Monday, April 14, 2025

Another true crime book from B.R. Bates

 

My latest recording just landed on Audible: The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins by B.R. Bates. This is the second book in her series, Murders in the Motor City. 

"The Story of America's 'Fastest Serial Killer'

THE CRACK CITY STRANGLER: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins offers a chilling, in-depth account of the horrifying crimes committed by one of America’s most notorious serial killers. In this gripping narrative, award-winning journalist B.R. Bates delves into the twisted life of Benjamin “Tony” Atkins, whose reign of terror in Detroit spanned less than a year in the early 1990s. Known for targeting vulnerable women in Detroit’s most dangerous neighborhoods, Atkins attacked at least 12 women along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Woodward Avenue, one of the city’s most iconic streets, Atkins' crimes were brutal and relentless, leaving victims abandoned in the dark corners of the Cass Corridor and Highland Park. Only when the lone survivor of his horrific spree came forward did law enforcement begin to connect the dots and ultimately capture the monster behind the killings.

Through meticulous research in this second book in her "Murders In The Motor City" series, Bates uncovers the complex web of motivation, abuse, and desperation that led Atkins to target sex workers, while also exploring the societal pressures and systemic neglect that shaped his dark path. A poignant look at a killer’s psychology, Bates invites readers to understand how a troubled life could give rise to such monstrous behavior." 

To listen to the sample and/or purchase the book, head to Audible here.


Tuesday, April 1, 2025

New poetry from Voices of Today

 

I was very happy to be a part of this recording as a member of Voices of Today! Poems of Emily Dickinson, Series 2 by Emily Dickinson was a group project by VOT narrators. 

"Few of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published in her lifetime. Her posthumous fame is largely due to the efforts of her editors and supporters Thomas W. Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd.

In the foreword to this second collection, published in 1891, Mabel Loomis Todd wrote: “The eagerness with which the first volume of Emily Dickinson’s poems has been read shows very clearly that all our alleged modern artificiality does not prevent a prompt appreciation of the qualities of directness and simplicity in approaching the greatest themes—life and love and death. That “irresistible needle-touch,” as one of her best critics has called it, piercing at once the very core of a thought, has found a response as wide and sympathetic as it has been unexpected even to those who knew best her compelling power. This second volume, while open to the same criticism as to form with its predecessor, shows also the same shining beauties.”

Narrators:

  • Larry Wilson
  • Lyndal Curran Doolan
  • Martha H. Weller
  • Amy Soakes
  • Kylie Elliott
  • Margaret Wakeley
  • Lee Ann Howlett
  • Linda Barrans
  • Ron Altman
  • Nancy Beard
  • Gary MacFadden
  • Terah Tucker
  • Denis Daly
  • Gregory Dwyer
  • Charlie Albers
  • JaeAudio


To  listen to the sample and/or purchase the recording, head to Audible here.