
The Good Son
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $27.97
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Neil Shah
-
By:
-
Michael Gruber
About this listen
New York Times best-selling author Michael Gruber, a member of the elite ranks of those who can both “chill the blood and challenge the mind” (Denver Post), delivers a taut, multilayered, riveting novel of suspense.
Somewhere in Pakistan, Sonia Laghari and eight fellow members of a symposium on peace are being held captive by armed terrorists. Laghari, a deeply religious woman as well as a Jungian psychologist, has become the de facto leader of the kidnapped group. While her son, Theo, an ex-Delta soldier, uses his military connections to find and free the victims, Sonia Laghari tries to keep them all alive by working her way into the kidnappers’ psyches and interpreting their dreams. With her knowledge of their language, her familiarity with their religion, and her Jungian training, she confounds her captors with her insights and beliefs. When the kidnappers decide to kill their captives one by one, in retaliation for perceived crimes against their country, Theo races against the clock to try and save their lives.
©2010 Michael Gruber (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Forgery of Venus
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Eric Conger
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chaz Wilmot makes his living cranking out old-master parodies for ads and magazine covers. When he's offered a job restoring a Venetian palace fresco, he is at first, skeptical - he immediately sees it is more a forgery than a restoration. But he is soon seduced by the challenge and throws himself into the work, doing the job brilliantly.
-
-
art sci fi psychological thriller
- By Susan on 11-06-11
By: Michael Gruber
-
Woman on Fire
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Barr
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the award-winning Fugitive Colors and The Unbreakables, a gripping tale of a young, ambitious journalist embroiled in an international art scandal centered around a Nazi-looted masterpiece—forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth.
-
-
Thrilling mix of history and suspense
- By Trisha A. Harkness on 04-02-22
By: Lisa Barr
-
The Return
- A Novel
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The real Richard Marder would shock his acquaintances, if they ever met him. Even his wife, long dead, didn’t know the real man behind the calm, cultured mask he presents to the world. Only an old army buddy from Vietnam, Patrick Skelly, knows what Marder is capable of. Then, a shattering piece of news awakens Marder’s buried desire for vengeance; with nothing left to lose, he sets off to punish the people whose actions changed his life years earlier.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Alan E. Gesler on 10-01-13
By: Michael Gruber
-
The Terminal List
- A Thriller
- By: Jack Carr
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On his last combat deployment, Lt. Cmdr. James Reece's entire team was killed in an ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government. Now, with no family and free from the military's command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he's learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward revenge.
-
-
Make way for Jack Carr!!!!
- By shelley on 03-08-18
By: Jack Carr
-
All His Pretty Girls
- Detective Alyssa Wyatt, Book 1
- By: Charly Cox
- Narrated by: Kate Zane
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A woman is found naked, badly beaten and barely alive in the New Mexico mountains. The shocking discovery plunges Albuquerque Detective Alyssa Wyatt into a case that will test her to the limit. It appears that Callie McCormick is the latest plaything of a shadowy psychopath that leaves a long shadow on the streets of New Mexico - an individual linked to a string of deaths but leaving no evidence. But when Alyssa makes a breakthrough that just might reveal the killer, she unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of a brutal maniac - one with an old score to settle.
-
-
Do yourself a favor and GET THIS BOOK!!!!
- By shelley on 06-14-20
By: Charly Cox
-
Valley of Bones
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes, Jonathan Davis
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The setting is Miami. Rookie cop Tito Morales arrives at the Trianon hotel to investigate a routine disturbance call and, to his shock and horror, watches as a wealthy oil man plunges ten stories and impales himself on a nearby fence. Soon Morales is joined by detective Jimmy Paz, famous throughout the city for solving -- or at least providing a plausible solution to -- the so-called Voodoo Murders that left Miami burning months earlier.
