
The Paperboy
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 $20.97
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sean Runnette
-
By:
-
Pete Dexter
About this listen
The sun was rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call was found on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck was tried, sentenced, and set to fry.
Then Ward James, a hotshot investigative reporter for the Miami Times, returns to his rural hometown with a death row femme fatale who promises him the story of the decade. She’s armed with explosive evidence and aims to free - and meet - her convicted “fiancé.”
With Ward’s disillusioned younger brother Jack as their driver, they barrel down Florida’s back roads and seamy places in search of the story, racing flat out into a shocking head-on collision between character and fate as truth takes a backseat to headline news.
Pete Dexter is the author of the National Book Award–winning novel Paris Trout, among others. He has been a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Sacramento Bee and has contributed to many magazines, including Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy. His screenplays include Rush and Mulholland Falls.
©1995 Pete Dexter (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Deadwood
- A Novel
- By: Peter Dexter
- Narrated by: J. Rodney Turner
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deadwood, Dakota Territories, 1876: Legendary gunman Wild Bill Hickcock and his friend Charlie Utter have come to the Black Hills town of Deadwood fresh from Cheyenne, fleeing an ungrateful populace. Bill, aging and sick but still able to best any man in a fair gunfight, just wants to be left alone to drink and play cards. But in this town of played-out miners, bounty hunters, upstairs girls, Chinese immigrants, and various other entrepreneurs and miscreants, he finds himself pursued by a vicious sheriff, a perverse whore man bent on revenge, and a besotted Calamity Jane.
-
-
What the hell is it with Narrators of Westerns?
- By Kevin on 06-10-19
By: Peter Dexter
-
Those We Thought We Knew
- By: David Joy
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Toya Gardner, a young Black artist from Atlanta, has returned to her ancestral home in the North Carolina mountains to trace her family history and complete her graduate thesis. But when she encounters a still-standing Confederate monument in the heart of town, she sets her sights on something bigger.
-
-
Best work yet.
- By Phillip and Taylor on 08-04-23
By: David Joy
-
Gangsterland
- A Novel
- By: Tod Goldberg
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A few surgeries and some intensive training later, and Sal Cupertine is gone, having disappeared into the identity of Rabbi David Cohen. Leading his growing congregation in Las Vegas, overseeing the population and the temple and the new cemetery, Rabbi Cohen feels his wicked past slipping away from him, surprising even himself as he spouts quotes from the Torah. But the Mafia isn't quite done with him.
-
-
Usually not into these kind of things
- By Kristen Truempy on 06-10-18
By: Tod Goldberg
-
Small Mercies
- A Novel
- By: Dennis Lehane
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessey is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched.
-
-
Sadly these streets are my home…
- By shipyardjay on 05-10-23
By: Dennis Lehane
-
Midnight Cowboy
- By: James Leo Herlihy
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus.
-
-
Superb
- By Macala Shon on 01-26-21
-
August Snow
- August Snow, Book 1
- By: Stephen Mack Jones
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an old acquaintance, finance magnate Eleanore Paget, hears August is back in town, she tries to hire him to investigate suspicious goings-on at her investment bank. August declines - detective work is no longer his beat. When Eleanore is found dead the next day of an apparent suicide, August doesn't buy it for a minute. His search for her killer will drag him into a rat's nest of Detroit's most dangerous criminals.
-
-
Great story
- By D. K. Gaston on 03-19-21
-
Deadwood
- A Novel
- By: Peter Dexter
- Narrated by: J. Rodney Turner
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deadwood, Dakota Territories, 1876: Legendary gunman Wild Bill Hickcock and his friend Charlie Utter have come to the Black Hills town of Deadwood fresh from Cheyenne, fleeing an ungrateful populace. Bill, aging and sick but still able to best any man in a fair gunfight, just wants to be left alone to drink and play cards. But in this town of played-out miners, bounty hunters, upstairs girls, Chinese immigrants, and various other entrepreneurs and miscreants, he finds himself pursued by a vicious sheriff, a perverse whore man bent on revenge, and a besotted Calamity Jane.
-
-
What the hell is it with Narrators of Westerns?
- By Kevin on 06-10-19
By: Peter Dexter
-
Those We Thought We Knew
- By: David Joy
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Toya Gardner, a young Black artist from Atlanta, has returned to her ancestral home in the North Carolina mountains to trace her family history and complete her graduate thesis. But when she encounters a still-standing Confederate monument in the heart of town, she sets her sights on something bigger.
