-
-
Excellent
- By W.Fenlon on 20-06-20
-
Bastard Out of Carolina
- By: Dorothy Allison
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family - a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard- drinking men who shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective.
-
-
This is a great book
- By Alena on 06-09-13
-
Confession of a Serial Killer
- The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer
- By: Katherine Ramsland PhD
- Narrated by: Michael Braun
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1974, Dennis Lynn Rader stalked and murdered a family of four in Wichita, Kansas. Since adolescence, he had read about serial killers and imagined becoming one. Soon after killing the family, he murdered a young woman and then another, until he had 10 victims. He named himself “B.T.K.” (bind, torture, kill) and wrote notes that terrorized the city. He remained on the loose for 30 years.
-
-
Not worth finishing
- By Big Dog on 02-04-22
-
The Netanyahus
- An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family
- By: Joshua Cohen
- Narrated by: Joshua Cohen, David Duchovny, Ethan Herschenfeld
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Corbin College, not quite upstate New York, winter 1959-1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian—but not an historian of the Jews—is co-opted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies. Mixing fiction with nonfiction, the campus novel with the lecture, The Netanyahus is a wildly inventive comedy of blending, identity, and politics.
-
-
Not a fan
- By Amazon Customer on 01-07-22
-
Monster
- By: Steve Jackson
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a snowy winter evening in 1982, 21-year-old Mary Brown accepted a ride from a handsome stranger in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip ended with her brutally beaten and raped. Mary survived, but her predator's violence had only just begun. After 10 years in prison, Tom Luther was released a far more vicious criminal. Soon, from the Rockies to West Virginia, like Ted Bundy, Luther enticed a chain of women into his murderous trap.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Amazon Customer on 02-10-20
-
Empire of Pain
- The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions–Harvard; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Oxford; the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations in the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing Oxycontin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis–an international epidemic of drug addiction which has killed nearly half a million people.
-
-
An angry, populist, gossipy book that doesn’t engage seriously with the issues
- By Megan on 01-07-21
-
The Hillside Stranglers
- The Inside Story of the Killing Spree That Terrorized Los Angeles
- By: Darcy O'Brien
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For weeks, the body count of sexually violated, brutally murdered young women escalated. With increasing alarm, Los Angeles newspapers headlined the deeds of a serial killer they named the Hillside Strangler. The city was held hostage by fear. Darcy O'Brien weds the narrative skill of an award-winning novelist with the detailed observations of an experienced investigator to unravel this chilling true-crime story.
-
-
Got a bit boring
- By marie on 19-05-21
-
Under the Banner of Heaven
- A Story of Violent Faith
- By: Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty insist they were commanded to kill by God. In Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer's investigation is a meticulously researched, bone-chilling narrative of polygamy, savage violence and unyielding faith: an incisive look inside isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities in America, this gripping work of non-fiction illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behaviour.
-
The Search for the Green River Killer
- The True Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer
- By: Carlton Smith, Tomas Guillen
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Search for the Green River Killer is the ultimate authoritative account of the Pacific Northwest killing spree that held a nation spellbound - and continues to horrify and fascinate, spawning dramatizations and documentaries of a demented killer who seemed unstoppable for decades.
-
-
disappointing
- By Anonymous User on 25-08-19
Summary
Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in a brand-new edition.
Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death. And that fight for the right to die is what made him famous.
Mailer tells not only Gilmore's story, but those of the men and women caught in the web of his life and drawn into his procession toward the firing squad. All with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a restraint that evokes the parched landscape and stern theology of Gilmore's Utah.
The Executioner's Song is a trip down the wrong side of the tracks to the deepest source of American loneliness and violence. It is a towering achievement - impossible to put down, impossible to forget.
More from the same
Narrator
What listeners say about The Executioner's Song
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- aleisha
- 27-09-21
Just as good as reading it.
I have read this book 2 times and watched the movie even more times. My adhd found it irritating how the performer pronounced Gilmore and Excecution. other than that small thing I loved it all!!!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Victoria Coley-Abdukayumova
- 05-04-22
Highly recommended
Totally got immersed in this book. Poignant, perfectly long, never boring. Wonderfully dramatised, and not a detail missed.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rebekah Poole
- 10-03-21
This could have been interesting
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the plot. In fact, Gilmore’s fighting for death is of interest to any true crime fan but don’t get this. It was beyond drawn out. We did not need the huge level of detail (which I’m sure was years of research). It was a chore and I got too far in to stop.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jackie
- 11-03-20
...an amazing work....
