Showing results by narrator "Romy Nordlinger" in All Categories

A medieval slave-turned-sultan, an alien who declines to visit Earth, a prophet who dares to ask "is God funny?" and a ghost who fears the living - these are among the terrifying, tragic, passionate, and comic characters who animate Michael Oren's stories. Crisscrossing genres, they explore the outer bounds of imagination and artistic freedom, exposing the listener to a kaleidoscope of human emotions and experience. In The Night Archer, the acclaimed historian, political commentator, and statesman Michael Oren is revealed as a writer of bold versatility.

Marion Davies was, in so many ways, created by and for William Randolph Hearst - their symbiotic relationship spanned from 1915 when W. R. first ogled her chorus-girl charms until his death in 1951. But she was much more quickly superannuated, cinema-historically speaking, by the Orson Welles-Herman Mankiewicz dumb-blonde caricature in Citizen Kane, paradoxically the most important film in her life.

The interwoven tales of three women unfold in the voices of Sarah, Miriam, and Beth, whose unshakable friendship takes root in a Buffalo college dorm in the late 1960s. Fueled by the optimism and bravado of that era, they charge into adulthood with high expectations and lofty ideas. They were, as Beth would later observe, the first generation of women to feel entitled to interesting lives. At times, they find themselves living long distances from each other as each of them seeks new directions and new locales. Nonetheless, they remain deeply connected in the decades after college.

Eccentric 70-something Vivian Borne and company, amateur-sleuths-turned-pro, have a challenging case to solve as a series of creepy crimes plague an ill-fated Edgar Allan Poe festival, where a fiend is misguidedly dispensing Poe-etic justice. Small-town Antiqua, known for its quaint main street of antique shops, has set out to celebrate the gothic poet with food, fun, and rare memorabilia, only to have the Master of the Macabre's twisted tales come to deadly life.

In this biography, young listeners will learn all about Elizebeth Friedman (1892-1980), a brilliant American code breaker who smashed Nazi spy rings, took down gangsters, and created the CIA's first cryptology unit. Her story came to light when her secret papers were finally declassified in 2015. From thwarting notorious rumrunners with only paper and pencil to “counter-spying into the minds and activities of” Nazis, she held a pivotal role in the early days of US cryptology. No code was too challenging for her to crack, and her work undoubtedly saved thousands of lives.

When a desperate criminal pulls a gun on her in the ER, nurse Janie Kirkpatrick’s in deep trouble - until undercover cop Brad Benton saves her life. Now Janie’s a witness with a lethal enemy and on the run with a stranger. She has no choice but to trust Brad. But can he take down the criminals before a murderer parts them forever?

Although Bianca LaBelle, star of the wildly popular silent movie serial The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse, and Rudolph Valentino, the greatest screen idol of all time, have been friends for years, in the summer of 1926, they are making their first picture together, a steamy romance called Grand Obsession. One evening after dinner at Bianca's fabulous Beverly Hills estate, a troubled Rudy confesses that he has received anonymous death threats. In a matter of days, filming comes to an abrupt halt when Rudy falls deathly ill. Could it be poison?

Fitzgerald's debut novel, This Side of Paradise, tells of a handsome young man, Amory Blaine, whose romantic relationships with women are touched with a reflection of his own narcissism. First published in 1920, it covers Amory's life at Princeton and later as a soldier during World War I. The central character is loosely based on Fitzgerald himself, and the female characters are mostly based on actual women in his life as well. The book was a solid success and helped Fitzgerald persuade Jazz Age icon Zelda Sayres, fictionalized in the novel, to marry him.

The speaker is too high on LSD to explain what he means, but at one time he had been in love with Ruth's sister, Mary, whose sun sign is Aquarius. And it is Mary's disappearance that brought Ruth to Cranston House, a sinister, run-down hotel occupied by Dr. Eric Palmer and his youthful drug cultists. Ruth is told that Mary is "away for a while". But no one will say where, or for how long. Suddenly Ruth herself becomes a virtual prisoner. The more she learns about the dangerous drug experiments Palmer sponsors, the more terrified Ruth becomes.

