Exit Wounds: Nineteen Tales of Mystery from the Modern Masters of Crime
About this audiobook
Exit Wounds is a thrilling anthology of crime stories written by masters of the genre, including Dean Koontz, Val McDermid, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Elly Griffiths, Dennis Lehane, Joe R. Lansdale, and others.
After an introduction by the editors, Paul B. Kane and Marie O’Regan, this collection includes the following stories:
“The Bully” by Jeffery Deaver“Dead Weight” by Fiona Cummins“Like a Glass Jaw” by Mark Billingham“On The Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier” by John Connolly“The Pitcher” by Sarah Hilary“Disciplined” by Martyn Waites“The Consumers” by Dennis Lehane“Voices through the Wall” by Alex Gray“Wet with Rain” by Lee Child“Happy Holidays” by Val McDermid“Fool You Twice” by Steph Broadribb“Lebensraum” by Christopher Fowler“Dancing towards the Blade” by Mark Billingham“Kittens” by Dean Koontz“Take My Hand” by A. K. Benedict“Dressed to Kill” by James Oswald“Booty and the Beast” by Joe R. Lansdale“The New Lad” by Paul Finch“The Recipe” by Louise JensenAbout the author
Jeffery Deaver is the #1 international bestselling author of over thirty novels and three collections of short stories. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. He's received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. He lives in North Carolina.
Fiona Cummins is a graduate of the prestigious Faber Academy in London and an award‐winning journalist. She spent twelve years at Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper as its chief showbiz reporter, interviewing celebrities from Michael Jackson to George Clooney. She was named Showbusiness Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2007, and has been nominated four times. Now freelance, her work has appeared in numerous UK publications, as well as appearing on several national TV programs. She lives in Essex with her husband and two children.
Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and has also won the Sherlock Award for Best Detective Created by a British Author. His books, which include the critically acclaimed Tom Thorne series, have been translated into twenty-five languages and have sold over six million copies. He lives in London.
John Connolly is a New York Times bestselling author known for his detective Charlie Parker mysteries. He also writes the supernatural collection Nocturnes, the Samuel Johnson Trilogy for younger readers, and with co-author Jennifer Ridyard the Chronicles of the Invaders series. His twenty-five novels, nonfiction, and short stories have won the Agatha, Barry, Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, as well as being finalists for the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, H. R. F. Keating Award, and Bram Stoker Award.
Sarah Hilary writes copy for a well-known travel publisher. She has also worked as a bookseller and with the Royal Navy. An award-winning short story writer, she won the Cheshire Prize for Literature. Sarah lives in Bath, England.
Martyn Waites was born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and worked as an actor for many years before becoming a writer. He has been nominated for every major British crime-fiction award and has enjoyed international commercial success with eight novels written under the name Tania Carver.
Dennis Lehane is the author of thirteen novels—including the New York Times bestsellers Live by Night; Moonlight Mile; Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; Shutter Island; and The Given Day—as well as Coronado, a collection of short stories and a play. He grew up in Boston, MA and now lives in California with his family.
Lee Child is one of the world’s leading thriller writers. He was born in Coventry, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in New York. It is said one of his novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world and have sold over one hundred million copies. Lee is the recipient of many awards, most recently Author of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.
Val McDermid is an author whose bestselling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award, and the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award, including for the true crime nominee Forensics. Her novels have been translated into forty languages and have sold over 16 million copies. Visit her online at ValMcDermid.com.
Christopher Fowler was born in Greenwich, London. He is the multi-award-winning author of thirty novels and twelve short story collections, and the author of the Bryant & May mystery novels. His first bestseller was Roofworld. Subsequent novels include Spanky, Disturbia, Psychoville, and Calabash. He spent many years working in film. He has written comedy and drama for BBC radio, including Radio One’s first broadcast drama in 2005. He writes for the Financial Times, London’s Independent, Black Static magazine, and many others. His graphic novel for DC Comics was the critically acclaimed Menz Insana. His short story “The Master Builder” became a feature film entitled Through the Eyes of a Killer, starring Tippi Hedren and Marg Helgenberger. He is the winner of the Edge Hill Prize and the Last Laugh Award. After living in the USA and France, he is now married and lives in King’s Cross, London, and Barcelona, Spain.
The books of Dean Koontz are published in 38 languages, and worldwide sales top 400 million copies. Eleven of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list, and several have been adapted into feature films and TV miniseries. Dean and Gerda Koontz live in southern California with their golden retriever, Anna, grand-niece of the famous and beloved Trixie.
A. K. Benedict writes crime and speculative fiction in a room filled with clowns, mannequins, and Doctor Who action figures. Her first novel, The Beauty of Murder, was nominated for an eDunnit Award and is in development as a major eight-part television series by Company Pictures. Her second novel was Jonathan Dark; or The Evidence of Ghosts. She’s written Torchwood audio dramas for Big Finish, and her short stories have been featured in anthologies, including Great British Horror and The Best British Short Stories. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea, England, with her dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.
