
Queen of the Underworld
A Novel
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 $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Carrington Macduffie
-
By:
-
Gail Godwin
About this listen
Here at last is the eagerly awaited new novel from New York Times best-selling author Gail Godwin. Queen of the Underworld is sweeping and sultry literary fiction, featuring a memorable young heroine and engaging characters whose intimate dramas interconnect with hers.
In the summer of 1959, as Castro clamps down on Cuba and its first wave of exiles flees to the States to wait out what they hope to be his short-lived reign, Emma Gant, fresh out of college, begins her career as a reporter. Her fierce ambition and belief in herself are set against the stories swirling around her, both at the newspaper office and in her downtown Miami hotel, which is filling up with refugees.
Emma's avid curiosity about life thrives amid the tropical charms and intrigues of Miami. While toiling at the news desk, she plans the fictional stories she will write in her spare time. She spends her nights getting to know the Cuban families in her hotel - and rendezvousing with her married lover, Paul Nightingale, owner of a private Miami Beach club.
As Emma experiences the historical events enveloping the city, she trains her perceptive eye on the people surrounding her: a newfound Cuban friend who joins the covert anti-Castro training brigade, a gambling racketeer who poses a grave threat to Paul, and a former madam, still in her 20s, who becomes both Emma's obsession and her alter ego. Emma's life, like a complicated dance that keeps sweeping her off her balance, is suddenly filled with divided loyalties, shady dealings, romantic and professional setbacks, and, throughout, her adamant determination to avoid "usurpation" by others and remain the protagonist of her own quest.
©2006 Gail Goodwin (P)2006 Books on TapeListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Hotel Nantucket
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map.
-
-
pre-read suggestions!!
- By Marie P on 06-22-22
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
Veronica's Grave
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Barbara Bracht Donsky
- Narrated by: Leslie S. Miller
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From beyond the grave came a cry for help she could not ignore. Reminiscent in style to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and to Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Veronica's Grave is the story of a young girl whose mother vanishes one night. No one tells her that her mother has died. She is left a confused child whose father is intent upon erasing any memory of the mother.
-
-
Thought it would be about Veronica...
- By Leah on 02-18-17
-
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
- A Novel
- By: Kathleen Rooney
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the last day of 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish is about to take a walk. As she traverses a grittier Manhattan, a city anxious after an attack by a still-at-large subway vigilante, she encounters bartenders, bodega clerks, chauffeurs, security guards, bohemians, criminals, children, parents, and parents to be in surprising moments of generosity and grace. While she strolls Lillian recalls a long and eventful life that included a brief reign as the highest paid advertising woman in America - a career cut short by marriage, motherhood, divorce, and a breakdown.
-
-
Lillian takes a stroll down memory lane!
- By Iris Pereyra on 01-29-17
By: Kathleen Rooney
-
Rules of Civility
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the last night of 1937, 25-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society - where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.
-
-
Bright Young Things in a Dark World
- By Michele Kellett on 08-13-12
By: Amor Towles
-
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
- By: Therese Anne Fowler
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed.
-
-
Great! From the first page to the last.....
- By L.W. on 03-30-13
-
Park Avenue Summer
- By: Renée Rosen
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Renée Rosen
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown. For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters.
-
-
It’s Beach Read Season
- By Boots on 05-23-19
By: Renée Rosen
-
The Hotel Nantucket
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map.
-
-
pre-read suggestions!!
- By Marie P on 06-22-22
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
Veronica's Grave
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Barbara Bracht Donsky
- Narrated by: Leslie S. Miller
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From beyond the grave came a cry for help she could not ignore. Reminiscent in style to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and to Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Veronica's Grave is the story of a young girl whose mother vanishes one night. No one tells her that her mother has died. She is left a confused child whose father is intent upon erasing any memory of the mother.
-
-
Thought it would be about Veronica...
- By Leah on 02-18-17
-
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
- A Novel
- By: Kathleen Rooney
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the last day of 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish is about to take a walk. As she traverses a grittier Manhattan, a city anxious after an attack by a still-at-large subway vigilante, she encounters bartenders, bodega clerks, chauffeurs, security guards, bohemians, criminals, children, parents, and parents to be in surprising moments of generosity and grace. While she strolls Lillian recalls a long and eventful life that included a brief reign as the highest paid advertising woman in America - a career cut short by marriage, motherhood, divorce, and a breakdown.