Was a noose tightening around a horrified Deborah Foster? It was the night of evil ritual. The worshippers of the devil danced around the ruined abbey, now transformed into a temple of terror. Deborah had come there hoping to unmask her sister’s killer. Suddenly against her will, Deborah felt herself succumbing tothe unholy spell woven by the frenzied witches. Relentlessly they began to encircle her. Panic gripped her for she knew they had chosen her as their next victim.

This remarkable novel is the basis for the world's greatest science-fiction movie. It is an unforgettable vision of the 21st century and the awe-inspiring city of the future. Metropolis has been compared to such classics as George Orwell's 1984, H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, Samuel Butler's Erewhon, and Karel Capek's R.U.R. Science fiction writer and editor Forrest J Ackerman called it "a work of genius".

Anna Percival drifted through the shadowy rooms of the old dark house in a sleepwalker's trance. And wherever she went a strange death was sure to follow. Many years before, at Land's End Manor, lived another Anna, a murderess of uncommon cunning and cruelty. Gossipy villagers tried to make Anna Percival believe that the other Anna's evil spirit lived in her! Yet even as death thrived at Land's End, Anna Percival found her own safety threatened again and again. Was she out to take her own life as well as the lives of others?

Regina Widden stirred restlessly in her bed as she fought to pull herself out of her nightmare.... At last, she opened her eyes and found that she was on a narrow cot in a small cottage. She turned to see a candle in a pewter holder burning on a wooden table beside her. Suddenly, the door burst open and a young girl rushed in. Regina recognized her friend, Peggy.

Karen arrives at he Bagnold plantation in Haiti determined to uncover the truth about her cousin Sheila’s mysterious death. Sheila’s husband, Henri Bagnold, is not above suspicion - though Karen finds herself inalterably drawn to the handsome artist. But Henri is not the only one who had a motive for murder. His beautiful adopted sister, Jean Marie, or his attractive blonde secretary, Dorothy, also had reason to want Sheila dead. So did Leonard, Henri’s cousin, who committed suicide after Sheila’s death and is said to stalk the Bagnold plantation now in zombie form.

Arundel was cursed with a still unexplained secret from its sinister past. And when a series of strange, near-fatal accidents befell her, Marie was certain that the mysterious menace of the old mansion was reaching out to claim her as its next victim. At first she clung to her new-found love for comfort and protection. Suddenly, she became aware that the killer who pursued her from the shadows of that doomed house could very well be her own husband!

From the moment she came to live at Phantom Manor, a rotting pile of stone she had suddenly inherited, Jan Davis became the terrified victim of a series of “accidents.” The lurking murderer could be anyone whose life was tied to the dread secret of the eerie mansion: a homicidal, half-witted young man; a jealous relative who wanted the manor for herself; even a neighboring landowner with whom Jan had fallen in love. But the hidden villain of Phantom Manor could also be one of the “unliving” - the legendary ghost that stalked its shadowy corridors....

Will Anita lose her husband to the ghost with the porcelain face? When they inherit an ancient mansion, Anita and her husband Charles move in. From the very beginning of their arrival at Shorecliff, Anita notices the change that comes over her husband. Charles turns into a sullen and brooding stranger. He becomes obsessed with the legend of Amanda, a vain and beautiful murderess who kept forever young by wearing a mask of porcelain. Though dead 100 years, Amanda seems to have taken complete control of Charles.

Pamela Wales, the young governess at Ravenswood, can hardly believe her luck. The man she adores - the brooding master of the palatial estate - wants her for his wife. For a little while, she is so happy that she ignores the servants' gossip of old scandals and her fiance's involvement in a recent murder. Suddenly, she is almost killed. Then a ghost pursues her through the mansion's sinister corridors.

“Todd Doughty is one of the happiest people on the planet. He finds things big and small that make us smile, and in this wonderful book he shares them with a world he cherishes.”—John Grisham “A poetic, sparkling gem you’ll want to pick up every time you need a smile. It’s the...

Brandy Borne's exceedingly eccentric mother, Vivian, has been invited to perform her one-woman interpretation of the Scottish play (sometimes called Macbeth) at the neighboring town of Old York's annual fete. As soon as they arrive, tragedy strikes: the theater owner drops dead onstage while giving Vivian the grand tour. Before they know it, Brandy and Vivian are entangled in a progressively perilous murder plot.