
Midnight Express
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 $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Billy Hayes
About this listen
Midnight Express tells the gut-wrenching true story of a young man's incarceration and escape from a Turkish prison. A classic story of survival and human endurance told with humor, honesty, and heart, it became the Academy Award-winning blockbuster film of the same name.
In 1970, Billy Hayes was an English major who left college in search of adventures to write about, like his hero Jack London. He had a rude awakening when he was arrested at the airport in Istanbul trying to board a plane while carrying four pounds of hashish, and given a life sentence. After five brutal years, relentless efforts by his family to gain his release, and endless escape-plotting, Hayes finally took matters into his own hands. On a dark night in a wailing storm, he began a desperate and daring escape to freedom.
This is the astounding journey, told in Billy Hayes' own words, of those five years of living hell and of the harrowing ordeal of his time on the run.
©1977, 2013 Billy Hayes (P)2017 Billy HayesListeners also enjoyed...
-
Papillon
- By: Henri Charrière
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana for a crime he did not commit, Henri Charriere became obsessed with one goal: escape. After planning and executing a series of treacherous yet failed attempts over many years, he was eventually sent to the notorious prison Devil's Island, a place from which no one had ever escaped - until Papillon.
-
-
Well Written Autobiography
- By Sher from Provo on 05-06-14
By: Henri Charrière
-
Smuggler
- By: Roger Reaves
- Narrated by: Roger Reaves
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Reaves grew up a poor farm boy in Georgia and went from making 'moonshine' to becoming one of the most prolific smugglers of the 20th century. He covered six continents, transporting 20 ton ship loads of hash, tons of cocaine, and completed more than 100 sorties across the US border with plane loads of marijuana. His friends and associates spanned the globe - from Medellin Cartel kingpins Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar, to "Mr. Nice" Howard Marks and the infamous Barry Seal who was Roger's close friend and employee.
-
-
5 stars
- By Kacy Smith on 01-09-22
By: Roger Reaves
-
The Executioner's Song
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Maxwell Hamilton
- Length: 42 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in audio. Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.
-
-
Pulitzer-winner spoiled by numskulled narration
- By W Perry Hall on 05-21-18
By: Norman Mailer
-
Green River, Running Red
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 19 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the most extraordinary journey Ann Rule has ever undertaken, America's master of true crime has spent more than two decades researching the story of the Green River Killer, who murdered more than 49 young women. Green River, Running Red is a harrowing account of a modern monster, a killer who walked among us undetected. It is also the story of his quarry -- of who these young women were and who they might have become.
-
-
Suspenseful and chilling
- By 9S on 07-02-11
By: Ann Rule
-
Hannibal Rising
- By: Thomas Harris
- Narrated by: Thomas Harris
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki. But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn. He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.
-
-
Good book, good narration
- By User33 on 12-25-06
By: Thomas Harris
-
Shantaram
- A Novel
- By: Gregory David Roberts
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 42 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.
-
-
Probably the best performance I've listened to.
- By Mickey on 04-15-14
-
Papillon
- By: Henri Charrière
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana for a crime he did not commit, Henri Charriere became obsessed with one goal: escape. After planning and executing a series of treacherous yet failed attempts over many years, he was eventually sent to the notorious prison Devil's Island, a place from which no one had ever escaped - until Papillon.
-
-
Well Written Autobiography
- By Sher from Provo on 05-06-14
By: Henri Charrière
-
Smuggler
- By: Roger Reaves
- Narrated by: Roger Reaves
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Reaves grew up a poor farm boy in Georgia and went from making 'moonshine' to becoming one of the most prolific smugglers of the 20th century. He covered six continents, transporting 20 ton ship loads of hash, tons of cocaine, and completed more than 100 sorties across the US border with plane loads of marijuana. His friends and associates spanned the globe - from Medellin Cartel kingpins Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar, to "Mr. Nice" Howard Marks and the infamous Barry Seal who was Roger's close friend and employee.
-
-
5 stars
- By Kacy Smith on 01-09-22
By: Roger Reaves
-
The Executioner's Song
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Maxwell Hamilton
- Length: 42 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in audio. Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.
-
-
Pulitzer-winner spoiled by numskulled narration
- By W Perry Hall on 05-21-18
By: Norman Mailer
-
Green River, Running Red
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 19 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the most extraordinary journey Ann Rule has ever undertaken, America's master of true crime has spent more than two decades researching the story of the Green River Killer, who murdered more than 49 young women. Green River, Running Red is a harrowing account of a modern monster, a killer who walked among us undetected. It is also the story of his quarry -- of who these young women were and who they might have become.
-
-
Suspenseful and chilling
- By 9S on 07-02-11
By: Ann Rule
-
Hannibal Rising
- By: Thomas Harris
- Narrated by: Thomas Harris
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki. But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn. He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.
-
-
Good book, good narration
- By User33 on 12-25-06
By: Thomas Harris
-
Shantaram
- A Novel
- By: Gregory David Roberts
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 42 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.
-
-
Probably the best performance I've listened to.
