The Violated: A Novel
About this audiobook
Bill Pronzini is crime-writing royalty. His more than eighty published novels have won or been nominated for Edgar, Hammett, Anthony, Shamus, and Macavity awards—a clean sweep of the crime fiction award field—and received rave reviews from critics. He crafts masterful stories, often from multiple perspectives, in which the human condition is on full display. The Violated is no exception.
In Echo Park, in the small town of Santa Rita, California, the mutilated body of Martin Torrey is found by two passersby. A registered sex offender, Torrey has been a suspect in a string of recent rapes, and instant suspicion for his murder falls on the relatives and friends of the women attacked. Police chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz are under increasing pressure from the public and from a mayor demanding results in a case that has no easy solution.
Pronzini cleverly unfolds the case through alternating perspectives—Martin Torrey’s wife, caught between her grief and the fear her husband was guilty; the outraged husbands of the women violated; the enterprising editor of the local paper; the mayor concerned most with his own ratings; the detectives, often spinning in circles—until a surprising break leads to a completely unexpected conclusion. The Violated is Bill Pronzini at the height of his storytelling powers.
About the author
Bill Pronzini is a writer of detective fiction. He is also an active anthologist, having compiled more than 100 collections, most of which focus on mystery, western, and science fiction short stories.
Read by Traber Burns, Rachel Fulginiti, Keith Szarabajka, Mark Ashby, Tanya Eby, Kate Rudd, Joe Barrett, Thom Rivera, Hillary Huber, Erin Spencer, Elizabeth Wiley, Caroline Shaffer, Emily Sutton-Smith, Johnny Heller, Emily Woo Zeller, and R. C. Bray
Rachel Fulginiti earned a BA in acting from the University of New Hampshire. Trained in the Meisner technique, she fine-tuned her craft on Manhattan's stages for ten years, doing theatre, sketch comedy, and performance art, before moving to Los Angeles and transitioning to voiceover. She can be heard regularly on television and radio, voicing for brands such as Kia, McDonald’s, and Target, as well as on numerous audiobooks.
Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins’s Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.
Mark Ashby has recorded over three hundred books for the Library of Congress, including works by Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, and Dan Brown. He received the AFB Scourby Award for nonfiction narration and was nominated for a Torgi Award. He also directed and starred in the full-cast audio play Flesh and Blood, and his stage acting credits include The Odd Couple, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Seven Year Itch, The Nerd, and Boeing Boeing. Also, as a member and head writer of comedy troupe Those Guys, he has penned a semi-autobiographical play called How to Make a Baby.
Tanya Eby has a B.A. in English language and literature from Grand Valley State University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine. A voiceover artist and audiobook narrator for over ten years, she has also been a writer for as long as she can remember. She lives with her two quirky children in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Kate Rudd has narrated over 250 titles across a variety of genres. The winner of multiple Earphones awards, she won the 2013 Audie and Odyssey Awards for her narration of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. For more information, follow her on Twitter @katerudd.
Joe Barrett began his acting career at the age of five in the basement of his family's home in upstate New York. He has gone on to play many stage roles, both on and off-Broadway, and in regional theaters from Los Angeles, Houston, and St. Louis to Washington DC, San Francisco, and Portland, Maine. He has appeared in films and television, both prime time and late night, and in hundreds of television and radio commercials. Joe has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. He has been an Audie Award finalist eight times, and his narration of Gun Church by Reed Farrel Coleman won the 2013 Audie Award for Original Work. AudioFile magazine has granted Joe fourteen Earphones Awards, including for James Salter's All That Is and Donald Katz's Home Fires. Regarding Joe's narration of John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany, AudioFile said, "This moving book comes across like a concerto... with a soloist-Owen's voice-rising from the background of an orchestral narration." Joe is married to actor Andrea Wright, and together they have four very grown children.
Thom Rivera is a multiple Earphones award-winning narrator. He is also a classically trained television, film, theatre, and voice actor. Based in Los Angeles, he spent twelve years living and working in New York City. He has toured nationally and performed at regional theatres and Shakespeare Festivals throughout the US. On television, he can be seen in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, New Girl, The Mindy Project, and the CBS series Zoo.
Hillary Huber is a multiple Audie Award finalist, an Earphones Award winner, and an AudioFile Best Voice. She has recorded over six hundred titles spanning many genres and holds a bachelor's degree in English literature. A voracious reader and listener, she was raised in Connecticut and Hawaii but now splits her time between California and New York.
Erin Spencer is an accomplished actress, voice talent, and dancer. She has performed across the US as well as internationally, most notably touring with the Broadway show Chicago. From commercials to web videos and video games, Erin's voice has brought life to words. And as an avid reader, she enjoys narrating audiobooks and has worked with publishing houses as well as self-published authors to bring the written word to life. She lives in Los Angeles.
AudioFile Earphones Award winner Elizabeth Wiley is a seasoned actor, dialect coach, theater professor, and dedicated narrator. In addition to her growing portfolio of audiobooks, her voice can be heard in The Idea of America, Colonial Williamsburg's virtual learning curriculum; in Paul Meier's e-textbook Speaking Shakespeare; and modeling U.S.-English on one of the world's top language learning products.
Caroline Shaffer studied theater at the Weber Douglas Academy in London and received her master's degree from the American Conservatory Theater. A voiceover artist in addition to an actor, she has lent her talents to multiple projects ranging from television, film, commercials, and cartoons. An avid reader, she spends her free time reading anything from classics to new releases.
Emily Sutton-Smith is a professional actress and one of the cofounders of an Equity theater in central Michigan. Her stage credits include Out of Orbit; Doublewide; Summer Retreat; Too Much, Too Much, Too Many; Miracle on South Division Street; End Days; The Usual: A Musical Love Story; The Smell of the Kill; The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds; Maidens, Mothers and Crones; and Additional Particulars. A New York City native, she has worked onstage at almost all the Equity theaters in Michigan, including the Williamston Theatre, the Purple Rose Theatre, Performance Network Theatre, Tipping Point Theatre, the Detroit Rep, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, and MeadowBrook Theatre. Emily is a proud member of the Actors' Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA. Her film and TV credits include The Funeral Guest, Gifted Hands, Butterfly Effect: Revelation, The Prince of Motor City, and Nevermore. Emily studied acting at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York City, and holds a Grande Diploma in Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University.
Johnny Heller is an award-winning narrator and one of the most sought-after voiceover coaches in the nation. An ALA Odyssey Award winner, AudioFile Golden Voice, and a Grammy nominee, he has narrated over 1,000 titles in almost every genre. A multiple recipient of Booklist and Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews, Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards, and AudioFile Magazine Best Voice of the Year recognitions, he is regularly nominated for Earphones and Audies and is a multi-award winner of both.
Emily Woo Zeller is an Earphones award-winning audiobook narrator. After beginning her voiceover career with Asian animation, she returned to the United States and began narrating a broad spectrum of audiobook genres. Her multilingual, multicultural framework brings a particularly unique, clear-eyed, and intimate perspective to the Asian American narratives she specializes in.
R.C. Bray has performed Off-Broadway, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and many stages in between. An accomplished producer and voiceover artist, R.C.'s voice can also be heard in countless TV and radio commercials. He lives with his gorgeous wife and two beautiful daughters in New England.
