Nightmare Alley
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
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Berkrot
About this listen
One of the 20th-century's most darkly beautiful works of crime fiction - a story of carny life, spiritualism, and a con man of merciless resolve.
Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a freak-show geek - an abject alcoholic and the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust and derision - going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There's no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.
And since Stan is clever and ambitious, and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he's going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute bimbo (before long, his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan's for the taking. At least for now.
©1946 William Lindsay Gresham; copyright renewed 1974 by Renee Gresham (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Power of the Dog
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Savage, Annie Proulx - afterword
- Narrated by: Chad Michael Collins, Annie Proulx
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the wide-open spaces of the American West, The Power of the Dog is a stunning story of domestic tyranny, brutal masculinity, and thrilling defiance from one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in American literature. The novel tells the story of two brothers—one magnetic but cruel, the other gentle and quiet—and of the mother and son whose arrival on the brothers’ ranch shatters an already tenuous peace.
-
-
Abrupt Ending and Hard to Follow Story
- By Trevor on 09-08-21
By: Thomas Savage, and others
-
Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- By: Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and others
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
-
-
Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
-
Cinema Speculation
- By: Quentin Tarantino
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Quentin Tarantino
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.
-
-
A letdown I didn't see coming.
- By polycow on 11-03-22
-
Double Indemnity
- By: James M. Cain
- Narrated by: James Naughton
- Length: 3 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1936, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.
-
-
Morals be gone
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-31-11
By: James M. Cain
-
Station Eleven (Television Tie-in)
- A Novel
- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.
-
-
gah!
- By Stacy on 10-08-14
-
Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
-
-
An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
-
The Power of the Dog
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Savage, Annie Proulx - afterword
- Narrated by: Chad Michael Collins, Annie Proulx
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the wide-open spaces of the American West, The Power of the Dog is a stunning story of domestic tyranny, brutal masculinity, and thrilling defiance from one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in American literature. The novel tells the story of two brothers—one magnetic but cruel, the other gentle and quiet—and of the mother and son whose arrival on the brothers’ ranch shatters an already tenuous peace.
-
-
Abrupt Ending and Hard to Follow Story
- By Trevor on 09-08-21
By: Thomas Savage, and others
-
Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- By: Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and others
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
-
-
Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
-
Cinema Speculation
- By: Quentin Tarantino
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Quentin Tarantino
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.
-
-
A letdown I didn't see coming.
- By polycow on 11-03-22
-
Double Indemnity
- By: James M. Cain
- Narrated by: James Naughton
- Length: 3 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1936, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.
-
-
Morals be gone
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-31-11
By: James M. Cain
-
Station Eleven (Television Tie-in)
- A Novel
- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.
-
-
gah!
- By Stacy on 10-08-14
-
Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
-
-
An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
-
Under the Banner of Heaven
- A Story of Violent Faith
- By: Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities. At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith.
-
-
Interesting @ arm's length
- By pixychild on 07-17-09
By: Jon Krakauer
-
The Last House on Needless Street
- By: Catriona Ward
- Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
-
-
I can only listen in 1-2 hour segments!
- By Brenda on 10-04-21
By: Catriona Ward
-
The Haunting of Hill House
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House.
-
-
Well written horror tale
- By C K White on 02-11-14
By: Shirley Jackson
-
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
-
Fairy Tale
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Seth Numrich, Stephen King
- Length: 24 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.
-
-
A Boy and his Dog at the end of the World
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-06-22
By: Stephen King
-
Alison Larkin Presents: The Secret Adversary, Murder on the Links, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin, James Warwick
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three critically acclaimed recordings are joined together in this dazzling Agatha Christie Triple Bill, read by award-winning narrators Alison Larkin and James Warwick, star of the Partners in Crime TV series on Masterpiece Theater.
-
-
Pitch perfect narration of Agatha Christie!
- By Mary Katherine Worth on 10-18-19
By: Agatha Christie
-
Once upon a Time in Hollywood
- A Novel
- By: Quentin Tarantino
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jason Leigh
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited first work of fiction - at once hilarious, delicious, and brutal - is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award-winning film.
-
-
Great Book Ruined by Leigh
- By Scott Wilson on 06-30-21
-
The Big Sleep
- Philip Marlowe, Book 1
- By: Raymond Chandler
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.
-
-
I miss Ray Porter
- By Kindle Customer on 03-22-22
By: Raymond Chandler
-
20th Century Ghosts
- By: Joe Hill
- Narrated by: David LeDoux
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon on an afternoon in 1945...Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town.
-
-
Wonderful and recommended
- By Kasey on 02-12-09
By: Joe Hill
-
The Black Dahlia
- By: James Ellroy
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 15, 1947, the tortured body of a beautiful young woman was found in a vacant lot in Hollywood. Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, a young Hollywood hopeful, had been brutally murdered. Her murder sparked one of the greatest manhunts in California history.
-
-
Great naration
- By Grasshopper.Craig on 09-10-06
By: James Ellroy
-
Strip
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Perry
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An aging but formidable strip-club owner, Claudiu "Manco" Kapak, has been robbed by a masked gunman as he placed his cash receipts in a bank's night-deposit box. Enraged, he sends his half-dozen security men out to find a suspect who is spending lots of cash and is new enough to Los Angeles not to know he was robbing a gangster.
-
-
Not A Waste Of Time But...
- By Ted on 10-27-13
By: Thomas Perry
-
Psycho
- By: Robert Bloch
- Narrated by: William Hootkins
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Bates Motel looms up out of the storm, Mary Crane thinks it is her salvation. The rooms are musty but clean. The manager, Norman Bates, seems like a nice enough fellow, if a little strange. Then Mary decides to take a shower, and the nightmare begins....
-
-
Nice short book
- By Samantha on 06-26-23
By: Robert Bloch
Featured Article: Celebrate Award Season 2022 with Page-to-Screen Nominees and Listening Recs Based on Your Frontrunners
And now, it's time to honor and celebrate the achievements of the artists who brought these treasures to the big screen. No matter who you're rooting for when the ceremony begins, these listens are all worthy of a golden statuette in our books. Here are the audiobooks that directly inspired the nominees and a few others to check out based on your own personal frontrunners.
What listeners say about Nightmare Alley
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris Reich
- 01-09-22
Loved it.
This is a great read. I enjoyed the story immensely. The dark side of entertainment is as pertinent today as it was in 1940. Cannot recommend this book enough.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katie Cardinal
- 12-28-21
Good but hard to reconcile with today
I thought the narrator whispered often and while his theatrical performance made it interesting. It was hard to hear at times, even on max volume. The range in sound was too much.
The story is hard to stomach because you really hate the protagonist. I do think the ending was really well done and I can see why this story made its way into the literary circuit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Francis Chuck Patton
- 12-01-21
Wow.
Dark, desperate and disturbing. Loved it!
A psychological noir classic that still holds up to its praises.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Manny Da Burro
- 05-05-22
Very average
Story was fine, feels like the story doesn’t have much to do about the beginning or the ending which functions as a punch line
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
- Book Reader 76
- 02-12-22
Boring and hard to like
The book starts strong at a carnival and you slowly come to see the main character, but I never seemed to like him or understand his decisions at any time during the story. In general, the plot and characters all felt flimsy and dated—not because it took place in the past but because the characters’ struggles did not feel sincere. They felt forced and imagined and cliche. Don’t waste time on the book (or the movie, imo).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!