Dead Men Can't Complain and Other Stories

I’ll admit, I went into this expecting another forgettable genre grab-bag. Boy, was I wrong. *Dead Men Can’t Complain* is the audiobook equivalent of a haunted funhouse—you know the scares are coming, but you still jump when they hit. Ralph Lister and Ray Porter steal the show here, their performances elevating Clines’ already excellent writing. Lister’s narration on “The Middle of Nowhere” is a highlight: his deadpan delivery of a man slowly losing his mind in the Nevada desert is pitch-perfect, like if *Fargo* met *The Twilight Zone*. Porter, meanwhile, brings a grizzled authority to “The Automatic Customer,” his voice oozing menace when a regular guy realizes his new coffee shop is a front for something… inhuman. The only misstep? The transition between narrators in “A Scent of Roses” felt jarring at first, though it grew on me. My biggest critique? A few stories end a beat too abruptly—like a joke cut off mid-punchline. But that’s nitpicking for a collection this consistently gripping. If you want sci-fi that’s smart, horror that’s human, and narration that’s top-tier, this is a must-listen.