-
-
Spies Thugs in a World of Intrigue, Mystery
- By Timothy on 03-18-05
By: Michael Gruber
-
The Forgery of Venus
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Eric Conger
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chaz Wilmot makes his living cranking out old-master parodies for ads and magazine covers. When he's offered a job restoring a Venetian palace fresco, he is at first, skeptical - he immediately sees it is more a forgery than a restoration. But he is soon seduced by the challenge and throws himself into the work, doing the job brilliantly.
-
-
art sci fi psychological thriller
- By Susan on 11-06-11
By: Michael Gruber
-
Woman on Fire
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Barr
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the award-winning Fugitive Colors and The Unbreakables, a gripping tale of a young, ambitious journalist embroiled in an international art scandal centered around a Nazi-looted masterpiece—forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth.
-
-
Thrilling mix of history and suspense
- By Trisha A. Harkness on 04-02-22
By: Lisa Barr
-
The Return
- A Novel
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The real Richard Marder would shock his acquaintances, if they ever met him. Even his wife, long dead, didn’t know the real man behind the calm, cultured mask he presents to the world. Only an old army buddy from Vietnam, Patrick Skelly, knows what Marder is capable of. Then, a shattering piece of news awakens Marder’s buried desire for vengeance; with nothing left to lose, he sets off to punish the people whose actions changed his life years earlier.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Alan E. Gesler on 10-01-13
By: Michael Gruber
-
The Terminal List
- A Thriller
- By: Jack Carr
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On his last combat deployment, Lt. Cmdr. James Reece's entire team was killed in an ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government. Now, with no family and free from the military's command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he's learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward revenge.
-
-
Make way for Jack Carr!!!!
- By shelley on 03-08-18
By: Jack Carr
-
All His Pretty Girls
- Detective Alyssa Wyatt, Book 1
- By: Charly Cox
- Narrated by: Kate Zane
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A woman is found naked, badly beaten and barely alive in the New Mexico mountains. The shocking discovery plunges Albuquerque Detective Alyssa Wyatt into a case that will test her to the limit. It appears that Callie McCormick is the latest plaything of a shadowy psychopath that leaves a long shadow on the streets of New Mexico - an individual linked to a string of deaths but leaving no evidence. But when Alyssa makes a breakthrough that just might reveal the killer, she unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of a brutal maniac - one with an old score to settle.
-
-
Do yourself a favor and GET THIS BOOK!!!!
- By shelley on 06-14-20
By: Charly Cox
-
Valley of Bones
- By: Michael Gruber
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes, Jonathan Davis
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The setting is Miami. Rookie cop Tito Morales arrives at the Trianon hotel to investigate a routine disturbance call and, to his shock and horror, watches as a wealthy oil man plunges ten stories and impales himself on a nearby fence. Soon Morales is joined by detective Jimmy Paz, famous throughout the city for solving -- or at least providing a plausible solution to -- the so-called Voodoo Murders that left Miami burning months earlier.
-
-
Spies Thugs in a World of Intrigue, Mystery
- By Timothy on 03-18-05
By: Michael Gruber
-
A is for Alibi
- A Kinsey Millhone Mystery
- By: Sue Grafton
- Narrated by: Mary Peiffer
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the first in the popular series featuring California investigator Kinsey Millhone. She's 32, twice divorced, no kids, an ex-cop who likes her work...and who works strictly alone!
-
-
No More for Me
- By Robin on 07-12-08
By: Sue Grafton
-
Lost and Found in Paris
- A Novel
- By: Lian Dolan
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joan Blakely had an unconventional childhood: the daughter of a globe-trotting supermodel and a world-famous artist. Her artist father died on 9/11, and Joan—an art historian by training—has spent more than a decade maintaining his legacy. Life in the art world is beginning to wear on her—and then one fateful afternoon her husband drops a bombshell: he’s fathered twins with another woman.
