Showing results by publisher "audible originals" in Literature & Fiction

It all started with a simple, yet sneakily difficult challenge from global best-selling author Harlan Coben: Pick a bird of prey, then use it as the inspiration for a brand-new story. The response from some of the best writers on the planet: Game on! The result: Eleven stories that are twisty, scary, surprising and bursting with imagination. An egg worth more than its weight in gold. A mysterious operative known only as Owl. An eagle-watcher who sees more than she should. Even a story that somehow places the Maltese Falcon in a nursing home.

Fifteen years after graduating from Harvard, five close friends on the cusp of middle age are still pursuing an elusive happiness and wondering if they’ve wasted their youthful opportunities. Jules, already a famous actor when she arrived on campus, is changing in mysterious ways but won’t share what is haunting her. Mariam and Rowan, who married young, are struggling with the demands of family life and starting to regret prioritising meaning over wealth in their careers.

Macbeth: A Novel brings the intricacy and grit of the historical thriller to Shakespeare’s tale of political intrigue, treachery, and murder. In this full-length novel written exclusively for audio, authors A. J. Hartley and David Hewson rethink literature’s most infamous married couple, grounding them in a medieval Scotland whose military and political upheavals are as stark and dramatic as the landscape in which they are played.

Paul manages an old-school plastics factory that has pivoted during the pandemic to making face masks and is now booming. Along comes Emily, the wayward daughter of an old friend, whom Paul hires to be his assistant, and she’s a sparkling force determined to prove her worth with the one chance she’s been given.

The theft of the Best Idea in the Universe from Thresia's Intergalactic Bank of Ideas plunges the Discovered Universe into chaos. With a robotic partner who’s not the machine he fell in love with and a mind as cool and measured as a forest fire, Isaac must unravel a cosmic conspiracy that stretches further than the reaches of even his depraved imagination. Earth and Thresia teeter on the brink of war as the race to recover the Best Idea intensifies. Yet in this bizarre Universe, truth proves stranger - and far more perilous - than fiction.

In the town of Gainesville, Virginia, Cooper Fox has a special place in people’s hearts. Since the car accident that wiped his memories, Cooper has been...a little foggy. Cooper doesn’t know how to do much, but one thing he instinctively seems to know about is strength training, and with his help, Gainesville High’s football team has just won the Mid-States final. With Cooper the hero of the hour, the whole town is getting ready to celebrate in style.

Jacques McKeown is the most celebrated author of star-pilot fiction in the galaxy. He's rich, famous, and living in luxury, and his universe-wide fanbase eagerly awaits any news of his next book. There's just one small hitch. He's not Jacques McKeown. He's Dashford Pierce, star pilot and con artist, and if only the impatient calls from his publisher were the worst of his problems. There's also the last vestige of the Henderson crime gang, trouble brewing in the retired star-pilot community, and a small matter of somebody trying to kill him.

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. Eight years before our story begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret.

After successfully matchmaking within the Sydney desi community for years, Nas has decided to open a marriage agency to help all Australians find love. With 17 years of marriage to his dream woman Tasnim under his belt, he's keen to help others find the same happiness that he's had. But what he sees as a perfect, happy match isn't necessarily what something others agree on - including Tasnim. Before long, the cracks in Nas and Tasnim's marriage are beginning to show, and Salima, their 16-year-old daughter, is caught in the middle.

Emma, Aiden and Gina stand on the brink of a new life. After the trauma of Aiden’s abduction and return, they are slowly healing and returning to a fragile normality. Emma is desperate to protect her children, but the world is fascinated by Aiden, the silent child who is finally learning to speak for himself. Against her better judgment, Emma allows her son to attend a talk show. Her worse nightmare comes true when her daughter, Gina, is snatched from the studio and a chilling game begins.

When the great red star Calamity appeared in the sky, some believed the end had come. They were right. Calamity created the Epics: humans with incredible powers they didn't deserve. They could have saved mankind. They could have lifted us into harmony and prosperity. Instead they burned. They slaughtered. They conquered. And then they ruled. Jax has learned all of this the hard way. Orphaned at an early age, he's spent most of his childhood training to be a Reckoner - determined to find the Epics' weaknesses, unlock their secrets, and protect those of us who are still left.

