Listen free for 30 days
-
Offbeat
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot, R.C. Bray, Scott Brick, William Dufris, Matt Godfrey, Jeffrey Kafer, Mike Ortego, Anna Parker-Naples, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Anthologies & Short Stories
People who bought this also bought...
-
Elizabeth
- A Novel of the Unnatural
- By: Ken Greenhall
- Narrated by: Becca Grabowski
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"If you were to go into your bedroom tonight - perhaps by candlelight - and sit quietly before the large mirror, you might see what I have seen." The image in the mirror of 14-year-old Elizabeth Cuttner is that of the fey and long-dead Frances, who introduces Elizabeth to her chilling world of the supernatural. Through Frances, Elizabeth learns what it is to wield power - power of a kind that is malevolent and seemingly invincible. Power that begins with the killing of her parents...
-
-
Entertaining
- By Rhona on 07-08-20
-
The Amulet
- By: Michael McDowell
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a rifle range accident leaves Dean Howell disfigured and in a vegetative state, his wife Sarah finds her dreary life in Pine Cone, Alabama made even worse. After long and tedious days on the assembly line, she returns home to care for her corpse-like husband while enduring her loathsome and hateful mother-in-law, Jo. Jo blames the entire town for her son's mishap, and when she gives a strange piece of jewelry to the man she believes most responsible, a series of gruesome deaths is set in motion.
-
-
Great
- By Amazon Customer on 02-10-19
-
Burnt Offerings
- Valancourt 20th Century Classics
- By: Robert Marasco
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, it's an offer that's too good to refuse. There's only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals. But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house.
-
-
Read t book, watched t movie, enjoyed t audio
- By dc on 30-10-17
-
The Other Place and Other Stories of the Same Sort
- By: J. B. Priestley
- Narrated by: David Sweeney-Bear
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) was a versatile and prolific novelist and playwright, but in The Other Place (1953), he shows an unexpected talent, proving himself a master of the weird tale. In "The Grey Ones", Mr. Patson visits a psychiatrist after he becomes convinced that a race of demons masquerading as men are plotting the overthrow of the human race...but what if he's not insane? In "Guest of Honour", a banquet speech becomes a horrifying affair when the keynote speaker realizes his audience is made up of monstrous and menacing creatures.
-
-
Fascinating strange tales
- By Beth on 26-02-20
-
Gilded Needles
- By: Michael McDowell
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Black Triangle, New York's decadent district of opium dens, gambling casinos, and back-room abortions. The queen of this unsavory neighborhood is Black Lena Shanks, whose family leads a ring of female criminals - women skilled in the art of cruelty. Only a few blocks away, amidst the elegant mansions and lily-white reputations of Gramercy Park and Washington Square, lives Judge James Stallworth. On a crusade to crush Lena's evil empire, the judge has sentenced three of her family members to death. And now she wants revenge.
-
-
The story is in the blurb
- By Zoot on 28-08-17
-
Antique Dust
- Ghost Stories
- By: Robert Westall
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geoff Ashden is a regular guy trying to make an honest living as an antique dealer, but who has an uncanny knack for finding cursed objects and haunted places: a sinister Georgian clock carved with obscene and satanic designs, a hideous doll with deadly powers, a pair of old spectacles that let their wearer see a little too clearly, an ugly house with a terrifying secret, a church full of graffiti scrawled in decomposing human flesh.
-
-
Could have been great.
- By L on 23-08-17
-
Elizabeth
- A Novel of the Unnatural
- By: Ken Greenhall
- Narrated by: Becca Grabowski
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"If you were to go into your bedroom tonight - perhaps by candlelight - and sit quietly before the large mirror, you might see what I have seen." The image in the mirror of 14-year-old Elizabeth Cuttner is that of the fey and long-dead Frances, who introduces Elizabeth to her chilling world of the supernatural. Through Frances, Elizabeth learns what it is to wield power - power of a kind that is malevolent and seemingly invincible. Power that begins with the killing of her parents...
-
-
Entertaining
- By Rhona on 07-08-20
-
The Amulet
- By: Michael McDowell
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a rifle range accident leaves Dean Howell disfigured and in a vegetative state, his wife Sarah finds her dreary life in Pine Cone, Alabama made even worse. After long and tedious days on the assembly line, she returns home to care for her corpse-like husband while enduring her loathsome and hateful mother-in-law, Jo. Jo blames the entire town for her son's mishap, and when she gives a strange piece of jewelry to the man she believes most responsible, a series of gruesome deaths is set in motion.