-
-
From the Mixed-Up Tales of Joan
- By Kay Woodbarry on 04-12-22
By: Lian Dolan
-
Dear and Glorious Physician
- A Novel About Saint Luke
- By: Taylor Caldwell
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucanus grew up in the household of his stepfather, the Roman governor of Antioch. After studying medicine in Alexandria, he became one of the greatest physicians of the ancient world and traveled far and wide through the Mediterranean region healing the sick. As time went on, he learned of the life and death of Christ and saw in him the God he was seeking. To find out all he could about the life and teachings of Jesus, whom he never saw, Lucanus visited all the places where Jesus had been.
-
-
Childhood favorite
- By susan on 04-06-19
By: Taylor Caldwell
-
When the Corn Is Waist High
- By: Jeremy Scott
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Father Solomon Lancaster—the town's dry-witted sheriff and priest at the community Catholic church—finds himself on the forefront of an investigation into a series of murders. Soon, he's fighting to match wits with the serial killer terrorizing his town while trying to justify his law-enforcement credentials to the FBI as their analysts and profilers take Crooked Creek, Indiana, by storm. But Father Solomon is hiding secrets of his own. Ones that threaten to rise to the surface as the murders continue and the investigation draws nearer to the truth.
-
-
You think you know where this is going…..
- By Jenn on 05-06-22
By: Jeremy Scott
-
A Place to Hang the Moon
- By: Kate Albus
- Narrated by: Polly Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1940 and William, 12, Edmund, 11, and Anna, nine, aren't terribly upset by the death of the not-so-grandmotherly grandmother who has taken care of them since their parents died. But the children do need a guardian, and in the dark days of World War II London, those are in short supply, especially if they hope to stay together. Could the mass wartime evacuation of children from London to the countryside be the answer?
-
-
Excellent Historical Novel
- By Elsie on 06-30-21
By: Kate Albus
-
Redemption
- A Novel
- By: Mike Lawson
- Narrated by: Pun Bandhu
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his reputation permanently marred by an insider trading conviction, Jamison Maddox, a young Wall Street broker, reluctantly takes a job doing research for a small company in the sleepy town of Redemption, Illinois. He’s never heard of the company, or of the town, but he’s out of money and options. Though Jamison notices right away that everyone in Redemption is in some way related to one another, the big city boy chalks it up to small-town ways.
-
-
Nothing clever or new.
- By Melanie on 06-09-22
By: Mike Lawson
-
The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Val Eliot, a young woman working on an English farm during the war, meets Mike, a US Air Force pilot stationed nearby. When Val rescues a Border Collie named Peter Woodhouse, who is being mistreated by his owner, she realizes the dog would actually be safer with Mike. And so Peter Woodhouse finds a new home on the air force base, and Val finds herself falling in love.
-
-
wonderful
- By T. Bellan on 04-23-18
-
Ender's Game Alive: The Full Cast Audioplay
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Full Cast Recording
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Experience Ender’s Game as you’ve never heard it before! With an all-new, original script written by Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game Alive is a full-cast audio drama that reimagines the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic.
-
-
Don't start with this audiobook.
- By Ryan on 10-24-13
By: Orson Scott Card
-
The Family Chao
- By: Lan Samantha Chang
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao Restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for 35 years, happy to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. But when brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo Chao is found dead - presumed murdered - his sons discover that they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town.
-
-
An American Family Saga of Love and Loyalty
- By Mary Tsao on 04-14-22
-
America's First Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 23 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, best-selling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph - a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.
-
-
Great Story Great Narration
- By MissSusie66 on 03-30-16
By: Stephanie Dray, and others
-
The Poisonwood Bible
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Dean Robertson
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
-
-
Listen to the sample first!
- By Cheryl D on 07-30-08
-
Baby Teeth
- A Novel
- By: Zoje Stage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suzette knows her clever and manipulative seven-year-old daughter doesn’t love her. She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna’s subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and her husband apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger....
