Showing results by publisher "Dreamscape Media, LLC" in Mystery

When a Catholic priest hangs himself during the pope's inauguration, his friend and ex-priest Alex Harker is dragged into a secret war that has been playing out on the fringes of society since the birth of Christ. The suicide sets into motion a planned timetable of terrifying events that will irrevocably change the world as we know it.

In 930 CE, a revered group of scholars pen the first sanctioned Bible, planting the seed from which other major religions will grow. But in 1953, half the manuscript goes missing while being transported from Syria. Around the same time, in the foothills of the Dead Sea, an ancient scroll is discovered - and promptly stolen. Six decades later, both parchments stand at the heart of a geopolitical battle between foreign governments and radical extremists, threatening the lives of millions.

Ten years after the events of Riders of the Purple Sage, John Shefford, a disillusioned preacher from Illinois travels to Arizona and takes refuge in a village controlled by polygamist Mormons hiding from the federal government.

The Red-Headed League is the second of the 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in 1892. In it, Jabez Wilson, a flame-haired London pawnbroker, comes to consult Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Some weeks before, Wilson responded to a newspaper want ad offering highly paid work to only redheaded male applicants.

A banker, Mr. Alexander Holder, makes a loan of £50,000 to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet - one of the most valuable public possessions in existence - as collateral. Feeling that he must not leave this rare and precious piece of jewelry in his personal safe at the bank, he takes it home with him. Awakened by a noise in the night, he is horrified to see his son playing with the coronet and apparently trying to bend it. Three beryls are now missing from it. In a panic, Mr. Holder travels to see Holmes, who agrees to take the case.

At first, Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson think it must be a mirage. If real, the willow trees they see on the horizon mean that water is nearby, and in this dusty stretch of the Southwest, water is rarer than gold. They rub the grit from their eyes, yet the sight remains. There really is water up ahead - and death just around the corner. Someone has opened a sluicegate, allowing all the precious liquid to drain into the dirt. When Twister and Chuckaluck close the gate and the roaring stops, a woman screams, "Don't let him get away! He was going to kill me!"

Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson are making their way through a West Texas canyon when they smell death. Finally, the two emerge onto the mesa, where they encounter the site of a massacre. A whole family of deer lies dead around a small pond, their skeletons bleached by the Texas sun. Someone has poisoned the water hole. Then a rider comes around the corner, rifle in hand, and gets the drop on Twister and Chuckaluck.

After being run out of Arizona on a trumped-up murder charge, the Rio Kid spent three years in Mexico, learning how to shoot quicker than any man on the range. Now he's headed home to clear his name. But before he reaches Arizona, the Kid will have to pass through the deadliest border region in the West. Nestled snugly in a bend of the Rio Grande, Hell's Half Acre is a lawless outpost claimed by both Mexico and the United States, and belonging to neither. There, justice comes from the barrel of a six-gun, and the only sentence is death.

Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson can't catch a break. All they want is a trail to follow straight through to Mexico, where a ranching job offers honest work, peace, and quiet. But no matter how fast they ride, trouble keeps hot on their heels. A gunshot breaks the silence of the lonely wagon road. By the time Twister and Chuckaluck reach the corpse, the killer is long gone. In the victim's pocket they find a letter from a woman begging for help, a woman whose savior now lies dead in the alkali dust.

Ike Singer is a demolitions expert, or master blaster. He is second to none at his craft, knows every type of explosive known to man, and is the one everyone turns to when they need a safe, controlled explosion. Despite being at the very top of his profession, a personal mistake that led to catastrophe nearly brought Ike's life to ruin. He has spent every day since atoning for that sin and trying to piece his family back together. And after a great deal of work and soul-searching, Ike believes he has finally moved on.

Rare-book authenticator Carys Jones wanted nothing more than to be left alone to pursue her obsession with ancient manuscripts. But when her biggest client is committed to an asylum, he gives Carys an offer she cannot refuse. In exchange for his entire library of priceless Dark Age manuscripts, she must track the clues hidden in a previously unknown journal, clues that lead to a tomb that could rewrite the history of Western civilization. But there are people who would do anything to stop her from finding what she seeks - for reasons both noble and evil.

Blanche Tucker longs to escape her drop-dead dull life in tiny Boynton, Oklahoma. Then dashing Graham Peyton roars into town. Posing as a film producer, Graham convinces the ambitious but naive teenager to run away with him to a glamorous new life. Instead, Graham uses her as cruelly as a silent-picture villain. Taking charge of her life, she makes it to Hollywood. Six years later, Blanche has transformed into the celebrated Bianca LaBelle, the reclusive star of a series of adventure films, and Peyton's remains are discovered on a Santa Monica beach. Is there a connection?

Ernst Grip, of the Swedish security police, has no idea why he's been dispatched to a remote American military base in the Indian Ocean. Met by FBI agent Shauna Friedman, he learns that the US wants him to determine whether a prisoner they're holding is a Swedish citizen. The detainee is a suspect in an Islamist-inspired terror attack in the US.