-
-
Best work yet.
- By Phillip and Taylor on 08-04-23
By: David Joy
-
Gangsterland
- A Novel
- By: Tod Goldberg
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A few surgeries and some intensive training later, and Sal Cupertine is gone, having disappeared into the identity of Rabbi David Cohen. Leading his growing congregation in Las Vegas, overseeing the population and the temple and the new cemetery, Rabbi Cohen feels his wicked past slipping away from him, surprising even himself as he spouts quotes from the Torah. But the Mafia isn't quite done with him.
-
-
Usually not into these kind of things
- By Kristen Truempy on 06-10-18
By: Tod Goldberg
-
Small Mercies
- A Novel
- By: Dennis Lehane
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessey is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched.
-
-
Sadly these streets are my home…
- By shipyardjay on 05-10-23
By: Dennis Lehane
-
Midnight Cowboy
- By: James Leo Herlihy
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus.
-
-
Superb
- By Macala Shon on 01-26-21
-
August Snow
- August Snow, Book 1
- By: Stephen Mack Jones
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an old acquaintance, finance magnate Eleanore Paget, hears August is back in town, she tries to hire him to investigate suspicious goings-on at her investment bank. August declines - detective work is no longer his beat. When Eleanore is found dead the next day of an apparent suicide, August doesn't buy it for a minute. His search for her killer will drag him into a rat's nest of Detroit's most dangerous criminals.
-
-
Great story
- By D. K. Gaston on 03-19-21
-
Provinces of Night
- By: William Gay
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E.F. Bloodworth has returned to his home - a forgotten corner of Tennessee - after 20 years of roaming. The wife he walked out on has withered and faded, his three sons are grown and angry. Warren is a womanizing alcoholic, Boyd is driven by jealousy to hunt down his wife's lover, and Brady puts hexes on his enemies from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, treats him with the respect his age commands, and sees past all the hatred to realize the way it can posion a man's soul.
-
-
Story and Narration a perfect match
- By 99hedys on 10-03-15
By: William Gay
-
The Trackers
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
-
-
So Good
- By Ray Stewart on 04-28-23
By: Charles Frazier
-
Burr
- A Novel (Narratives of Empire, Book 1)
- By: Gore Vidal
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated - and misunderstood - figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series.
-
-
Finally! Vidal's Great Take on the Life of Burr
- By John in NC on 06-12-19
By: Gore Vidal
-
Birnam Wood
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Catton
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place.
-
-
Outstanding thriller w/ exceptional character development
- By Bradley T. Collins on 04-21-23
By: Eleanor Catton
-
This Is Happiness
- By: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world.
-
-
Poetry disguised as Prose
- By bobgreenberger on 09-26-20
By: Niall Williams
-
Don't Know Tough
- By: Eli Cranor
- Narrated by: Eli Cranor
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Denton, Arkansas, the fate of the high school football team rests on the shoulders of Billy Lowe, a volatile but talented running back. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his unstable mother’s abusive boyfriend. Billy takes out his anger on the field, but when his savagery crosses a line, he faces suspension. Without Billy Lowe, the Denton Pirates can kiss their playoffs bid good-bye.
-
-
Stunning debut
- By Michelle R on 03-30-22
By: Eli Cranor
-
Commonwealth
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Hope Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly - thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.
-
-
Patchett and Me--In-sympatico
- By Mel on 09-18-16
By: Ann Patchett
-
The Donut Legion
- A Novel
- By: Joe R. Lansdale
- Narrated by: Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, Finlay Stevenson, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charlie Garner has a bad feeling. His ex-wife, Meg, has been missing for over a week and one quick peek into her home shows all her possessions packed up in boxes. Neighbors claim she’s running from bill collectors, but Charlie suspects something more sinister is afoot. Meg was last seen working at the local donut shop, a business run by a shadow group most refer to as ‘The Saucer People’; a space-age, evangelist cult who believe their compound to be the site of an extraterrestrial Second Coming.
-
-
cults, donuts and noir of my!
- By Anonymous User on 05-02-23
By: Joe R. Lansdale
-
Before He Finds Her
- By: Michael Kardos
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone in the quiet Jersey Shore town of Silver Bay knows the story: on a Sunday evening in September 1991, Ramsey Miller threw a blowout block party, then murdered his beautiful wife and three-year-old daughter. But everyone is wrong. The daughter got away. Now she is nearly eighteen and tired of living in secrecy. Under the name Melanie Denison, she has spent the last fifteen years in small-town West Virginia as part of the Witness Protection Program. She has never been allowed to travel, go to a school dance, or even have internet at home. Precautions must be taken at every turn, because Ramsey Miller was never caught and might still be looking for his daughter.