-
-
Lillian takes a stroll down memory lane!
- By Iris Pereyra on 01-29-17
By: Kathleen Rooney
-
Rules of Civility
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the last night of 1937, 25-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society - where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.
-
-
Bright Young Things in a Dark World
- By Michele Kellett on 08-13-12
By: Amor Towles
-
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
- By: Therese Anne Fowler
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed.
-
-
Great! From the first page to the last.....
- By L.W. on 03-30-13
-
Park Avenue Summer
- By: Renée Rosen
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Renée Rosen
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown. For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters.
-
-
It’s Beach Read Season
- By Boots on 05-23-19
By: Renée Rosen
-
What Remains
- A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love
- By: Carole Radziwill
- Narrated by: Carole Radziwill
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean, carrying John Kennedy, Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. The summer of the plane crash, the four friends were meant to be cherishing Anthony's last days. Instead, Carole and Anthony mourned John and Carolyn, even as Carole planned her husband's memorial.
-
-
I just couldn’t finish this book
- By Cheryle Medeiros on 10-11-15
By: Carole Radziwill
-
Kitchen Privileges
- Memoirs of a Bronx Girlhood
- By: Mary Higgins Clark
- Narrated by: Mary Higgins Clark
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even as a young girl, growing up in the Bronx, Mary Higgins Clark knew she wanted to be a writer. The gift of storytelling was a part of her Irish ancestry, so it followed naturally that she would later use her sharp eye, keen intelligence, and inquisitive nature to create stories.
-
-
I’ve read and re-read your books
- By Dolores Hylkema on 01-24-19
-
Social Crimes
- By: Jane Stanton Hitchcock
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dark secrets lurk beneath the glamour and glitter of New York's high-society life in this riveting tale of murder, obsession, and revenge. Jo Slater, one of the grandest of New York's grande dames, is knocked off her pedestal when her husband of 20 years dies under strange circumstances and leaves his fortune to a mysterious French countess. When Jo discovers she has been the victim of a plot, she decides to set things straight. And nothing is going to get in her way.
-
-
This writing is criminal
- By Katherine Lammers on 03-12-08
-
Isabel's Bed
- By: Elinor Lipman
- Narrated by: Grace Conlin
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Harriet Mahoney first saw it, Isabel Krug's bed was covered in sheared sheep and littered with celebrity biographies. The unpublished, fortyish, and recently jilted Harriet had fled wintry Manhattan in response to a mysterious ad in The New York Review of Books: "Book in progress? Why not share my Cape Cod retreat? Roomy and peaceful, your life will be your own."
-
-
a Gem
- By Bette on 03-24-18
By: Elinor Lipman
-
On a Night of a Thousand Stars
- By: Andrea Yaryura Clark
- Narrated by: Paula Christensen
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York, 1998. Santiago Larrea, a wealthy Argentine diplomat, is holding court alongside his wife, Lila, and their daughter, Paloma, a college student and budding jewelry designer, at their annual summer polo match and soiree. All seems perfect in the Larreas’ world—until an unexpected party guest from Santiago's university days shakes his usually unflappable demeanor. The woman's cryptic comments spark Paloma’s curiosity about her father’s past, of which she knows little. Paloma is determined to learn more about his life in the years leading up to the dictatorship of 1976.
-
-
Amazing narration, moving story!
- By Suzanne B on 04-03-22
-
Another Woman's Husband
- A Novel
- By: Gill Paul
- Narrated by: Laura Aikman
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1911: When 15-year-old Mary Kirk meets Wallis Warfield at summer camp, she’s immediately captivated by her fearless, brazen, and self-assured personality. Though Mary’s family isn’t crazy about Wallis, Mary stands by her side - even years later when rumors swirl about Wallis and her reckless behavior with the Prince of Wales. But when Mary’s loyalty to Wallis comes into question, their friendship will be put to the test. 1997: After a romantic proposal in Paris, Rachel and her fiancé Alex are in a cab when the car ahead crashes.
