Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Thriller & Suspense

Under the guise of machinery for making dumplings, a Spanish factory near Barcelona is secretly producing a key component in the production of nuclear weapons. When information finds its way to the inboxes of Western intelligence agencies that this "dumpling maker" is meant for North Korea, orders go out that the shipment must be stopped. Either the machine must be disabled while still in the factory, or the transportation route must be discovered so the equipment can be intercepted before it reaches its destination.

When Jerzy Schroeder, a shadowy gray-market hustler and aspiring crony capitalist, is murdered while Josie Kendall is hitting him up for a million dollars to help him cash in on alternative-energy funding, the police suspect her of adultery and her husband, Rafe, of homicide. Josie, who works for Majority Values Coalition, an "activist fundraising organization", is a new but passionate Washington, DC player.

When two cons doing several respective back-to-back life sentences for murder make a daring - if not Hollywood-style - escape from the Dannemora Maximum Security Prison in upstate New York, PI Jack Marconi receives a personal invitation from the governor of New York State to track the murderers down and deliver them personally to the front door of the governor's mansion.

The dead don't keep pets. So when animal behavior expert Pru Marlowe gets a call about a kitten, she doesn't expect to find the cuddly creature playing beside the cooling body of prominent local lawyer David Canaday. Heart attack? His three adult daughters angrily blame drug interactions, feline allergies - and each other. And they begin to feud over their father, his considerable estate, and that cute ball of fluff.

Life can turn on a dime against the jagged cliffs of California's Central Coast...Bruised, battered, but determined, Jane Innes must navigate a tangled web of deception, depravity and murder, and turn the tables on cunning swindlers. Using the art of deception, this out-of-work actress embarks on a daring caper - her last chance to take down a deadly adversary. Following The Shill and Kill the Shill, Beware the Shill concludes this thrilling trilogy from Shamus Award-winning author John Shepphird.

Sam Hunter is a bit of an animal. He's a former Twin Cities cop who lost his badge because of excessive force. Abusive husbands, child molesters, and other lowlifes wound up looking like they'd been mauled by a dog...or a wolf. Now Sam's a low-rent PI in Philadelphia. He takes the kinds of cases no one wants. His clients are usually on the fringes of society. The kind who are prey for all manner of predators - human and otherwise.

Her role in the con game was to be the shill before the scam exploded in bloody violence. Discarded, sacrificed like a pawn, Jane's left holding the bag. The swindlers left a murderous trail and millions of dollars are missing. The problem; Jane knows too much. She's a liability they can't afford to keep around. But the con artists underestimated Jane. They miscalculated her tenacity and will to survive. Not one to be crossed, her plan is to use their own weapon, the "art of deception", against them.

The Life Engineered begins in the year 3594, when humanity is little more than a memory, a legend of the distant past - destined to reappear. Capeks, a race of artificial creatures originally created by humans, have inherited the galaxy and formed a Utopian civilization built on the shared goal of tirelessly working to prepare for their makers' return.

Struggling actress Jane Innes is seduced by a handsome new arrival in her acting class. He makes a proposition. He admits he's a con man and needs Jane to pose as a rich, carefree heiress to fulfill her part in his intricate scam. All goes as planned until Jane's true identity threatens to surface and their scheme begins to crack at the seams. It all leads to a tangled maze of deception, depravity, and murder.

In 1972, Jeff Rice's novel The Night Stalker introduced Carl Kolchak to the world. This spine-tingling novel of supernatural terror became an instant best seller and served as the basis for the film of the same name. After The Night Stalker became one of the highest rated television movies of all time, a sequel, The Night Strangler, was released the following year to great acclaim. Now, after more than three decades out of print, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler are together in one volume.

In 2007, two CIA spooks meet with an American colonel in military intelligence. The war is going badly, and President Bush, who steadfastly refuses to back down, remains unchallenged at home as Democrats and Republicans focus on the 2008 elections. Meanwhile, Iran's pursuit of nuclear energy will yield enriched uranium by 2012 - uranium that could be used to manufacture suitcase nukes. The US military is too drained to invade Iran, and a preemptive strike is out of the question.