-
-
Riveting Mystery Glues-2-U for Hours
- By W Perry Hall on 02-09-15
By: Michael Kardos
-
The Devil Himself
- By: Peter Farris
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deep in the backwoods of South Georgia, eighteen-year-old Maya narrowly escapes a savage end. The victim of a vast human-trafficking operation managed out of Mexico, she had the misfortune to discover the dark plans of a high-ranking client. Her fate seemed sealed, until Leonard Moye, a lonely eccentric who doesn't suffer fools or tolerate trespassers, takes the young woman under his protection. Both bearing the scars from personal tragedies, they soon develop a bond that makes them, as a pair, a formidable foe, even for hardened criminals and professional scumbags.
-
-
Publisher is doing a terrible job with this book
- By Kenneth Simpson on 06-12-24
By: Peter Farris
-
City on Fire
- A Novel
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two criminal empires together control all of New England. Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire. Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself.
-
-
Gripping, vivid and extremely entertaining
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 04-26-22
By: Don Winslow
-
Nightwoods
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Frazier puts his remarkable gifts in the service of a lean, taut narrative while losing none of the transcendent prose, virtuosic storytelling, and insight into human nature that have made him one of the most beloved and celebrated authors in the world. Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister’s troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine. Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape....
-
-
Beautiful writing and powerful narration
- By MB2312 on 10-20-11
By: Charles Frazier
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Paperboy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nathan R.
- 06-26-22
loved it
what a great read! worth the credit for sure!! would definitely recommend.give it a try.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A. Paes
- 05-18-14
Better then the movie
If you could sum up The Paperboy in three words, what would they be?
Sad, bittersweet, amazing.
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
Better that the movie and so sad. I read it after I saw and loved the movie with John Cusack. It's so good as, almost better.I recommend the audible version.
Have you listened to any of Sean Runnette’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
No
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
- Bonnie H.
- 09-11-22
Wonderful story.. just keep listening…
It starts a bit slow and mundane…I almost stop listening but but found myself hooked.. It’s like sitting around the table after a wonderful dinner enjoying a dessert, a cup of coffee and listening to someone telling a delightful story… in this case it’s about the news paper business however it could be about anything if you enjoy being read to…just keep listening…
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Colleen O'Hara
- 06-19-21
A story that runs deep.
No one writes a story like Pete Dexter and the narrator brought it to life. I couldn't have used the listening time any better. Liked the book much better than the movie although that version wasn't a waste of time either.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- escoocoo
- 06-05-23
VERY, VERY GOOD!!
A great story! Starts out slow, and I did not like the narrator at all at first. However, the narrator began to grow on me as the story develops and deepens, evolving into quite a tale indeed. If you don’t like it at first, I would really encourage you to stay with it. It is more than well worth the listen!
This audiobook is not at all what I was expecting when I added it to my library. I chose it because I was intrigued by the cover (!! Yup, I’m one of those!!), so, okay, I guess you could say I came for the cover, and stayed for the story 🤣.
BTW, folks, this is a very serious book. Nothing funny about it at all. Just a very serious, true to life, gut wrenching story.
Another fine offering through Audible Plus.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nancy Olson
- 03-11-13
Movie was better
Would you try another book from Pete Dexter and/or Sean Runnette?
I might try anther book by Pete Dexter but not the narrator. He was monotone and boring.
What was most disappointing about Pete Dexter’s story?
It was a toss between how bad the narrator was and how slow the book moved.
How could the performance have been better?
Get someone who reads aloud with expression.
Did The Paperboy inspire you to do anything?
Only to stop reading before the book was done.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rexrung
- 06-04-21
Marvelous!
A story that could change your way of thinking about things in general. And fifteen...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pam blair
- 08-02-21
wow
A great story will keep you captivated all the way through, Well reread, Is loveday
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Heather OBrien
- 06-21-22
Enjoyed
This story well entertaining, but incredibly well-written. I am strict third person reader. I don't like first person. Yet somehow, I truly enjoyed it. And while the writing was impressive, sharp, and clean, it was (in my opinion), the narration that sold it all. A great, even, perfect performance that captured the tone and pace of the story. Well done, all.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!