James Oswald is the author of the Inspector McLean series of crime novels. The first seven, Natural Causes, The Book of Souls, The Hangman's Song, Dead Men's Bones, Prayer for the Dead, The Damage Done and Written in Bones are available as Penguin paperbacks and ebooks. He has also written an epic fantasy series, The Ballad of Sir Benfro, which is published by Penguin, as well as comic scripts and short stories. In his spare time he runs a 350-acre livestock farm in north-east Fife, where he raises pedigree Highland Cattle and New Zealand Romney sheep.
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly four dozen novels, including Rusty Puppy, the Edgar-award winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Paul Finch studied history at Goldsmiths, London, before becoming a cop in the northwest of England. He then let his passion for writing allow him to follow a career in journalism. Now a full-time writer, he first cut his literary teeth penning episodes of the British TV crime drama The Bill and has written extensively in the field of children’s animation. However, he is probably best known for his work in thrillers and horrors.
Alex Gray was born and educated in Glasgow. She has been awarded the Scottish Association of Writers’ Constable and Pitlochry trophies for her crime writing and is the co-founder of the Bloody Scotland international crime writing festival. Married with a son and daughter, she lives in Scotland and is currently writing the next book in the Detective Lorimer series.
Louise Jensen is a USA Today bestselling author of psychological thrillers. Her first two novels, The Sister and The Gift, were both international #1 bestsellers, and have been sold for translation to sixteen countries. Her debut novel, The Sister, was nominated for the Goodreads Awards Debut of 2016. Louise lives in Northamptonshire with her husband, children, madcap dog, and a rather naughty cat. She loves to hear from readers and writers and can be found at LouiseJensen.co.uk, where she regularly blogs flash fiction.
Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. As her alter ego—Crime Thriller Girl—she indulges her love of all things crime fiction by blogging at CrimeThrillerGirl.com, where she interviews authors and reviews the latest releases. She is also a member of the crime-themed girl band The Splice Girls. Steph is an alumni of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California, which inspired her Lori Anderson thrillers. She lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cows, and chickens. Her debut thriller, Deep Down Dead, was shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Awards in two categories, was a finalist in the ITW Awards, and hit number one on the UK and AU kindle charts. The sequels, Deep Blue Trouble and Deep Dirty Truth soon followed suit. My Little Eye, her first novel under her pseudonym Stephanie Marland, was published by Trapeze Books in April 2018.
Paul B. Kane is the award-winning author of over seventy books, including the bestselling Arrowhead trilogy. He is a respected anthologist, editing collections such as Beyond Rue Morgue, Hell-Bound Hearts, and Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell.
Marie O’Regan is a British Fantasy Award–nominated writer and editor of horror and dark fantasy fiction. Her anthologies include Mirror Mere, Hellbound Hearts, and The Mammoth Book of Body Horror. She is cochair of the UK chapter of the Horror Writers’ Association.
Kate Reading is the recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and has been named by AudioFile magazine as a “Voice of the Century,” as well as the Best Voice in Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2008 and 2009 and Best Voice in Biography & Culture in 2010. She has narrated works by such authors as Jane Austen, Robert Jordan, Edith Wharton, and Sophie Kinsella. Reading has performed at numerous theaters in Washington D.C. and received a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in Aunt Dan and Lemon. AudioFile magazine reports that, "With subtle control of characters and sense of pacing, Kate’s performances are a consistent pleasure."
Austin Rising is a classically trained actor, award-winning audiobook narrator, and film producer from Albuquerque, New Mexico. A gifted mimic, he enjoys narrating audiobooks in a number of genres, including young adult, science fiction, and fantasy. His acting credits include Better Call Saul, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Longmire, Hostiles, The Rookie, S.W.A.T, and Shameless.
Marisa Calin is an actress, narrator, and novelist born in England and educated in New York at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts. An artist with a flair for everything literary, she has written a young adult novel, You & Me, which received a Kirkus Starred Review, and has narrated the audio books Ruby Red and Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier.
Matthew Lloyd Davies is a veteran actor, audiobook narrator, and director. Highlights of his career include regular appearances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, in the West End, on international tours, and in award-winning television shows and films. With experience in radio, a master's degree in directing, and extensive experience in presenting at corporate events, Matthew has honed his ability to tell a story. It is that ability which he brings to each and every audiobook he narrates and produces.
Alan Smyth, an audiobook narrator, has worked as a professional actor for more than fifteen years. He has toured extensively in Ireland and the United States and has worked with such companies as the BBC, Paramount Pictures, and Showtime Productions.
Peter Noble is an experienced audiobook narrator. Born in South Africa, he was dragged by hippie musicians from his idyllic childhood, where he ran barefoot through rich and matted grass with his dog Bartok, to vegetarian communes from California to India via Lisbon, London, and Findhorn. He picked up a wide range of authentic local accents and character voices along the way.
