Chasing the Dead [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Joe Schreiber (Author), Renee Raudman (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2006

"You have a very lovely little girl," breathed the voice on the phone. And just like that, Susan Young is drawn into a living nightmare. A stranger has kidnapped Sue's daughter, Veda. But he doesn't want her money, only her suffering-and he will kill Veda if Sue doesn't follow his every command. With detailed instructions, the faceless abductor leads Sue into a blinding snowstorm on the longest night of the year, to a place she has not traveled to since childhood. The voice on the other end of the line somehow knows Sue's deepest, most chilling secret-an ominous incident from her past, buried long ago... Across the loneliest back roads of Massachusetts, in the black expanse of a New England winter, Sue is forced to confront her most awful fears as she is met at each step by ever increasing horrors created by a monster who is surely something less than human. In the hope of saving her daughter from a kidnapper whose origin seems darker than anything she could ever have imagined, Sue will discover just how much trauma and fright the human body is capable of absorbing. Set over the course of a single night, Chasing the Dead is a fast-paced, ferociously tense supernatural thriller. With the skill of masters like Dean Koontz and David Morrell, Joe Schreiber has created a tableau of shock and horror, death and destruction, that will draw you in and never let you go

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Raudman delivers a bravura performance of Schreiber's excruciatingly suspenseful first novel. Set over the course of one horrific night, the book chronicles the trials of Susan Young, a wealthy divorcée, who receives a call from a mysterious stranger, informing her that he has abducted her one-year-old daughter and will kill her unless Susan does exactly what he wants. But this is far from a simple kidnapping; the detailed instructions given to Susan takes her deep into a horrific realm of murder, grave robbing, mutilated corpses and zombies, all controlled by the malevolent, uncompromising voice on the other end of Susan's cellphone. Raudman's smooth, intimate narration pulls the listener into this supernatural thriller with ease and consequently heightens the horrific incidents that pile onto Susan. The skillful narration is matched by individual character interpretation—each is given a distinctive voice and relayed with a natural, realistic delivery. This is most effective during the creepy cellphone conversations between Susan and her twisted tormentor. Not a story for the faint of heart.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Joe Schreiber was born in Michigan but spent his formative years in Alaska, Wyoming, and northern California. Until recently, he had never lived at the same address for longer than a year. Becoming a parent forced him to consider a career with more reliable income, and he got a job as an MRI tech in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he lives with his wife and their two children. He is the author of Chasing the Dead. Renee Raudman is a multi-award-winning audiobook narrator. She has earned a number of AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for The Last Secret by Mary McGarry Morris and Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien, as well as a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award for Joe Schreiber's Chasing the Dead. She has also performed on film, TV, radio, and stage, including the recurring roles of Jordon on ABC's One Life To Live, Phyllis on NBC's Passions, and guest-starring roles on prime-time TV. She has been heard in cartoons (The Simpsons, Billy & Mandy), videogames, and on the E! channel. Her narration of Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper was selected by Library Journal as one of the best audiobooks of 2009, and her reading of Marthe Jocelyn's Would You was selected by the ALA as one of the best young adult audiobooks of 2009.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• MP3 CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,MP3 - Unabridged CD edition (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400152968
• ISBN-13: 978-1400152964
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,053,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Michigan in 1969 and lived all over: Alaska, California, Wyoming, all before age 10. The restlessness sank in -- after graduating from the University of Michigan, I just kept moving. I've lived in LA, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon, and Martha's Vineyard. Constant relocation forced me to be creative in my employment: I've been a pet-sitter, an office boy in a DC law office, waited tables and worked at something like six different Borders Bookstores...which has to be a record. These days I work as an MRI tech at Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Real Page Turner!, November 5, 2006

By 

Amy Graham (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chasing the Dead: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Chasing the Dead we are teased with an intro that gives us a glimpse of the past the dwells inside the now grown up Sue Young and Phillip Chamberlin...a past that's coming back to do a lot more than haunt them. Sue Young (34) is a single mother and estranged for more than a year from her husband (a childhood friend)...she's getting on with her life as best as she can since her husband abandoned her, having hired a nanny and taken over the business. We find her on a typical day (which also happens to be winter solstice) headed home to meet with the nanny and see her young daughter after a long day at work. What she gets is not what she expected.

Upon returning home, she receives a phone call from a man claiming to have kidnapped the nanny and her daughter and informing her that she'll do what he wants, understand what she must in the next 12 hours or he'll slit her dauther's throat. What ensues is an enthralling, grisly, and uber creepy road trip that will keep you turning pages until well into the night...and when it's all over, you'll need to sleep with the lights on! I loved Schreiber's use of a "local legend" as the basis for an entire series of murders and as the reason for her unusual and maddening road trip tonight. I recommend this Chasing the dead; it's a fast paced, horrific thrill ride!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning, cool debut, November 20, 2006

By 

Adam Craig (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Chasing the Dead: A Novel (Hardcover)

Joe Schreiber's debut novel is a page-turning, ridiculously entertaining, gory thrill-ride that I could not put down. It's just too bad that the novel is only 196 pages long, because I could have kept going for hundreds more. I started the book at 10 this morning, and I had finished by 6 this evening. While the book might lack depth in some areas, it more than makes up for that by the original storyline and surprising twists and turns. I haven't been immersed in a mystery put forth in a book in quite a while.

I won't even summarize the plot, because to try to explaing what goes on throughout the pages would only serve to spoil a great book for future readers. All you need to know is that Sue Young's daughter, Veda, is kidnapped within the first 20 pages of the book, and from there it is all downhill (in a good way). Chasing the Dead takes place over the course of one night as Sue's journey to save her daughter gets crazier and crazier until you just want to read ahead to find out what the heck is going on.

While some people are saying this book is a great homage, and love it for that, I love it for its originality and ability to combine about 3 to 4 different genres of thriller into 196 pages. If Joe Schreiber can keep pumping out books like this, then I think that the horror novel community will have a new author to look forward to for a long time to come.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aaaaaaaggh! So creepy - I could not put it down!, October 4, 2006

By 

Samuel Marin "Sam" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing the Dead: A Novel (Hardcover)

So, I just read this book without getting up out of my chair once. I was drawn immediately into the suspenseful scenario ... and then I gurgled aloud and twitched at the sordid imagery ... and followed (against my will) along Sue Young's journey, chewing off my cuticles, until the very last page. I anticipate more gnashing and thrashing in my bed tonight! This book is not only a thriller. The thoughtful and precise language - and the structure of the book as a whole - make it a book I'll remember. I just hope I can forget it once the lights go out tonight.