Best Martin Dugard Audiobooks
Martin Dugard has built a career turning history's most dramatic moments into propulsive, you-are-there narratives. Best known for co-authoring the Killing series with Bill O'Reilly — Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus — Dugard brings a thriller writer's pacing to nonfiction, stripping away academic distance and dropping readers directly into the chaos of assassination plots, wartime command decisions, and political turning points. His prose is lean and cinematic, heavy on scene-setting and light on hedging, which makes the history feel urgent rather than settled. The Training Ground traces the Mexican War careers of Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis with a sharp eye for the habits and rivalries that would later define the Civil War. Readers who want history that moves — who find traditional biographies too slow — will find Dugard compulsively readable.
Where to Start with Martin Dugard
- Best entry point → The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848
- Best standalone → The Murder of King Tut
- Start the Bill O'Reilly's Killing Series series → Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan
- Short listen, big payoff → Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot
- What fans keep coming back to → Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
- Best narrator for Martin Dugard → Killing Jesus: A History
- Highest rated by listeners → Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General
Best Martin Dugard Audiobooks
- 1
Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan
Bill O'Reilly's Killing Series
by Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
Narrated by Robert Petkoff, Bill O'Reilly
★ 4.74 ABR Score (32.2K ratings)★ 4.35 Goodreads (21.9K) ★ 4.78 Audible (10.3K)More about this pick
O'Reilly and Dugard chronicle the Pacific War's final phase, from kamikaze attacks to atomic bombs. Robert Petkoff and Bill O'Reilly share narration duties, bringing intensity to this account of Japan's refusal to surrender.
- 2
Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot
Bill O'Reilly's Killing Series
by Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
Narrated by Bill O'Reilly
★ 4.51 ABR Score (71.5K ratings)★ 4.11 Goodreads (62.5K) ★ 4.66 Audible (9.0K)More about this pick
O'Reilly traces the parallel paths of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald toward their fatal Dallas encounter with thriller-like pacing. His own narration adds immediacy to the historical tragedy.
- 3
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
Bill O'Reilly's Killing Series
by Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
Narrated by Bill O'Reilly
★ 4.45 ABR Score (120.2K ratings)★ 4.06 Goodreads (109.0K) ★ 4.6 Audible (11.2K)More about this pick
O'Reilly and Dugard reconstruct Lincoln's final days and John Wilkes Booth's conspiracy with thriller-like pacing, while O'Reilly's own narration adds his distinctive television-honed delivery to the historical drama.
- 4
Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General
Bill O'Reilly's Killing Series
by Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
Narrated by Bill O'Reilly
★ 4.34 ABR Score (35.7K ratings)★ 4.13 Goodreads (28.0K) ★ 4.62 Audible (7.7K)More about this pick
O'Reilly narrates his own investigation into whether Patton's post-war car accident was truly accidental, examining the general's final months and controversial statements.
- 5
Killing Jesus: A History
Bill O'Reilly's Killing Series
by Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
Narrated by Bill O'Reilly
★ 4.30 ABR Score (50.5K ratings)★ 3.99 Goodreads (40.5K) ★ 4.63 Audible (10.0K)More about this pick
O'Reilly and Dugard strip away religious doctrine to examine the political and social forces that led to Jesus's crucifixion. O'Reilly's own narration brings his journalistic approach to this historical investigation.
- 6
The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848
Narrated by Robertson Dean
★ 3.95 ABR Score (993 ratings)★ 4.16 Goodreads (657) ★ 4.46 Audible (336)More about this pick
Robertson Dean's steady, commanding narration transforms this overlooked war into urgent drama—you'll hear how Grant, Lee, and Sherman became the men who'd destroy each other twenty years later.
- 7
The Murder of King Tut
by James Patterson, Martin Dugard
Narrated by Joe Barrett
★ 3.21 ABR Score (11.3K ratings)★ 3.4 Goodreads (11.1K) ★ 3.67 Audible (239)More about this pick
Patterson and Dugard investigate the Boy King's mysterious death after nine controversial years on Egypt's throne, exploring palace rivalries and the subsequent erasure of his name from history.