A native of the United Kingdom, Audie and AudioFile Earphones Award winner Derek Perkins's audiobook narration skills are augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents. He has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA.
Courtney Patterson is an Atlanta native who has been working as an actor on stage, screen, and behind the microphone for close to two decades. She has been narrating audiobooks since 2011 and has fallen in love with the craft of storytelling through narration. Courtney is the mother of two wonderful little weirdos and the wife of a brilliant sommelier. There's also a cat and some fish in the mix. Courtney couldn't be happier with her crazy artistic lifestyle and is keenly aware that having good wine always within reach is most likely the reason for her family's success.
Alison Larkin is an internationally acclaimed comedienne, an award-winning voice artist, an actress, a producer, a screenwriter, and a bestselling author. Her voice can be heard in cartoons, in movies, and on over one hundred audiobooks. Her narration of her novel The English American won an Earphones Award and made the top-ten list of best author audiobook narrations of all time, joining ranks with President Obama, E.B. White, and Jane Fonda.
Robert Fass is the two-time winner of the prestigious Audie Award, numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a veteran actor who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. He has worked on projects from authors such as Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, T.S. Eliot, Joyce Carol Oates, Carlos Fuentes, Jeffrey Deaver, and Lee Child, as well as bestselling and prize-winning nonfiction works in history, politics, health, journalism, philosophy, business, and memoir.
Justine Eyre is an award-winning audiobook narrator who has recorded over three-hundred titles. Named a 2013 AudioFile Best Voice, she has won an Audie Award and multiple Earphones Awards. Classically trained and multilingual, she performs on stage, television, and film and has had roles in King Lear and The Crucible, on Two and a Half Men and Mad Men, and in multiple indie-circuit films.
Jennifer Woodward is an actress and narrator of audiobooks. She is known for her performance in several high-profile video games and for her part in the narration of Mr. Bones by Paul Theroux.
Helen Lloyd is a British actor and voice artist who recorded her first voice-over at the age of fourteen. Since then, she has spent much of her life interpreting other people’s words and bringing characters to life. A classically trained actor, she has performed with many of Britain’s leading repertory theaters, as well as at the Edinburgh Festival, the Roundhouse, and on the West End.
Ron Butler is a Los Angeles-based actor and voice artist with over a hundred film and television credits (playing everything from brooding doctors to screwball hipsters). Most kids will recognize him from the three seasons he spent on Nickelodeon's True Jackson, VP. Ron works regularly as a commercial and animation voice-over artist and has voiced a wide variety of audiobooks. He is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company and an Independent Filmmaker Project Award winner for his work in the HBO film Everyday People. Originally from the Bahamas, Ron grew up singing calypso onstage with his father (the country's number-one recording artist) before touring (and recording) in Europe with a jazz band. In his spare time, he impersonates the president while playing the ukulele.
Rachel L. Jacobs is an experienced actor, singer, and voice artist based in Los Angeles. She received her BA in theater from Oberlin and did intensive studies with the American Conservatory Theatre, the National Theater Institute, and Shakespeare & Company. A former resident performer with the California Theatre Center, she has dubbed live-action shows, voiced characters for cartoons, and narrated numerous audiobook titles.
A native of London, UK, Shiromi Arserio is a stage actor and AudioFile Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator. She holds a BA in theater from Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. In addition to narrating over 150 audiobooks in British English, American, and Australian accents, her voice can be heard in video games such as Nancy Drew: The Shattered Medallion. A self-proclaimed geek, Shiromi currently resides in Seattle with her husband and two furbabies.
Born in one of the unlikeliest of places-on the desk of the British High Commissioner in New Delhi, India-native British stage and film actor Ralph Lister lives happily in whatever reality he finds himself. His Audie-nominated audiobook work and best actor awards for both stage and film (2011 Grand Award and 2014 Eclipse Award, respectively) have led him into the delightfully strange worlds of the many characters he embodies in voice. Ralph has narrated more than one hundred audiobooks and directed over a dozen others, across all genres, both fiction and nonfiction. Now a U.S. citizen, Ralph shares his time between his homes in Michigan and Los Angeles, where he also continues his passion for on-camera acting. Recent film credits include roles in OZ: The Great and Powerful, Setup, Alleged, and Mickey Matson and the Pirate's Code, and his television credits include a role on the AMC crime drama Low Winter Sun.
John McLain is an Audie Award nominated audiobook narrator and voice actor. He has narrated over 125 audiobook titles, including mysteries, westerns, thrillers, history, science fiction, and historical fiction. A proud member of SAG-AFTRA and the Audio Publishers Association, he and his wife live near Phoenix with their cocker spaniel, Tucker.
James Langton trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, he has performed many voice-overs and narrated numerous audiobooks, including the international bestseller The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud by Julia Navarro. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002. James was born in York, England, and is now based in New York City.
