?Have You Heard??Audiobooks For Your Listening Pleasure?Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell?Narrated by Robert Petkoff?

Beat the Reaper (Peter Brown #1) by Josh Bazell
Published by Hachette Audio on January 7th 2009
Genres: Action & Adventure, Crime
Pages: 310
Format: Audiobook
ISBN: 0316032220
ASIN: B001P93GM4
Goodreads

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital; Pietro "Bearclaw" Brwna is a hitman for the mob. And Nicholas LoBrutto, Dr. Brown's new patient who has three months to live, has a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brwna might - just might - be the same person ...

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan Catholic Hospital with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he'd prefer to keep hidden. Whether it's a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Pietro "Bearclaw" Brwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he's the last person you want to see in your hospital room.

Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown's new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brwna might - just might - be the same person ...

Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours - and somehow beat the reaper.

Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, Beat the Reaper is a debut thriller so utterly original you won't be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won't be able to put it down.

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#TheMob #Holocaust #SharkTank #WitnessProtection #MedicalSatire @JoshBazell @petkoff @HachetteAudio

I really worry about myself when I truly love a book that is far removed from what I normally like. Graphic violence, morally bankrupt characters, gratuitous sex, and excessive use of the F-word are just a few of the things that sometimes turn me off. Not so with Beat the Reaper, author Josh Bazell’s debut novel. Performed by the gifted Robert Petkoff, this book is funny, irreverent, profane, gross, shockingly violent, and totally entertaining for every minute of the 6+ hours. You’d best read the book description carefully before you take it on and give it a pass if you see anything you think might take you out of your comfort zone because this is not a comfortable ride. I’m not sure exactly what elevated Beat the Reaper above your run-of-the-mill “mob guy goes straight” story. Possibly, for me, it was the fact that Pietro Brnwa doesn’t leave the mob behind by changing his appearance and his name and moving far, far away as is often the case in witness protection. He goes to college and becomes a doctor! While many of the author’s descriptions of the goings on at Manhattan Catholic Hospital are designed more to shock or to entertain rather than to inform, they still made me laugh out loud and fondly remember the days when I assisted with surgery and took care of patients for a living. Some of the scenarios were far too close to reality!

I’ve listened to many audiobooks narrated by Mr. Petkoff and enjoyed them all, but this one may be my favorite performance. I’m sure the fact that he captures perfectly all those qualities I mentioned previously is gratifying to the author. He brings Dr. Peter Brown to life in a way that will actually have you rooting for one of the bad guys.

I highly recommend Beat the Reaper to listeners who are open-minded and adventurous and don’t mind hearing the sacred institution of medicine laid unflatteringly bare. If this was a stand-alone, I would probably see the ending as unsatisfying, but since more of Dr. Peter Brown is promised I’ll just move on to Wild Things to see if Josh Bazell is a one-hit-wonder or if he can truly keep the love alive for me in this series.