-
-
Immediately Gripping
- By T on 07-18-18
By: Zoje Stage
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Good Son
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gail
- 11-01-12
Wow
As someone who spent 5 years working in the Middle East this book perfectly reflects the Arab world and Muslim culture. It also captures the failure of the average American to have any understanding of the complexity of these tribal societies. A real eye opener.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Mary Shore
- 08-17-10
A very smart thriller, very well read.
My husband and I often disagree on politics, so I wasn't sure how it would be to drive across the country listening to a story about Pakistan, and about American involvement in the conflicts of the area. We both loved this book. We were captivated by the story and intellectually engaged by the ideas here. Gruber's characters make every argument imaginable for and against various political positions, violent and covert operations, and religious practices and they do so in ways that make it possible to regard even those characters with whom one disagrees as sympathetic.
The story is packed with philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, and political theory, yet it is not weighed down by them. All the talking works in this action thriller; in fact, it is hard to imagine the story or the character development without it. We have to hear from the characters in order not to dismiss them as "the other" when they do horrible things.
The book is read very well by Neil Shah. The cast of characters is as large as a 19th c. Russian novel so it's possible to be confused sometimes, and Shah maintains different voice tones and accents well so that you can recognize who is speaking.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen
- 11-29-11
Intellectual thriller!
This is an amazing book for those of you who like literary/intellectual thrillers. Gruber has a political background and his insight into the inner workings of the fundamentalist mindset feels astoundingly real. The most unforgettable character is Sonia,a woman who ran away from her Pakistani husband and posed as a Pashtun boy in order to travel to Mecca with a Sufi master. Later in life, after a family tragedy, she becomes a Jungian analyst. In the present, she is being held hostage by the Taliban. Using her training, she interpreting their dreams and skillfully manipulates her captors.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Phil Johnson
- 01-09-14
Well worth it.
A great, imaginative adventure story. Some necessary violence ( it is the Jihad), but most of the bad guys get there do. Some of the good or innocent are not spared pain, but it is minimal.
There are some very imaginative takes on Islam and petropolitics that I have never run across before. Great central character. A definite page turner without embarrassment.
Highly recommended.
I initially put 3 stars for the story because it strains some credulity. But I changed it to 4 stars. The author requests a little leap of imagination, and he delivers.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. L. Forbes-Cardey
- 01-23-13
Suspenseful, characters I cared about.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The mother, she was multi-layered, multi-cultural, I loved hating her.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
When that key piece of information fell into place--right before the story pointed it out. I love it when the suspense is timed and fed so well!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Teresa
- 10-10-16
Get through the first few chapters
The story was great! I began this audiobook 3 times before sticking with it and I am glad I did. The first few chapters were excruciatingly tedious but once through them the rest of the story was awesome.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Karen
- 05-17-16
fantastic!
This book has me memorized, not only because of the captivating prose but because it has made me understand the vast differences in the people of the western world and the middle east. But, the religions are so alike at the core!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- CKC
- 01-13-14
Without equal..the most interesting book of 2013
This author is creating unrest in my book listening habits! He is blending the thriller and a philosophical treatise into one pleasurable experience. And although I wish to listen to other books and change the pace, I cannot. Try ANY of his books...creative, imaginative, thought provoking, suspenseful, easy to listen to...listen to these stories and watch the hours fly by!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Buyer 1996
- 08-18-16
Thought Prevoking
I really enjoyed the book. It caused me to look at Middle Eastern cultures in a whole new way. I now have more questions than ever. Great insight about psychology too.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cheryl
- 04-25-15
Ambitious Muslim Thriller
A lot of this story dragged slowly on and on for me. There was too much discussion of religion, poetry and peace; and too much analyzing of the Muslim psyche. Furthermore, there were too many dream interpretations by one of the main characters, Sonia. I did not particularly like her, or her son Theo. Theo is not a very realistic character, and in fact, neither is his mother Sonia.
The story is way too long but does have an exciting ending. If you can drag yourself to the end, it may be worth it. To me it was not.
It is going to be hard for me to pick up another book written by Michael Gruber because I was so disappointed in this one. I definitely would not recommend this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!