-
-
Great
- By Amazon Customer on 02-10-19
-
Burnt Offerings
- Valancourt 20th Century Classics
- By: Robert Marasco
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, it's an offer that's too good to refuse. There's only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals. But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house.
-
-
Read t book, watched t movie, enjoyed t audio
- By dc on 30-10-17
-
The Other Place and Other Stories of the Same Sort
- By: J. B. Priestley
- Narrated by: David Sweeney-Bear
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) was a versatile and prolific novelist and playwright, but in The Other Place (1953), he shows an unexpected talent, proving himself a master of the weird tale. In "The Grey Ones", Mr. Patson visits a psychiatrist after he becomes convinced that a race of demons masquerading as men are plotting the overthrow of the human race...but what if he's not insane? In "Guest of Honour", a banquet speech becomes a horrifying affair when the keynote speaker realizes his audience is made up of monstrous and menacing creatures.
-
-
Fascinating strange tales
- By Beth on 26-02-20
-
Gilded Needles
- By: Michael McDowell
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Black Triangle, New York's decadent district of opium dens, gambling casinos, and back-room abortions. The queen of this unsavory neighborhood is Black Lena Shanks, whose family leads a ring of female criminals - women skilled in the art of cruelty. Only a few blocks away, amidst the elegant mansions and lily-white reputations of Gramercy Park and Washington Square, lives Judge James Stallworth. On a crusade to crush Lena's evil empire, the judge has sentenced three of her family members to death. And now she wants revenge.
-
-
The story is in the blurb
- By Zoot on 28-08-17
-
Antique Dust
- Ghost Stories
- By: Robert Westall
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geoff Ashden is a regular guy trying to make an honest living as an antique dealer, but who has an uncanny knack for finding cursed objects and haunted places: a sinister Georgian clock carved with obscene and satanic designs, a hideous doll with deadly powers, a pair of old spectacles that let their wearer see a little too clearly, an ugly house with a terrifying secret, a church full of graffiti scrawled in decomposing human flesh.
-
-
Could have been great.
- By L on 23-08-17
-
Nightshade and Damnations
- By: Gerald Kersh
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An expedition in South America uncovers a terrifying race of men without bones who literally suck the life out of their prey. A man in 20th-century London makes a horrifying discovery about a monster found off the coast of Brighton in 1745. A sea captain goes ashore on a deserted island and finds what seem to be the bones of a previously unknown species of monster, only to learn that the bones tell a much more tragic tale than he could ever have imagined.
-
-
Highbrow weird fiction for lovers of the bizarre
- By Prester Jim on 17-06-20
-
The Well
- By: Jack Cady
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Years earlier, John Tracker fled the insanity of his family and their house, a centuries-old monstrosity that his grandfather Theophilus rigged full of hallucinatory tricks and vicious death traps designed to capture the Devil. Now middle-aged, John receives word that the place is to be demolished to make way for a freeway, and he decides to revisit it with his girlfriend Amy Griffith before its destruction. But when a blizzard traps them inside the house, they will be forced to contend with the dangers hidden within: strange time-shifts, murderous traps, and more.
-
-
Hill House, Hell House, Well... House?
- By Prester Jim on 26-04-20
-
Hell Hound
- By: Ken Greenhall
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"What are the possibilities of my strength? That is a thought I have never had before. What if some morning as the old woman stood at the head of the staircase she were suddenly to feel a weight thrusting against the back of her legs? What if she were to lunge forward, grasping at the air, striking her thin skull against the edge of a stair? What would become of me if she were found unmoving at the bottom of the stairway?" Such are the thoughts of Baxter, a sociopathic bull terrier on the hunt for the perfect master.
-
-
Psychological horror
- By Thing on 19-05-20
-
Nightmares and Geezenstacks
- By: Fredric Brown
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the great pulp writers, Fredric Brown (1906-1972) combined a flair for the horrific, a quirky sense of humor, and a wild imagination, and published many classic novels in the mystery and science fiction genres. But he was also a master of the "short-short story", tales only a page or two in length, but hard-hitting and with a wicked twist at the end.
-
-
You're travelling through another dimension...
- By Prester Jim on 17-06-20
-
Sweetheart, Sweetheart
- By: Bernard Taylor
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Warwick, an Englishman living in New York, has a sudden premonition that his twin brother, Colin, is in danger. He returns to England and learns the shocking truth: both Colin and his young bride Helen have died ghastly deaths - deaths that no one in the village wants to talk about.
