Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

A reporter drowses off at his typewriter, to awaken to a very strange presence that has the appearance of a misshapen man. The "creature" appears not to be of this world, but when it begins to speak in a very strange voice it obviously knows George the reporter, and it has a story to tell.

According to legend, in 1910, Marie Belloc Lowndes attended a London dinner party where a guest told her that his mother’s butler and cook claimed they had once rented rooms to Jack the Ripper, the notorious mass murderer. The idea for “The Lodger” was born. Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have sunk their savings into their house with plans to let rooms. But no lodgers have materialized, and they are on the verge of penury when, one foggy night, a knock on the door brings Mr. Sleuth, an unassuming gentleman whose needs are perfectly suited to the suite of rooms the Buntings have to rent.

Running away from an abusive stepmother, a little girl scrambles across London rooftops, a favorite hiding place. She peers through a window and sees a man apparently burglarizing a studio, but quickly realizes that she has witnessed the aftermath of a murder when the man puts a gun in the hand of a body on the floor. When she cries out he glimpses her and she escapes in terror. Very soon after, she is sent to live with her deceased mother’s aristocratic family and her secret is kept from the police.

As the first light of dawn creeps in, the steady beep of a monitor becomes my anchor. When that beeping fades away, I'm thrust into a world where the North Star has lost its brilliance. It's scattered into a thousand glittering fragments, and nobody knows how to mend it. But how am I supposed to find my way back without the light of my guiding star? And how can I help North rediscover his own light?

In true Lovecraftian fashion a man's wife thought to be dead is entombed in the family crypt. The husband has an uneasy feeling, so he enters the tomb and finds the lid torn off the coffin. His wife is alive but in a state of delirium and shock. He sees a naked creature scurrying off through the inner vaults on all four semi-human limbs.

William Hope Hodgson wrote "The Terror of the Water-Tank" in 1907 and the story has been published in several pulp magazines since then. Mike Vendetti has taken this story and turned it into an engrossing audiobook. The story takes place in England where crowning the heights on the outskirts of a certain town on the east coast is a large, iron water-tank from which an isolated row of small villas obtains its supply. The top of this tank has been cemented, and around it have been placed railings, thus making it a splendid "look-out" for townspeople who may choose to promenade upon it.

An oil painting "The Golden Patio" hangs in a stairway of Peter Romsey's grandmother's home. Peter is named after his grandfather a nefarious philandering sea captain who died rather mysteriously in Spain. The painting is the only portion of his grandfather's effects his grandmother puts on display, and it has been relegated to a dark corner in a stairway. Peter as a child was fascinated with the painting and fantasized about the scene. As an adult, he is still fascinated with the painting that has hung in his office since his grandmother's death.

Patricia Schuster acquires both independence and furniture polish after inheriting her grandmother’s house and antique business. Her new life in the Northern California town of Lakeville is in jeopardy, however, when she is falsely arrested for stealing a rare 1950s Cadillac and is blackmailed by Jimmy, a toothpick-wielding used-car salesman. When the real car thief ends up dead, she turns to her grandmother’s friends—four women in their golden years who play fast and loose with the law. But how far over the line will Patricia have to go to find a killer and clear her name?

Imagine for a moment if you will, a world where everything is predestined, and if someone in this world steps out of his predestined role, a monster called an expunger in the disguise of an ordinary citizen will call upon that person. After the expunger's call, that person will never have existed. The protagonist, Steven Crane, finds himself thrust into the role of expunger through a simple misunderstanding in a cigar store, changing his existence and the existence of those he calls upon.

From the July 1937 Issue of Spicy Mystery Stories, "30 Seconds" by Robert Leslie Bellem and narrated by Mike Vendetti takes us to a rooftop forty stories above the pavement below where Philip Hayden is preparing to end his life because he has murdered his wife. But a strange bearded man pulls him from the parapet. Dr. Zarkov introduces himself as a Surgeon of Souls and offers Phillip a second chance if he can demonstrate that he has changed his evil philandering ways.

In a quiet seaside town in New England, the reclusive Agatha Webb and her servant are found dead. Agatha has had a number of children who died in infancy. Local residents are divided in their opinions of Agatha—some believe that she was complicit in the death, while others feel sympathy for her due to these tragic losses. Furthermore, a local man is being blackmailed by someone who believes that he is guilty of the murders. The case ends up in the capable hands of Detective Caleb Sweetwater.

Meet Al Nicely, a man whose last name is the only pleasant thing about him. With a history as a ruthless hoodlum and a deadly .45 that speaks louder than words, Al has climbed the ranks of the North Side crime syndicate seldom needing to throw a punch. From his early days in the Army, where he honed his self-defense skills and navigated the shadows of street life, Al's ambition knows no bounds. But in a world where power comes at a price, how far will he go to rise to the top?

Thomas Dunbar is struck by an automobile. He wakes up in a hospital situation, that's not a hospital, but the home of a rather strange man that that hit Dunbar with his automobile. The man is a Dr. and an inventor. Dunbar receives excellent care, but there is something strange going on in the house. Against the doctor's orders, Dunbar decides to escape. He opens the wrong door and stumbles into a huge laboratory with tremendous machines... Dunbar's life is changed forever.

Originally published in 1896, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Alice Morse Earle looks at some of the abandoned punishments for crimes, including the whipping-post, the pillory, and the ducking stool.

This classic murder mystery uses elements that have since become very common in crime literature - an abandoned house, a fugitive figure fleeing from the scene, and a dead body. In the house at Whispering Pines, which is supposed to be closed, the narrator discovers a dead body. On closer inspection, and much to his horror, he discovers that the corpse is that of his fiance. The figure fleeing the scene appears to be that of her sister. Unfortunately, when the police arrive and find the narrator still in the house they suspect that he is the murderer....

Phil Barnard goes on vacation, renting a cabin on a lake in the Canadian Rockies, a storm comes up pelting the cabin with rain, and then there is a soft knock on his door. He opens the door to reveal a beautiful young woman, wet and nearly frozen. What happens next, he will remember forever.

Northern California. Anne McCormack has plenty of her own problems—a vile ex-husband, a rocky exit from the FBI, and a struggling new estate sales business. But when finding a watch leads her to a prominent Wine Country matriarch, she can’t say no to the dying woman’s plea to solve her young son’s decades-old murder.

The town bum, nobody knows or remembers his name. A long-ago event that he can no longer recall harmed his body and his mind. He, unknown to others is involved in two incidents on B Street but is recognized and soon forgotten for only one.

After a riding accident involving her uncle, a respected General, Mina's life takes a dark turn. A new groom with a mysterious past and unsettling talents arrives at the estate, stirring whispers of hidden secrets and dangerous motives. As Mina delves deeper into the groom's enigma, she unravels a web of intrigue that threatens to upend everything she knows.

Step back in time to 1841, to the town of Darbury Massachusetts, where darkness and dread descend upon its residents, and the Spawn of Inferno emerges to wreak havoc and horror. Listen to "Spawn of Inferno" and delve into a world of unimaginable terror that will leave you on the edge of your seat.