Listen free for 30 days

  • The Numbers

  • The Thomas Prescott Series
  • By: Nick Pirog
  • Narrated by: Johnny Heller
  • Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
The Numbers cover art

The Numbers

By: Nick Pirog
Narrated by: Johnny Heller
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £22.49

Buy Now for £22.49

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

The electrifying prequel and perfect introduction to the bestselling and fan-favorite Thomas Prescott series, with over 1.3 million downloads and 10,000+ five-star ratings on Amazon and Goodreads!

After getting canned from the Seattle PD, brilliant, wisecracking Thomas Prescott follows his sister Lacy to Philadelphia, where she swims on the Drexel University team. While Thomas’s slapstick antics mask a keen analytic mind, it’s his nose for trouble that leads him again and again into dicey situations. The ex–homicide detective is not long in Philly before getting caught up in two high-powered criminal cases.

Thomas stumbles into a crime scene amid the Occupy Philadelphia protests. Activist Brooke Wexley has been strangled within sight of city hall. While demonstrating against economic inequality, the college student hid her own family’s wealthy background. The über-rich Wexleys have many dark secrets—one of which may have led to Brooke’s violent death.

Thomas is also called to join an emergency multiagency task force on the trail of a prolific serial killer who leaves gruesome calling cards: a three-digit number carved on each of his many victims. It’s when Thomas realizes the murders are linked to the Numbers—the old illegal street lottery—that his investigation shifts into high gear. The trail jumps back to the past before rushing back to the present like a tsunami of fire, bent on revenge.

Amid all this, Lacy has a health scare, and Thomas’s priorities shift. Encountering gambling church ladies, felonious businessmen, and murderous mobsters—with an investigation hampered by a competitive colleague and Lacy’s narcoleptic pug—Thomas must summon all his considerable powers to root out the guilty and dangerous while caring for his adored sister.

Reader’s Note: This book takes place when Thomas Prescott is thirty years old (three years before the events of Unforeseen). If you are new to the Thomas Prescott series, this is the perfect place to start!

©2023 Nick Pirog (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

What listeners say about The Numbers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

love this series

Nick did it again. love the Prescot series. this is an imperfect detective done right. love ha ing variation in terms of villains: corporate, old young, and the plain opportunistic. just wish the super idealised youth would also get a bit of just deserts

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

Good not great

Good story. Not to the same level as previous stories in the collection. Worth a listen.

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

Just Great

Loved it, great characters, plot and the narration is just perfect. Highly Recommend .

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for shelley
  • shelley
  • 01-03-23

Yeah! Thomas Prescott is back!!!!

I don’t think there’s anything Nick Pirog has written that I haven’t given a 5 star review. This one is no exception. I’ve enjoyed all of the books in this standalone series. There’s no need to to read in any order. My advice is to start here and you will probably want to go back and get the others on your own.
This book actually takes place before the other books in this series. Prescott is 30 years old and recently fired from his job as a homicide detective. He had a volatile temper and shoved another detective’s face into a locker. He’s now in Pennsylvania and at a protest with people camping out in tents. He hears someone calling that their tent mate won’t wake up. When he checks on the woman he sees she’s not passed out but deceased. She has numbers carved into her forehead. There have been two other murders with numbers carved out on the victim’s foreheads. The police know they’re up against a serial killer. They have their theory about what the numbers mean. Prescott has his own theory. Now he has to prove that he’s right and get himself on the task force.
Johnny Heller does a fantastic job narrating. His delivery of sarcasm is perfect for Pirog’s writing style.
This book has my Very Highest Recommendation!
If you found this review helpful please indicate so.
Thank You.

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Chris Hall
  • Chris Hall
  • 05-03-23

The origin of Baxter!

What a fantastic series. Excellent writing, phenomenal narration. Prescott will make you laugh out loud with his antics. A well thought out mystery,and a satisfying conclusion. The only bad thing? It ends. Come on Nick, send us another one!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Donna Millar
  • Donna Millar
  • 02-03-23

WooHoo! Same narrator for Prescott!

Having listened to the entire Prescott series, I was a bit worried that Johnny Heller would not be the narrator for this book. I needn’t have been concerned. Thomas Prescott still sounds like himself. I love that Nick Pirog decided to give his readers the backstory for this series.

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer
  • Amazon Customer
  • 19-03-23

LOVE THIS BOOK! And perfectly narrated!

Another Thomas Prescott novel is just what I needed! This is such a great story. I'm really picky about narrators and I can't imagine anyone but Johnny Heller being Thomas. The dry and sarcastic humor, the mystery, even the gore (not much of it!) is perfect and let's not forget the puppy!
Thank you Nick Pirog, this is great.

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Susanna L. Reigle
  • Susanna L. Reigle
  • 06-03-23

another winner

the combination of the author and narrator make this series one of the best ever.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for joseph strickland
  • joseph strickland
  • 04-03-23

Pretty good...

This series combines humor and drama. The plot is all over the place, but the narration saves the day. I am looking forward to the next installment and hope that it is less convoluted.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Enrique Bordonada
  • Enrique Bordonada
  • 02-03-23

Good book

Really liked the call back to the other book "Unforeseen" great narration, as always from Johnny Heller

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Travis Stevens
  • Travis Stevens
  • 02-03-23

Couldn’t stop listening!

Absolutely wonderful!! I listened to it completely in 1 day! This book had me laughing out loud and on the edge of my seat!!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for CJ
  • CJ
  • 16-05-23

Entertaining

Johnny Heller, the narrator, makes the smart and smart-alecky main character, Prescott, come alive. Prescott's sarcasm is often directed against himself and is definitely laugh-out-loud funny in several places. The history of numbers gambling was interesting. Two stories are woven together, sometimes making it hard to follow. I was pleased that this book avoids the sexism that occurs in some of Pirog's other books. The sister is cherished and no women are objectified. Again, Johnny Heller is outstanding. He keeps me coming back to this series.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Tiffany
  • Tiffany
  • 14-05-23

Warning! Do not eat/drive while listening to this book!

I was laughing so hard that I started choking on my granola bar while driving. This book, like the rest of the Thomas Prescott series, is fantastic! I love that the protagonist is fiercely faithful to, and protective of, his little sister. No one comes before her and that’s very endearing. And at the same time, it’s murder mystery with absolute hilarity. Who would have thought that middle-of-the-night grave digging or a fight with an elderly dementia patient in a nursing home could be so flipping funny?
What I also like about this book is that even though it’s a prequel, you can read it before the other books and it doesn’t give anything away. Or you can read it after book four and it’s just as delightful.
The narrator has such a unique voice, and a great storyteller cadence. It really feels like he is just telling you about his life and not at all like he’s reading from the pages of a book.

1 person found this helpful