Why are we scared of ghosts, zombies, vampires, demons, and monsters, when we know they are not real? Why do dark attics give us the creeps? How do writers and directors know exactly what anxieties to tap into, so that we break out in goosebumps, cover our eyes, and cringe? Shannon Scott invites you into the spooky, creepy, and sometimes surprising world of the horror genre to examine how popular scary movies and books manipulate our collective and individual fears—not only to frighten us, but also to address taboo subjects, and to reflect and comment on the state of our society.

In the year 2038, there’s only one destination that can play host to the world’s wealthiest adventure seekers: the Pengalaman Island Resort and Virtual Reality Theme Park. Located on a private South Pacific island, guests here live out their wildest fantasies in custom-made virtual reality simulations while also enjoying the usual amenities of an exclusive five-star getaway. All is relatively breezy until famed billionaire and avid guest, Mr. Wagner, goes missing within a virtual simulation. His only hope? A daring rescue led by Derek Ambrose and his ragtag search party.

Flynn was only a teenager when her parents were killed in a terrible accident. Too young to lose her parents, too young to take on responsibility for her younger sister Kaiya, too young to protect Kaiya from the harshness of their new lives in the following years. Desperate to help her sister, Flynn reaches out to Willa Tomlinson, a grief counsellor renowned for helping her patients cope with profound loss. Under Willa’s influence and care, Kaiya finally seems to turn a corner, joining the climate action collective that Willa leads.

Meet our heroine, Mo. She’s every dyke’s dream—or so she’s been told by her kind and supportive friends. She’s shy but passionate, politically aware, as committed to her egalitarian all-womyn’s softball team as she is to her volunteer work at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center. So why can’t she find a girlfriend? Could it possibly be because she’s more judgmental than Gertrude Stein and more self-sabotaging than Bojack Horseman?

Ida Pederson was an executive at ‘Nyberg Shoreline’ when she was sent to the small Northern Irish village of Port Kriel to diffuse tensions between the company and the local community. When an unexploded bomb was identified on the seabed near Nyberg’s windfarm, Ida sent a local crew of eight men to investigate. That night, only two men returned home, barely alive and unable to speak of what had happened out at sea.

Caroline’s mattress had nothing to do with her untimely death at the age of 28—this, she wants Tempur-Pedic’s market research representative to know. But as she reflects on her first ever mattress purchase and their interview progresses, Caroline dives into the circumstances and decisions that led her and Nicholas—her boyfriend, 10 years her senior and prone to sleeping on the floor—to that particular bed in that particular shopping plaza.

After a broken engagement, Cher decides to leave heartbreak behind by signing up for a holiday house swap. For the next few weeks, she’ll ditch sunny California to spend her first Hanukkah in New York City, a time of snow-covered sidewalks, festive store windows, hot cocoa, and...cute neighbors? As Cher is moving into her temporary new apartment, Eliot is moving his ex’s belongings out, and he soon finds himself offering to play tour guide. He’s nursing a broken heart too, and spending time showing the beautiful traveler around is exactly what he needs.

To rogue ex-cop Jack Carlin, running a thug out of town and giving his stolen money to a kid struggling to escape the criminal lifestyle is all in a day’s work. Until it turns out the money belonged to a dangerous drug cartel seeking revenge against anybody who might have been involved in taking what was theirs. With his act of charity ending in bloodshed, Jack won’t let the killers – or his guilty conscience – go unpunished. But how far is he willing to go to enact his own revenge plan? And what happens when the consequences start to hit a little too close to home?

In this pulse-pounding short thriller for fans of Big Little Lies and The Last Mrs. Parrish, Maggie Cabot refuses to sit by idly as police re-open an investigation into the mysterious death of a woman her husband used to know. After two decades in a near-perfect marriage, Maggie and James Cabot are enjoying their first year as empty-nesters in their charming Florida suburb, until two detectives arrive at their front door and change their lives forever.