-
-
Repetitive and boring
- By ziiigggg on 20-05-18
-
The Fungus
- By: Harry Adam Knight
- Narrated by: Ian Pringle
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a brilliant scientist seeking to solve the problem of world hunger tries to create giant mushrooms through genetic manipulation, what could possibly go wrong? But those who die quickly are the lucky ones. Those who survive infection by the fungus will be transformed into something unthinkably monstrous...
-
-
more
- By PUDDING STENCIL on 20-05-20
-
The Travelling Grave and Other Stories
- Valancourt 20th Century Classics
- By: L. P. Hartley
- Narrated by: Guy Bethell
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though best known for his classic novel of Edwardian childhood The Go-Between, L. P. Hartley was also a master of supernatural and macabre fiction, the best of which is collected in The Travelling Grave and Other Stories. This volume demonstrates Hartley's versatility, ranging from traditional ghost stories like "Feet Foremost" and "The Cotillon" to the wonderfully black humor of the horror masterpieces "The Travelling Grave" and "The Killing Bottle". Originally published in 1948 and long out of print, this collection features 12 of Hartley's best tales.
-
-
Fine stories - less than ideal performer
- By Leon van Schoonneveldt on 10-01-18
-
Worms
- By: James R. Montague
- Narrated by: Hannibal Hills
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Norfolk coast made for a perfect holiday - as long as the sun still shone. But when the rain came, the creatures left the shadows. Spectres from the past tortured James Hildebrand's mind. His blackest nightmares were crowded with malevolent, coiling images of decay. Then, suddenly, he knew the threat was real. The dead alone could not quench their hunger. And, for the living, the horrors that fed and multiplied in the darkness of the night became more terrible with the dawn.
-
-
Not What You Might Expect
- By MR J LAMBERT on 11-09-20
-
When Darkness Loves Us
- Paperbacks from Hell
- By: Elizabeth Engstrom
- Narrated by: Karly Hutchins
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sally Ann and Martha. Two women, searching for love. Finding terror. During a terrifying storm, a gentle childhood is destroyed by a twisted man who promises love but delivers nightmare. In the lightless depths of an underground labyrinth, unseen creatures lie in wait for an innocent traveler, cold skeletal hands stretched out in welcome. There is horror in darkness - horror made greater when darkness loves us.
-
-
Good until the end.
- By emma lane on 13-07-20
-
Slimer
- By: Harry Adam Knight, John Brosnan, Leroy Kettle
- Narrated by: Hannibal Hills
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a yacht being used to smuggle drugs sinks, the six smugglers must seek refuge the only place they can - an abandoned oil rig in the middle of the sea. But there's something strange about this oil rig. For one thing, it looks more like a scientific research facility. And for another, there are no people - only piles of clothes with no bodies in them. It soon becomes clear that something is loose on the rig. Something deadly. It's stalking them, one by one, but it's not just a horrible death they have to fear - it's what comes after.
-
-
Great story, awful narration
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-20
-
The Cormorant
- By: Stephen Gregory
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young family receives a welcome surprise when old Uncle Ian dies and leaves them a cottage in north Wales. For Ian's nephew and his wife, Ann, it seems a stroke of incredible good fortune, enabling them to leave their unfulfilling lives in the city for a newfound freedom in the remote seaside cottage. There's just one catch. Uncle Ian's will has a strange condition: The couple must care for his pet cormorant or forfeit the bequest.
-
-
Old Creepy Story
- By Missgotty on 19-01-21
-
Ghost Train
- By: Stephen Laws
- Narrated by: Hannibal Hills
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something deadly is stalking the corridors of the King's Cross train, preying on the passengers. It once attacked commuter Mark Davies and threw him from the train. Ex-policeman Les Chadderton is obsessed with the murders and suicides on the Easst Coast mainline. His own wife has been among the victims. Together, Davies and Chadderton must board the Ghost Train and face their own fears made real, travelling on a one-way ticket on the Nightmare Express....
-
-
A mish mash of events
- By Kindle Customer on 16-12-19
Summary
In the aptly titled Offbeat, Richard Matheson, a modern master of strange fiction, offers 13 excursions into the unsettling and bizarre. In these stories you will encounter a major league pitcher with a horrific secret for his astonishing success; an ordinary man who wakes to find himself in a silent, empty world; a death row prisoner with an extraordinary explanation for his innocence; and a novelist whose fictional creations transcend the printed page.