...having, sadly, been living next door to a sociopathic narcissist for 20 years, i was once again able to advance my own understanding of complicated personality disorders....while being taken on an amazing journey in literature. unlike my neighbor, or should i say through the knowledge gained from being targeted by her warped mind, i was able to feel gary's potential and humor and pain...while still holding on to the believe that no one has the right to cause havoc in other peoples lives without facing justice....and so, all one can do when encountering these people is to stay away....sad....
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JohnWK
- 03-03-20
Entertaining to the end
Firstly if you are listening on speakers make sure there are no children or anyone of a delicate disposition around!
It is very good, very interesting. There is no spoiler here but at the end there is a most bizarre disclaimer about it being fiction and similarity to any living person to any of the characters portrayed is purely co-incidental - what?! Presumably the publisher got cold feet and decided they had better put that in to try and cover themselves at the end!
That said as you listen you wonder how some of the events and dialogue has been sourced, especially prior to Gilmore's arrest when he is out free?
But highly enjoyable and thoroughly recommended.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stop the lights
- 30-01-19
OK but very long
I thought some of the dialogue was repetitive and made the book unnecessarily long.
Good story and well written by Mailer.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kelli Stone
- 28-08-18
Helpful Hint for Those Suffering Thru This Narr
In complete transparency, I haven't yet finished this book I'm about half way through it. The story is riveting. The book is so well written. Unfortunately the narrator is almost impossible to listen to. Other reviewers have captured my thoughts about him so I won't repeat them here. Here's some good news though. If you're using the Audible app, you can increase the narration speed up to 1.25 and it's better. It eliminates the ill placed - I guess intended to be - dramatic pauses and even helps a bit with the odd voice inflections. Doesn't do a thing for the mispronunciations though. I guess Scott Brick or some of the other masters weren't available for this Pulitzer Prize winner.....???? Sooooooo disappointed after waiting on this book for so long.
44 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- laniferous
- 28-07-18
WAITED YRS FOR AUDIOBOOK, TERRIBLE NARRATION!
I have *zero* idea what audible was thinking producing and/or buying this reading. Is the man cold reading? Is he a robot??!! Bizarre pauses and inflection, it's outrageous that I waited literally years for audible to have this title, and now I'm returning it after a few hours. The only other book I've returned to audible was ANOTHER horrendous Norman mailer reading. .....and it's not cause I don't like the story, I read them both before listening to the audio. Welp, here is another subpar offering ill be returning. PATHETIC. You have many average or poor narrations, audible. That's unacceptable. Do better!
56 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- W Perry Hall
- 21-05-18
Pulitzer-winner spoiled by numskulled narration
I'm not going to waste my time or yours with another rant about yet another case of an audiobook publisher's clear disregard for the greatness of a book--such as THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG--in refusing to hire a narrator who would rate even a decent job in the reading.
The mispronunciations in this audiobook are staggering. The last straws, ironically for me, came 23 hours in with SEVERAL references to the blowhard self-promoter Geraldo Rivera--using a hard G as with the word "gist" or "joke," as in Jeraldo Rivera, instead of the silent G for Geraldo. Unbelievable!
The ignorance of the narrator and the audiobook's director of the correct pronunciation of such simple words is stupefying. What a shame!
Writing a real review of the book's substance would, to my mind, countenance this type of callousness toward, and insult to the intelligence of, other Audible customers and me.
57 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Bill
- 09-08-18
Good Listen
Don't know why there was so much hate in the reviews of the narrator. Yes, it could have been edited better, but I think he did a great job.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- VanLivingScooterUser
- 12-07-18
Great book, weak performance
The reader doesn’t know how to pronounce many words, including famous names of people and places. Stress is put on words at random and not in keeping with the meaning of the sentence they are in. It’s almost like listening to a robot read, though he does a consistent job with voicing the various characters who are quoted.
29 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kelly
- 28-02-19
Mispronounced names drive me a bit crazy.