-
-
Binge worthy
- By Amanda on 12-24-19
By: Gill Paul
-
Bachelor Girl
- By: Kim Van Alkemade
- Narrated by: Corey Brill, Andi Arndt
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the owner of the New York Yankees baseball team, Colonel Jacob Ruppert, takes Helen Winthrope, a young actress, under his wing, she thinks it's because of his guilt over her father's accidental death - and so does Albert Kramer, Ruppert's handsome personal secretary. Helen and Albert develop a deepening bond the closer they become to Ruppert, an eccentric millionaire who demands their loyalty in return for his lavish generosity.
-
-
Complex, Moving…
- By Cindy A. Ossias on 09-21-22
By: Kim Van Alkemade
-
Wonderful Town
- New York Stories from The New Yorker
- By: Woody Allen, John Cheever, E. B. White, and others
- Narrated by: Tyne Daly, Timothy Jerome, Joe Morton, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York City is not only The New Yorker magazine's place of origin and its sensibility's lifeblood, it is the heart of American literary culture. Wonderful Town, an anthology of superb short fiction by many of the magazine's most accomplished contributors, celebrates the 75-year marriage between a preeminent publication and its preeminent context with this collection of 44 of its best stories from (so to speak) home.
-
-
Great stories and readers, but technically sloppy
- By Alison on 09-08-04
By: Woody Allen, and others
-
A Rather Lovely Inheritance
- By: CA Belmond
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is your life Penny Nichols...Penny Nichols is a historical researcher working on a big-budget film in the south of France when she gets an urgent call. Her Aunt Penelope has just died, and Penny's presence is required in London for the reading of the will. With only a slim recollection of her eccentric aunt, Penny is astonished to learn that not only is she the bona fide heiress - but she's also been invited to put her research skills to work.
-
-
Delightful Story with Excellent Narratation
- By AnJoMom16 on 01-13-15
By: CA Belmond
-
West of Sunset
- A Novel
- By: Stewart O'Nan
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937 F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December of 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack. Those last three years of Fitzgerald's life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O'Nan's gorgeously and gracefully written novel.
-
-
An engrossing listen
- By Melvyn Kirtley on 02-05-15
By: Stewart O'Nan
-
Another Side of Paradise
- A Novel
- By: Sally Koslow
- Narrated by: Ana Clements
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937 Hollywood, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham’s star is on the rise while literary wonder boy F. Scott Fitzgerald’s career is slowly drowning in booze. But the once-famous author, desperate to make money penning scripts for the silver screen, is charismatic enough to attract the gorgeous Miss Graham, a woman who exposes the secrets of others while carefully guarding her own.
-
-
Narrator interfered with my enjoyment of the book
- By Suzanne Stokes on 10-11-18
By: Sally Koslow
-
Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
-
-
Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
Critic reviews
"A master stylist." (Booklist)
What listeners say about Queen of the Underworld
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Jeanne Kaiser
- 05-15-06
A Better than Average Coming of Age Story
I am a long-time fan of Gail Godwin and although this isnt' one of her best books, I found it very enjoyable. The basic plot is a fairly familiar one-spunky young career girl gets started on her profession while dealing with love and ambition. However, what sets this book apart is the backdrop of Miami just after Castro came to power. The political issues related to the Cuban immigrants are woven into the story with a great deal of skill. They are not just an add-on --they fit into Emma Gant's new world. And the author did a great job describing Miami-I felt like I was there
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
- Natalie
- 04-10-16
Maybe I missed the climax
Carrington Macduffie read performed this book with amazing characterization. I love when the reader differentiates the voices enough that I can tell who's talking without the tag line.
The story, however, never seems to quite coalesce. It contains some lovely vignettes and intriguing story lines that interweave but only by force and artificiality. Still, it was a pleasurable listen. I'll look for more performances by Macduffie.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Karen
- 05-15-08
Book was poor but narrator worse
I have never written a review before but I find that as disappointing as this book is as a novel, with cliches and shallow, silly characters, the narrator made it even worse. I have been listening to books on tape for years and this person is by far the worst I have ever heard. She makes a bad book considerably worse.
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
- Marsha
- 04-13-07
very interesting
interesting story. didn't know what to expect when i bought it, but glad i did. didn't know what to expect as i listened to it, either, but glad i hung in there.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!