Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

Joe Jameson shines in this psychological thriller by Michael Robotham. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss this story of Cyrus Haven, a forensic psychologist, and Evie Cormac, a troubled young woman in his care. Haven and Evie find themselves getting closer to solving the mystery of Evie’s past. Jameson brings everything to life with his animated narration, elevating the story with...

Jean Brassard, Louise Penny’s choice to narrate her 19th Three Pines novel, proves an inspired selection. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss how Brassard, a native Quebecois and an award-winning actor, gets each character right. Domestic terrorism takes Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy, and Isabelle from Montreal to the Vatican and to an isolated French monastery. Brasard’s accents—whether...

Narrator Kristin Atherton brings us to the tiny South Atlantic island of Tuga de Oro. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Francesca Segal’s story of a London vet who journeys to Tuga to study endangered tortoises, but finds out more about herself along the way. Atherton creates a delightfully engaging performance. She creates memorable voices for each character, adding depth and emo...

Rick Bass delivers these essays—old and new—at a deliberate pace and a careful tempo. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss his voice and delivery, which sound kindly and literary. Reared in Texas, Bass retains a slight twang, and he is soulful, sincere, and aspirational. A fiction writer and essayist, he is also an environmental activist, and a number of these texts center on the hor...

This delightful travel audiobook features commentary and an accompanying pdf of photos of unique, quirky, and splendid sites around the world that emulate renowned film director Wes Anderson’s visual style. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss the fun of this listen. Seamus McMahon is a capable narrator, while Jeff Goldblum’s well-tuned variations in tone and pace make for particular...

Canadian producer and actress Panta Mosleh embraces these essays from author andrea bennett. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss this mix of personal revelations, food prep experiments, and observations on foodways, family, and life. Mosleh narrates with a strong voice and clear tone and neatly adopts the author’s sometimes interrogative style. A poet, editor and essayist, the autho...

Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, who has achieved fame for his restaurants, television shows, and five James Beard Awards, turns his considerable energy to his memoir. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss narrator Will Damron’s talented performance of the chef’s memoir. Damron brings this food-centered story vividly to life and gets Colicchio’s voice, cadence, and sometimes hectic recol...

Stanley Tucci may someday be as famous as a food writer as he is as an actor. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss the fun of listening to Tucci narrate his candid memoir. He plays with tone and tempo like a jazz musician, and he knows how to be ironic, self-effacing, witty, and charming, yet his performance is most satisfying because of his restraint. Tucci is a creative gourmand wh...

Siena East—a Choctaw writer, comedian, and actor—performs this romance novel from debut Chickasaw author Danica Nava. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss the author’s delightful storytelling and narrator’s ear for dialogue, making for an all-around enjoyable listen. After sending out countless job applications with few responses, Ember Lee Cardinal decides to exaggerate her work...

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this new horror story from Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. Natasha Soudek performs this story of a young Polish man suffering from tuberculosis who arrives at a health resort in the Silesian mountains in 1913. There he meets other men with similar conditions, each of whom is sure the mountain air will cure him. But when they learn about all...

Gabby Beans performs this suspenseful novel about a Black nonbinary protagonist who is haunted by the events that occurred at their childhood home. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this tale of suburban horror from Rivers Solomon. After years of living in the UK, Ezri finds themself on a plane back to the U.S. to visit their parents in their suburban home outside Dallas, Texa...

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss a new collection of stories from one of Argentina’s most beloved authors, Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell. It’s performed by an ensemble cast, and the dark tales often feature the magical, mysterious, and bizarre. One standout includes Lee Osorio’s narration of “A Face of Disgrace,” in which Osorio’s voice is full of the protago...

National Book Award finalist Sarah Smarsh performs a collection of her essays written from 2013-2024. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss how Smarsh’s narration captures the emotional depth of her essays. After growing up on a wheat farm in Kansas, Smarsh went on to join academia and found herself writing about her working-class childhood. Smarsh’s essays are full of sharp obser...

Ashley Callingbull gives a heartfelt narration of Violet Duncan’s story of a young girl who starts having strange dreams while visiting family on the Cree reservation. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this National Book Award finalist for young people’s literature. Everyone is talking about researchers discovering unmarked children’s graves at the nearby residential school. Twel...

Guy Lockard narrates this fresh and funny novel YA from Jason Reynolds. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss another excellent collaboration between Reynolds and Lockard. Told from the perspective of 17-year-old Neon, this novel explores moments leading backwards from Neon’s past twenty-four months. As Neon prepares to celebrate his anniversary with his girlfriend, Aria, he reflects...

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this delightful romance audiobook set in a fantasy world. Omari Douglas has a teasing, mischievous lilt to his narration that perfectly suits Marske’s vivid world building. Dutiful Mattinesh Jay is entering into an arranged marriage to save his family’s failing textile business. An encounter with conman and duelist Luca Pierre leads Matti to hire...

Éanna Hardwicke's narration highlights the rich emotionality of Sally Rooney’s newest novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss Hardwicke’s skill at capturing every mood—becoming desperately angry, bitter, and frantic, yet also achingly tender, patient, and loving—as he performs a story of two grieving brothers. Peter and Ivan’s father has died, leaving them unmoored and their rel...

Rebecca Nagle gives a clear and compelling narration of her look into how a small-town murder on the Muscogee Nation led to a significant 2020 Supreme Court case—and the largest restoration of Native tribal land in American history. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss Nagle’s extensive research into the history behind this case, and how she contextualizes its impact on her own nati...

Multitalented playwright/director/actor Colman Domingo gathered an internationally acclaimed cast to hit this spirited blend of social satire, love, responsibility, and grief out of the park. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss this play that revolves around the character of Gil, an out-of-work actor played by Domingo, who returns home to face the heartbreak of burying his late mothe...

Lisa Flanagan performs this group story of a faculty at one public high school as if she were herself an entire acting company. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss this engaging adult debut from a YA author. At the beginning of the story’s school year a superannuated substitute teacher dies ingloriously on a couch in the eponymous lounge. That episode and each one following introduce...

Narrator Kristen Ariza lends her expert skills to Danzy Senna’s intimate character study. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine’s Michele Cobb discuss a story of a professor and struggling writer, Jane. She moves her family near Hollywood, where she meets a producer who wants to make her book into a television show. Jane is a complex character who is often skeptical, and when she is met with the usu...

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss how this performance by a five-narrator cast is truly special. The Fall children harness unique powers. When a magical rainbow-haired girl reveals her connection with the family, it kicks off a whirlwind of secrets that will either break them apart or further unite them. What’s more magical is the gorgeous concoction of every narrator’s style. It g...

Listeners join Texas Ranger Darren Mathews who, after turning in his badge, reluctantly investigates the disappearance of a young, Black student from an otherwise all-white sorority house. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss this story set in 2019 that concludes Attica Locke’s Highway 59 trilogy. JD Jackson’s pitch-perfect narration is the ideal match for this fast-paced story, which...

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss a new thrilling audiobook from Liane Moriarty. Narrators Caroline Lee and Geraldine Hakewill weave the threads of this tense exploration of free will. Everyone on a delayed flight across Australia is tired and frustrated. Suddenly, a nondescript woman stands and begins pointing to fellow passengers and stating how they will die and when. She won’t...

Golden Voice Adjoa Andoh’s remarkable skills of characterization and pacing are on full display in this reissue of le Carré’s novel of espionage and manipulation in the Middle East. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss this story of a naïve English actress, Charlie, who agrees to work undercover for an Israeli spy to identify a Palestinian terrorist, and is co-opted by morally ambigu...