Showing results by narrator "Steve West" in All Categories

Whenever a young David Beckham was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he'd always answer with the same response: I want to be a footballer. This English native got his wish when he joined the Manchester United team in 1991. Since then, he has been crossing, bending, and free-kicking his way to stardom. In his 20-year career as a professional soccer player, he has won 19 major trophies and appeared at three FIFA World Cup tournaments.

Known since school as "The A Team", Nick, Dan, Jan, and Will have been best friends for years. But now they're older, and their bond is stretched by partners, children, and the tightening net of secrets that are threatening to emerge. On the morning of Nick and Lisa's wedding, their friend Penny is found poised on the hotel window ledge, soaking wet and ready to jump. As the A Team rally around her, they soon realize that none of them are being as honest with themselves - or with each other - as they think they are....

On the remote island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment is to stage her own death and then observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure?

Late in the twenty-first century, drought and wildfires prompt an exodus from southern Europe. When twelve-year-old Caleb is separated from his mother during their trek north, he soon falls prey to traffickers. Enslaved in an enclave outside Manchester, the resourceful and determined Caleb never loses hope of bettering himself. After Caleb is befriended by a fellow victim of trafficking, another road opens. Hiding in the woodlands by day, guided by the stars at night, he begins a new journey - to escape to a better life, to meet someone he can trust, and to find his family. 

Psychology professor Jackie Strelitz thinks she’s over Harlan Crispin, her ex-lover and colleague. Why should she care if Harlan springs a new “friend” on her? After all, Jackie has everything she ever wanted: a loving husband and a thriving career. Still, she can’t help but be curious about Harlan’s latest. Nasira Amari is graceful, smart, and appallingly young. Worse, she’s the newest member of Jackie’s research team. 

Evangelist Brock T. Hanson believes Colin Douglass to be the prophet he’s been waiting for his whole life, the man who will lead the faithful back to Earth and trigger the most momentous event since Creation itself. But there’s a problem. Actually, there are several. First, Colin Douglass himself doesn’t believe a word of it and is the kind of chap who’d rather stay at home with a nice cup of tea than cross the galaxy on some foolish, idealistic crusade.

Ranna Abramson wants to disappear. But she knows she can’t keep running when a former enemy tracks her down in Mumbai with dire news: her onetime lover, journalist Alex Derksen, has disappeared back home in South Africa. Torn between her desire for him and fear of a homecoming, Ranna knows she’s the only one who can find him. But only two things in South Africa would welcome her - the inside of a cell or the bottom of a grave. There, to the police she’s the prime suspect of three murders. To the press she’s the serial killer Black Widow. 

Tim Diamond - the world’s worst private detective - takes on his most dangerous case yet, and it’s going to be up to his brother to keep him out of trouble. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka.

Daryus Gaunt used to be a crusader, before a questionable battlefield decision forced him to desert his unit. Pathfinder Shiera Tristane is an adventuring scholar obsessed with gaining the recognition she feels was stolen from her. When both are contacted by a sinister talking weasel and warned of a witch about to release a magical threat long trapped beneath an ancient temple, the two have no choice but to venture into the demon-haunted Worldwound in order to stop the disaster.

Captain Torius Vin and the crew of the Stargazer have given up the pirate life, instead becoming abolitionist privateers bent on capturing slave ships and setting their prisoners free. But when rumors surface of a new secret weapon in devil-ruled Cheliax, are the Stargazers willing to go up against a navy backed by hell itself?

Explore the dark under-belly of Eberron with it's version of the private detective - The Inquisitives! A series of grisly murders has shaken the small city of Aruldusk. Both the Church and the Crown send in agents to investigate. But when the body count continues to rise, these rival factions will have to learn to work together to track down the killers - even if it means hunting through the highest reaches of power.

After her brother loses their entire family fortune in a wager he cannot afford, Alice ventures into the Rose Briar Woods to make a deal with the formidable Fae marquis who now owns her family’s estate—a portrait in exchange for her brother’s freedom. But instead of Lord Ambrose, the young artist meets a mysterious masked man who saves her when her carriage is attacked by goblins. Right away, Alice realizes Lord Ambrose is not what she expects. He’s kind when the Fae are supposed to be cold. And he’s hiding a painful past—one that seems to have something to do with Alice.

Rob has always loved Anna, but she never wanted him. He paints her portrait over and over again. Now one night, she phones him, desperate for help. He rushes to her place, but when he gets there she's dead—sprawled across her living-room floor, a crimson gash in her chest. Now he’s the prime suspect for her murder. Her face on his canvas. Her kiss goodbye on his lips. Her blood on his hands. No one believes him, and does he even trust himself? 

When Temple wakes up in a filthy hotel, he doesn't remember a thing. Not how he got here. Not even his name. Temple just happened to be the first word he read on the bible sitting on the dusty nightstand. When he discovers that he and all those around him are caught in the apocalyptic hellscape of a collapsing metropolis, he must carefully weigh the balance between charity and self-sacrifice as he sets out into this strange new world. Grasping at a chance for purpose, he befriends young Nina.

A young psychiatric patient disappears from her ward in the dead of night. Eva Jansen’s medical records have been wiped, her history buried. Somebody wanted all trace of her extinguished forever — and fast. When forensic psychologist Alex Madison is tipped off that Eva possesses an extraordinary ability, he knows he must find her before she falls into the wrong hands. Her dangerous gift has eerie echoes of his previous cases, and he’s convinced there’s a connection to the sinister criminal network he’s been hunting for years.

Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of billionaire Fletcher Brass: a mecca for war criminals, murderers, sex fiends, and adventurous tourists. You can't find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere. But trouble is brewing in Brass's black-market heaven. When an exiled cop arrives in this wild frontier, he immediately finds himself investigating a string of ruthless assassinations in which Brass himself and his equally ambitious daughter are the chief suspects.

Many years ago, the storytellers say, the great King Arthur brought justice to England with the help of his gallant Knights of the Round Table. Which makes destiny a splendid thing for King Arthur and his noble knights, but what about a knight who is destined to bring disaster to everything he touches? Such a knight is poor Sir Balin, who bears the burden of a childhood prophecy of doom. And sure enough, whenever he’s around, things seem to go sour. Whether he’s battling an invisible knight or accidentally overthrowing kingdoms, Sir Balin does his best but always expects the worst.

In 1924, the English mountaineer Ashley Walsingham dies attempting to summit Mount Everest, leaving his fortune to his former lover, Imogen Soames-Andersson - whom he has not seen in seven years. Ashley’s solicitors search in vain for Imogen, but the estate remains unclaimed. Nearly eighty years later, new information leads the same law firm to Tristan Campbell, a young American who could be the estate’s rightful heir. If Tristan can prove he is Imogen’s descendant, the inheritance will be his.

Everyone knows Hawkins is not the reporter his father - a famous war correspondent - was. Hawkins’s fondness for drink disqualifies him from the kind of reporting that is his birthright. But with a father like his, the newspaper cannot let him go. Instead, the board has asked him to write a biography of his father - a fluff project designed to keep Hawkins out of trouble. But the assignment leads to unsuspected, shocking revelations.

The second volume in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading is chock-full of mystery, intrigue, and nefarious activity. Featuring some of the best writers around, and compiled by certified guy Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: Thriller is a pulse-pounding collection of brand-new short stories, each one guaranteed to keep you riveted until the final page.