Showing results by narrator "Christopher Lane" in All Categories

When Kilkenny is invited to Rome to consult on the functioning of the Vatican Library, he is still grieving the death of his wife and son and welcomes the distraction of the assignment. But Pope Leo XIV has a startlingly different task in mind for him. In a private audience, Kilkenny learns of an unreported atrocity committed against the underground Church in China and its link to Yin Daoming, the long-imprisoned Bishop of Shanghai who has served thirty years of a life sentence in a Chinese laogai for refusing to renounce the Church of Rome.

When retired police detective Joe Heller is called in to investigate what might be Antarctica's first murder, he quickly discovers that winter at McMurdo Station comes with a unique set of challenges: darkness, isolation, and the eccentric behavior of the research facility's 157 inhabitants. But a difficult investigation turns much tougher when all communication with the outside world is suddenly cut off.

CIA agent Jordan Sandor's mission is more complex and has more at stake than any he has faced before. From Bermuda to the United Kingdom, from France to the deserts of Iraq, Jordan must face down villains both known and unknown, recognized and hidden, as he struggles to prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. Needing more help than ever, Sandor calls upon his usual group of talented associates.

During the waning days of World War I, three lost souls find themselves adrift in Omaha, Nebraska, at a time of unprecedented nationalism, xenophobia, and political corruption. Adolescent European refugee Karel Miihlstein's life is transformed after neighborhood boys discover his prodigious natural talent for baseball. Jake Strauss, a young man with a violent past and desperate for a second chance, is drawn into a criminal underworld.

All the bureaucratic scolding in Washington won't stop CIA Agent Jordan Sandor when he's hungry for revenge. His newest target: Venezuelan drug lord Adina, a coldblooded sociopath with a taste for slaughtering innocent people - including Sandor's close friend. Despite stern warnings from his superiors, Sandor mobilizes a team of skilled, dedicated agents to secretly penetrate the Venezuelan jungle.

When Jordan Sandor resigned from active service with the Central Intelligence Agency, it was before September 11th, before the fall of Saddam Hussein, and before the world had so dramatically changed. He is reluctantly drawn back into action when a series of violent events leads him to suss out a new al-Qaeda conspiracy to initiate cataclysmic assaults with poison gas.

After Earth is decimated, the entire remaining human population is marooned on an unfamiliar beach. The enigmatic winged Orangemen leave the survivors with instructions to remake their society, basic tools and weapons, and a few thousand books, including Bibles in many languages. As two generations are born and raised, conflicting theories as to the nature of the apocalypse continue to simmer. Fifty years later, the arrival of a new family that shouldn't exist threatens the delicate peace holding humanity together.

Originally published in 1959, Advertisements for Myself is an inventive collection of stories, essays, polemic, meditations, and interviews. It is Mailer at his brilliant, provocative, outrageous best. Emerging at the height of "hip", Advertisements is at once a chronicle of a crucial era in the formation of modern American culture and an important contribution to the great autobiographical tradition in American letters.

Who Speaks for Islam? is about this silenced majority. This book is the product of the Gallup World Poll's massive multiyear research study. As part of this groundbreaking project, Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents of more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have significant Muslim populations.

Sixteen years ago, rookie cop Tommy Bergmann was on the scene when a teenage girl's mutilated body was discovered in the woods. Schoolteacher Anders Rask confessed to the murder, along with five others. He was sentenced to live out his days in a mental institution outside of Oslo, and the case appeared closed. That is, until now...

Attorney Ben Corbin travels to Norway to settle a dispute between Karl and Gunnar Bjornsen, feuding brothers on the verge of developing a revolutionary neural stimulant that could turn first responders into superheroes. But more than just the fate of their pharmaceutical empire is at stake. What starts as a sibling rivalry takes a deadly turn as Gunnar flees with the secret formula and Karl finds himself in the crosshairs of a bribery investigation.

As a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Nick Angel has seen a lot. But now he sees almost nothing after being struck with PTSD-related blindness resulting from the trauma of his last tour. In an attempt to put the past behind him, he travels to Venice, Italy, with his fiancée, Grace, to recover, reconnect, and rekindle their love. Despite his physical and emotional setbacks, Nick senses something dangerously amiss in Venice, and his hunch proves right when Grace is abducted right in front of him.

In The Smartest Places on Earth, van Agtmael and Bakker present a truly hopeful and inspiring investigation into the emerging sources of a new era of competitiveness for America and Europe that are coming from unlikely places - those cities and areas once known as "rustbelts" that have, from an economic perspective, been written off.

With a sniper’s rifle he has calmly executed hundreds of enemy soldiers in a single battle, and gunned down thousands of innocent civilians in a single day, waiting patiently for the barrel of his gun to cool before resuming his craft.

Late October, 1962. Wes Avery, a one-time air force tail-gunner, is living his version of the American Dream as loving husband to Sarah, doting father to 17-year-old Charlotte, and owner of a successful Texaco station along central Florida's busiest highway. But after President Kennedy announces that the Soviets have nuclear missiles in Cuba, army convoys clog the highways and the sky fills with fighter planes. Within days, Wes' carefully constructed life begins to unravel.

One of the most dynamic eras in American history, the 1920s began with a watershed year that would set the tone for the century to follow. The Roaring Twenties is the only decade in American history with a widely applied nickname, and our collective fascination with this era continues. But how did this surge of innovation and cultural milestones emerge out of the ashes of World War I?

Junior exec Ben thought working for a prestigious bank in Hong Kong would be a career-building adventure and an exotic change from his staid Long Island upbringing. In the complex splendor of Hong Kong, he finds himself in a position of extreme privilege - a position in which everything is seen as a commodity. When he and his colleagues take an outing on the South China Sea to escape the city smog, a sordid secret is revealed.

Capturing the seedy and sordid side of life isn't anything new for photojournalist-turned-paparazzo Graham Wells. But when a shoot turns deadly - secretly causing the car crash that takes the lives of two beloved public figures - he knows the ensuing media spotlight could easily destroy him. Fortunately, no one else knows his shameful secret except for a mysterious CIA operative, and that clandestine agent swears he'll keep quiet...for a price.

Donald S. Crowley was a CPA by day; a bean counter; a number cruncher and a certified bore. By night he was as stimulating as the hero in his latest read with all the social skills of a brick and to make matters worse he was in love with a door. Not just any door, number four was special. Her alluring smile had caught Donald's eye when he was just a boy and she called him by name.

They were a family. The young father, haunted by his own parents’ disappointment, can’t manage to complete his doctorate, nor can he imagine being able to earn a living or pursue a career. Just as he comes to terms with being a stay-at-home dad, leaving his wife to provide for the family, she hits him with a shocking surprise. As the father begins to hope for a return to the lifestyle he enjoyed before fatherhood, he finally finds the inspiration to see something through to the end.