- By Mickey on 04-15-14
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Still the Best
- By Lisa on 01-10-06
By: Truman Capote
-
The Sinatra Club
- My Life Inside the New York Mafia
- By: Sal Polisi, Steve Dougherty
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mob was the biggest, richest business in America...until it was destroyed from within by drugs, greed, and the decline of its traditional crime family values. And by guys like Sal Polisi. As a member of New York's feared Colombo Family, Polisi ran the Sinatra Club, an illegal after-hours gambling den that was a magic kingdom of crime and a hangout for up-and-coming mobsters. But the nonstop thrills of Polisi's criminal glory days abruptly ended.
-
-
The gangster with a heart of gold...
- By Rodney on 03-03-18
By: Sal Polisi, and others
-
Murder Machine
- A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia
- By: Gene Mustain, Jerry Capeci
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They were the DeMeo gang - the most deadly hit men in organized crime. Their Mafia higher-ups came to know, use, and ultimately fear them as the Murder Machine. They killed for profit and for pleasure, following cold-blooded plans and wild whims, from the mean streets of New York to the Florida Gold Coast, and from coast to coast. Now complete with personal revelations of one of the key players, this is the savage story that leaves no corpse unturned in its terrifying telling.
-
-
stop browsing and just get it.
- By Patrick on 04-20-21
By: Gene Mustain, and others
-
Wiseguy
- By: Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese - introduction
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos, Corey Brill, Hillary Huber, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the true crime best seller that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece GoodFellas, which brought to life the violence, the excess, the families, the wives and girlfriends, the drugs, the payoffs, the paybacks, the jail time, and the Feds...with Henry Hill’s crackling narration drawn straight out of Wiseguy and overseeing all the unforgettable action.
-
-
Finally unabridged
- By Rodney on 12-16-19
By: Nicholas Pileggi, and others
-
Vietnam
- An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the US in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.
-
-
A more nuanced view than Ken Burns' companion book
- By Vu on 10-21-18
By: Max Hastings
-
Mutiny on the Bounty
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.
-
-
You don't know the whole story.
- By Justin Sluyter on 05-01-19
By: Peter FitzSimons
-
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
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
- A Novel
- By: Heather Morris
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (German for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners. Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism - but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.
-
-
A hopeful perspective on a harrowing time
- By melyssa57 (A Page Before Bedtime dot com) on 10-10-18
By: Heather Morris
-
Hell Week and Beyond
- The Making of a Navy SEAL
- By: Scott McEwen
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of the 18 months required to become a Navy SEAL, one week will cause over half of the trainees to quit ("ring the bell"). Only the toughest make it through. In Hell Week and Beyond, Scott McEwen takes the listeners to the sands of Coronado Beach in San Diego, where Navy SEALs are put through the most grueling training known to mankind. Grit, commitment, heart, and soul are needed to become a SEAL, because these are the elite forces who go into the toughest battles for America.
-
-
I was loving this book until….
- By Gerald Geist on 01-27-23
By: Scott McEwen
-
The Guardians
- A Novel
- By: John Grisham
- Narrated by: Michael Beck
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young Black man who was once a client of Russo’s.
-
-
Is Grisham getting serious about writing again?
- By Wayne on 10-17-19
By: John Grisham
-
Once upon a Time in Russia
- The Rise of the Oligarchs and the Greatest Wealth in History
- By: Ben Mezrich
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best-selling author of Bringing Down the House (63 weeks on the New York Times best seller list and the basis for the hit movie 21) and The Accidental Billionaires (the basis for the Academy Award-winning film The Social Network) delivers an epic drama of wealth, rivalry, and betrayal among megawealthy Russian oligarchs - and its international repercussions.
-
-
Oligarchs, Operatives, Explosives & Intrigue!
- By Michael J Canning on 07-26-16
By: Ben Mezrich
What listeners say about Midnight Express
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michelle Dunn
- 06-24-24
Great to re-visit this story
I read the book 40 years ago, it was nice to hear Billy read it in his own voice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 06-28-20
Incredible story and performance
This is one of the best audio book performances I have heard. Very emotional and clear.
The tense story of a young and foolhardy guy trying to make a quick buck by smuggling hashish out of Turkey is timeless and transports you right back to the tarmac where it started
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Quinn
- 09-02-20
basically a perfect audiobook
extremely suspenseful-- well written and never boring-- Billy Hayes' narration of his own story makes it even better
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Barnett
- 03-13-24
Good Story. Different from movie.
Good Story. Different from movie. Enjoyed hearing the actual details of Billy Hayes’ ordeal and escape.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dr. Ron
- 01-31-23
Great Story! Great Writing! Great Performance!
I knew about this true life adventure in the 70s. I still have never seen the movie. The book and the audio performance is wonderful. The story will scare the hell out of you. I look back at all the mistakes I made when I was young and see how much trouble I could have gotten into. Man, did Billy get into trouble! Truly one of the greatest adventure stories ever told.
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
- Super ultra donkey
- 10-30-21
wow
what an amazing book I hate to sound cliche but this was better than the movie
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- brian
- 10-21-21
Awesome from start to finish!!
Such a good book a real page turner didn't want to stop listening once I started.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lisa Scales
- 02-06-24
Great story
The narrator did a good job telling the tale with enthusiasm I really enjoyed the story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Don C.
- 10-23-21
4.5 overall.
Recommend it, even IF you saw the movie - especially considering how it gave the Turks an undeserved bad rap (or worse rap, rather).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carol
- 03-14-25
Amazing detail
The stories he tells within the frame work of the main book are truly amazing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!