I read this one as part of my personal challenge to read all of the Pulitzer prize winners. Although it was good I cannot say that I loved it, and did not like it nearly as much as I liked Capote's [book:In Cold Blood|168642]. This one is obviously very well researched, and I appreciated that it has a very real and accurate feel. Unfortunately I thought it was much too long. If it were cut by 1/3 it would still be 600+ pages and in my opinion would be far stronger. At times I just wanted to hit fast forward.
When a person is hired to read an audiobook one of the first things they should do is learn to pronounce words and names in the book. Mr. Hamilton mispronounced both the name of the angel Moroni -- a very important name in the Mormon faith, and the name of Geraldo Rivera! Over and over and over again. Ugh!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Nicole Del Sesto
- 21-07-20
May I recommend reading this one?
This is an excellent book. Thorough, well-researched, excellent writing, and written with such compassion. Gary Gilmore was not portrayed as a monster. He was portrayed with dignity and respect, which he probably deserved. What a wild story.
The audio was another matter. I thought perhaps this was a really old recording and that's why it was so terrible and seemingly out of touch. But no, it was released in 2018. I made it through 37 hours of the audio before I had to put it aside and read the rest. I blame the director - I think with non-fiction you shouldn't get much artistic licence ... Though Gary Gilmore was born in Texas, he was not raised there and didn't have a southern accent. This narrator voice him with an accent of the deep south, making him seem like a caricature of a back woods hillbilly living in a trailer park. Gilmore was not that. He was thoughtful and intelligent, and apparently humorous and kind (obviously not all the time.) Nicole was voiced with the same deep southern drawl. It really bothered me.
He also couldn't pronounce words and names. I'm so glad I quit when I did so I didn't have to hear him mispronounce Geraldo Rivera's name another 10 times. Grrr-aldo. And Claudine Longet's name pronounced ... you guess it ... Lawn-get.
But the most egregious of all was the pronunciation of the word "pique" as "Pee-kay". He was really terrible, and worsened the experience of listening.
Audio aside, this is True Crime at the top of its game. A deep look into the mind of a man who did a terrible things, and the people who loved him.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- G8rmorgan
- 22-08-19
Great Story and the narrator is really good IF...
This book sat in my library for a year because I was hesitant about the narrator and everything you will read here. The story is fantastic and well written.
The narrator is Really Good IF...
1. I listened to the entire book on 1.20X and it was as if it were meant to be listened to at that speed. His voice inflection, changes of characters and southern accent for Gary Gilmore are excellent.
2. You have to overlook some REALLY BAD pronunciation. I was giving the narrator a pass for most of the book and chalking it up to his interpretation of dialogue. Most of the mistakenly pronounced words happen during dialogue in the beginning. HOWEVER, when he gets to Geraldo Rivera he pronounces the silent G like the J in "jury" I realized it wasn't his creative license. Geraldo covered this trial and execution and his name is in this book AT LEAST 50 times I'd say. I mean, who doesn't know how to say Geraldo?
So, in the end, the book is WELL WORTH THE LISTEN, in spite of the narrator gaffs. It's 42+ hours so the 1.2x speed will get you there faster.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Ann
- 23-12-18
An extraordinary book
This is an unabridged audiobook of Mailer's book which won a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in the late '70's. It's written in the style of New Journalism and is a very long and detailed account of events surrounding the execution of Gary Gilmore by firing squad in Utah. For those of us who remember this era and are familiar with the voice Mailer had given these Western speakers, the young California narrator does a reasonably good job. Local names and places such as Kanab are sometimes mispronounced. This is not a book for the squeamish.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- night owl
- 04-06-18
Still 5 Stars
I still have to give this five stars despite the imperfect narration. This outstanding book is more than worth ones time and a credit. It may not be for everyone. It touches real life like no other story.The unconditional love of Gary's family is unbelievable. The narrator doesn't convey th e charm and charisma Gilmore must of had, but there aren't many Tommy Lee Jones out there. I don't go along wit the system not giving Gary a chance.He never gave himself a chance. His alcoholism played a part in him not getting away with things and not working well for long when give the opportunity. I'm blown away by Nicoles honesty. Besides her promiscuity , She comes across as not too bright and a bit lazy.Of course these are a result of sexual abuse and depression. I found myself really liking her and caring about her. All the other characters are real people I became attached. I'm not sure if this this is an anti death penalty book.I don't think it's meant to be. If so it didn't work with me. I think the death penalty is unfairly and over used. However Gary Gilmore had it coming. Also there are things worse than death.
11 people found this helpful