Originally published as a limited edition hardcover, now long out of print, the remarkable and rare tales offered in Offbeat display the brilliant imagination that gave birth to such classics as I Am Legend and Hell House.
Narrated by Elizabeth Wiley, William Dufris, Scott Brick, Peter Berkrot, R. C. Bray, Anna Parker-Naples, Eric Martin, Jeffrey Kafer, Sean Runnette, Caitlin Davies, Mike Ortega, and Matt Godfrey.
Critic reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about Offbeat
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- G. Parlee
- 24-06-17
good collection
Mostly great stories read very well by their performers, some of whom are amongst my favorite narrators. I personally think more than a few of the stories were outstanding.
I enjoy most of Matheson's work, this book included.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Christian C.
- 05-04-17
A Fine Selection of Twisted Short Stories
I confess that short story collections like Richard Matheson's Offbeat are my literary guilty pleasure. Individually, each of the selections has been elegantly constructed and presented by a truly gifted writer. As a whole, it's a lovely mixed bag of little meaty morsels that I was disappointed to reach the end of. Most stories feature some degree of a suspenseful sci-fi bent and, at times, a dark and twisty conclusion. I'm a fan of apocalyptic/dystopian and select fantasy/horror genres, so Offbeat is more than just "my cup of tea", it's darn near perfection.
As an audiobook, Offbeat comes packed with top-notch narrators, some being familiar to me from other projects, like Eric Martin, R. C. Bray and Peter Berkrot. I highly recommend the audiobook because these folks quite superbly capture and amplify the written talent with their many voice talents. Seriously, don't miss this one.
(I was provided a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my unbiased review. Many thanks to R. C. Bray for this opportunity!)
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Eve F White
- 29-10-19
Uninteresting
Struggled to get through first 3 stories then gave up! Maybe the best ones were saved for last?
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Tracy64
- 23-03-17
Excellent! Something for everyone's tastes.
I loved these stories. These shorts have perfect narration. Reminiscent of Twilight Zone tales. Great!!!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- in1ear (John Row)
- 23-03-17
Offbeat: Do you know me?
What made the experience of listening to Offbeat the most enjoyable?
The short stories diversity. If you are a fan, the name Richard Matheson needs no introduction. The "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode on the old The Twilight Zone show and a dozen others. "Somewhere in Time" movie starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, his story "I Am Legend" which was the movie "Omega Man" in the 1970's and most recently "I Am Legend"with Will Smith. And on and on. Sadly, these are lesser works.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
The voice acting was fantastic across the board! The stories were open ended and some just ... odd. Not that odd is bad, but some just didn't work for me anyway.
What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
They were all very good to excellent. The stories had yelling and quiet parts that were handled well. But that may have been the downfall of the Audible edition. This may actually have worked better as a written work.
Any additional comments?
It wasn't bad but parts of it just weren't that entertaining to me. And I am a Richard Matheson fan.
And despite my criticisms, I do much appreciate the chance to have reviewed Offbeat.
This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator or publisher at no cost. Which I can only assume was voluntary on their part. I am happy to give my honest review of it. I think I'm suppose to mention how reviewing this was voluntary on my part too.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Breezybealle
- 14-03-17
Very disappointed
Maybe it's just me, but after reading a couple of his other full length novels, and very much looking forward to an anthology of his stories, I was highly disappointed. Not only did they fail to hold my attention it seemed a majority of them lacked any sort of closure. It was almost as if I was reading a bunch of teasers for up-coming releases. Just not my cup of tea, I guess. Narrations were pretty decent, though, so that's one positive.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Wheatgrass newbie
- 12-01-21
OFFten Odd
I love story collections. This one was really different. Some were awesome, and a few OFFputting, but all of them created a great selection. Definitely ODD but palatable stories. I have listened to this book a few times.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kevin Young
- 16-11-17
a little dated
The stories are a little dated, with some of the premises coming off wildly difficult to identify with ("And In Sadness" in particular). Overall very Twilight-Zoney.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anthony Adamo
- 15-08-17
Really bad stories
These stories were not his best work by far. Very disappointing for a great author.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Deedra
- 12-06-17
Offbeat
This is a wonderfully written book of short stories with not so ordinary endings.Narrated perfectly by : Peter Berkrot , R.C. Bray , Scott Brick , William Dufris , Matt Godfrey , Jeffrey Kafer , Mike Ortego , Anna Parker-Naples , Elizabeth Wiley.Hopefully people give it a try! I was given this book free for review by either the author, narrator or publisher.