PREORDER: Hounds of the Underworld Audiobook

Audiobook Edition of Path of Ra Book 1

RDSP is excited to announce the preorder of our first audiobook, Hounds of the Underworld, by Dan Rabarts & Lee Murray. The book is a collaboration between Lee Murray, who pens the chapters from Penny’s point of view, and Dan Rabarts who writes Matiu. To maintain this synergy we recorded two readers, Dan performed his chapters while Penny is voiced by actress Susan Holt. We wanted to highlight the New Zealand locale so made sure both readers showcase a Kiwi accent.

Release Date May 3, 2023

The book is currently available for preorder from several venues, with more on the way, including Audible:

BingeBooks: https://bingebooks.com/book/hounds-of-the-underworld

Libro.FM: https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9798368975283

Storytel: https://www.storytel.com/se/sv/books/3741581

Chirp: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/hounds-of-the-underworld-by-lee-murray-and-dan-rabarts

Book Description

On the verge of losing her laboratory, her savings, and all respect for herself, Pandora (Penny) Yee lands her first contract as scientific consult to the police department. And with seventeen murder cases on the go, the surly inspector is happy to leave her to it. Only she’s going to need to get around, and that means her slightly unhinged adopted brother, Matiu, will be doing the driving. But something about the case spooks Matiu, something other than the lack of a body in the congealing pool of blood in the locked room or that odd little bowl.

Matiu doesn’t like anything about this case, from the voices that screamed at him when he touched that bowl, to the way his hateful imaginary friend Makere has come back to torment him, to the fact that the victim seems to be tied up with a man from Matiu’s past, a man who takes pleasure in watching dogs tear each other to pieces for profit and entertainment.

Hounds of the Underworld blends mystery, near-future noir and horror. Set in New Zealand it’s the product of a collaboration by two Kiwi authors, one with Chinese heritage and the other Māori. This debut book in The Path of Ra series offers compelling new voices and an exotic perspective on the detective drama.

Susan Holt, Narrator

Susan Holt was born in Rotorua, in the North Island of New Zealand. She was an avid reader as she grew up, partly because she was a bit of a loner, but mostly because she loved the worlds she visited, the people she met, and the adventures they had.

Susan loved TV and movies for the same reason. The stories she experienced changed the way she viewed the world, herself, and other people. That’s why she’s also an actress.

Stories help us understand ourselves and others, whether they’re set in Wales or off world. Susan wants her readers to have the same learning experiences she did; to be drawn into another place and time; to see through different eyes.

Sci fi and fantasy can get a bad rap. Susan loves them because the hero can do anything and go anywhere – and she doesn’t have to ask anyone’s permission or get the facts straight about the time period or clothing.

So she was – and still is – shaped by books by Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings and CS Lewis as well as ones like Bryce Courtenay’s ‘The Power of One’. By movies like ‘Star Wars’ and ‘About Time’ as well as ‘Les Miserables’ (the one with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush is her favourite).

Because humans are wired for story. Stories can help us live well… if they teach us the right things. Stories can also be used for ill – to frighten, or bring hopelessness and doubt.

Susan means to do good with her stories.

Dan Rabarts, Narrator & Author

Dan Rabarts is a writer of fantasy novels and speculative fiction, sometime narrator of podcasts (including stories for the Hugo award-winning StarShipSofa), occasional sailor of sailing things, and father of two wee miracles in a little house on a hill, under the southern sun.

In 2014 he received the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent. Baby Teeth – Bite-sized Tales of Terror, the horror anthology he co-edited with Lee Murray also won the SJV for Best Collected Work and the Australian Shadows Award for Best Edited Work. His dieselpunk novella, Tipuna Tapu, was the winner of the 2017 Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction as part of the Australian Shadows Awards.

Lee Murray, Author

Lee Murray is a multi-award-winning author-editor, essayist, screenwriter, and poet from Aotearoa-New Zealand. A USA Today Bestselling author, Shirley Jackson and four-time Bram Stoker Awards® winner, she is an NZSA Honorary Literary Fellow, and a Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow. Lee lives in the sunny Bay of Plenty with her well-behaved family and a naughty dog.