A car is found crashed on a beach in the Canary Island resort of Fuerteventura. In the trunk is a cardboard box containing the body of an infant - no one knows his name, and there is no trace of a driver. The last thing Fuerteventura needs is a murder. The island already has half-empty bars and windswept beaches, and the local police are under pressure to abandon the investigation. But longtime islander Erhard, who sees more than most people, won't let the investigation drop - and he has nothing to lose.

On a clear, moonlit night in December, police detective Jimmy Vega races to the scene of a reported home invasion in an upscale New York community. As Vega arrives, he spots a Hispanic man who fits the description of the armed intruder running from the victim's estate. Vega chases him into the woods. When the suspect refuses to surrender - and reaches into his pocket - Vega has only seconds to make a life-or-death decision.

One afternoon while standing outside her newly renovated Malibu house, Diana Poole sees a woman across the highway waving at her, but Diana doesn't recognize her. Still waving, the woman walks into the oncoming cars and is killed instantly. Why would anyone do such a thing? The next night, still horrified by the accident, Diana is held at gunpoint by a man demanding the dead woman's scorpion. What kind of scorpion? A live one? A brooch? A pendant? Diana searches the accident scene and finds a diamond-encrusted object in the shape of a scorpion.

Nathan is a young artist traveling across Europe in search of the emotional fire that has been missing from his work. He's been deemed by his mentors and critics to be technically skillful but uninspired - criticisms he fears to be true. On a Paris street, he witnesses the volatile breakup of a young French woman and her beau. Nathan pursues a meeting with the woman, and it very quickly becomes evident that her provocative charisma and scathing beauty just may conjure the electricity he has been seeking.

Set in the lawless Wild West, the hidden world of Victorian London, and the present-day hell of Hollywood, Cry of Thunder: Sherlock Holmes & Kolchak the Night Stalker follows Holmes' trail of a man who was wrongfully - and willingly - imprisoned; a shocking New World Order anarchy; a beautiful woman who needs Kolchak to delve into the surreal past; and the shunned man who holds the key.

Small-town boys Caleb and Jake Boyd spend their days splitting logs and barely scraping by in the badlands of New Mexico. Caleb, a decorated war hero, wants to put his fighting days behind him, find a decent job, and start a quiet life with his new fiancée. But Jake is always dreaming bigger than he should, and when he stumbles across a large crop of marijuana hidden in the wilderness, he thinks he has finally hit the jackpot.

Cops in Oakland seldom meet people whose lives are going well. That's certainly the case when homicide sergeant Matt Sinclair recognizes the dead woman hanging from a tree as a teenage runaway named Dawn he arrested 10 years before. And as Sinclair and his partner, Cathy Braddock, soon learn, many of Dawn's clients, not to mention the local and federal officials who protect them, will go to any length to keep the police from digging too deep into her past.

When millionaire Arthur Arbuthnot mistakes gossip maven Annabel Hinchby-Smythe for a decorator - and hires her to redecorate his apartment - the fiscally challenged Annabel can't refuse. When she sees Arbuthnot's tatty London flat, she knows anything will be an improvement. And any gossip she can dig up will be pure gold for the tabloids. But when Arthur is found dead, his frisky relatives begin to lick their chops. Arbuthnot's beloved tabby, Sally, was the only witness to the homicide - and the sole heir to his estate.

Six young people play a dangerous game of tag in public, chasing each other through the crowds, streets, and buildings of Chicago. This secret, one-of-a-kind, wildly expensive game offers a macabre twist to the childhood version: If you get tagged, you die. Three "Its" have their reasons for buying a place in the game. Handpicked innocents play as "Runners", under threat to their loved ones should they refuse to participate. The game will not end until someone is tagged, so the Runners must choose how to play.