Showing results by narrator "Patrick Lawlor" in All Categories

When Santa Claus is a cop, you better watch out. It’s not looking like a very merry Christmas for San Diego cop Nick Pappas. Suspended from his job, alienated from his family, and persecuted by the press, he’s sorely tempted to turn his gun on himself. Except for his first name, he couldn’t possibly have less in common with jolly old St. Nicholas. But when a local mall decides it needs a secret Santa to help collar some vicious muggers preying on its holiday shoppers, Nick’s persuaded to red-suit up so as to take the naughty punks down and avert a ho-ho homicide.

David Morrell, best-selling author of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose and The Fifth Profession, distills four decades of writing and publishing experience into this single masterwork of advice and instruction for fiction writers looking to make it big in the publishing world. With advice proven to create successful novels,

Leo’s boyhood hero, Henry “Heck” Sundstrom, was larger than life. Lately, however, Heck’s life has been spiraling out of control. First there was the honeymoon boating accident that killed Heck’s son and new daughter-in-law, Allison. And now the big man himself is dying — struck down by a delivery truck in a seedy section of Seattle. As he investigates, Leo begins to wonder if Allison went down with the ship. And whether, with the aid of his aging legmen, “the Boys”, he can prove the “late” Mrs. Heck is more alive — and lethal — than anyone ever suspected.

Anticipating problems, a prestigious global restaurant convention hires Leo as a security liaison. His assignment: monitor the movements of two adversarial steak-house competitors whose "beef" has previously made for some nasty confrontations and landed a food critic in the crossfire of two warring factions. Leo sends "the Boys" off to shadow all three parties and report back to him. But even the simplest of plans can cascade into catastrophe. And Leo soon finds himself served up as the prime suspect in a murder...realizing that both his life and career are at stake.

Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? #1: Don't go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. #2: Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be certifiably crazy. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Crazy #2? When Blake Crouch and Jack Kilborn face-off, the result is a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an "After School Special," SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides.

Florida, 1982. A nine-year-old watches as his dead father's possessions are hauled away: his clothes and tools, his faux-leather recliner. His sensei says it's a perfect time to turn his weaknesses into weapons. His PE teacher says he runs like a pregnant ostrich. His mother takes out a personal ad. Everyone is trying to teach him a lesson but he is, it seems, a slow learner. Meanwhile, with each passing day, his father recedes, growing less and less plausible, almost a myth.

In this tour of the animal kingdom, evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin reveals a new field of study, uncovering social networks that existed long before the dawn of human social media. He accessibly describes the latest findings from animal behavior, evolution, computer science, psychology, anthropology, genetics, and neurobiology, and incorporates interviews and insights from researchers he finds swimming with manta rays, avoiding pigeon poop, and stopping monkeys from stealing iPads.

Christian Davis, a former big-firm lawyer turned social justice warrior, has just been assigned the case of his life by the State of California. Jamel Jackson, a sixteen-year-old black boy, has just been convicted for the brutal rape of a prominent movie star. Christian digs into the case with gusto, as he examines the trial court transcript for any hint that the trial court might have erred in Jamel's case. As he gets into the investigation of the case, he's shocked at what he has found. Corruption at the highest level is staring him in the face.

Imagine controlling a machine with your mind. Imagine a communication line direct from your mind to someone else's. Imagine controlling a prosthetic limb with a thought or "seeing" through a camera located miles away. Once the stuff of science fiction, such remarkable feats are now within the grasp of neuroscience. Malcolm Gay tells the fascinating stories of the researchers delving into the intricate workings of the brain to map the neural signals that make up our thoughts.

Moneyball meets medicine in this remarkable chronicle of one of the greatest scientific quests of our time - the groundbreaking program to answer the most essential question for humanity: How do we live and die? - and the visionary mastermind behind it.

One dark and stormy winter night, outside his remote New England farmhouse, Hal Borland heard howling. At the door were a half-starved black-and-white mutt and his puppy companion. While reluctant to welcome these uninvited guests into their home, Hal and his wife gave them refuge, finally naming them Pat and Mike. When a local boy lost his dog, and the Borland's gave Mike to him, Pat's strong personality blossomed, and he becomes a treasured companion and member of the family.

Dragged away from the Magic Kingdom by the same Red Caps that helped Bloom hunt him down, Patrick Deen comes out of his injury delirium somewhere on the North Carolina coast, one thousand miles from Ben. One thousand miles from home. To get back to Fort Doom, he'll lead a ragtag crew across a cruel and forgotten country. When they meet the charismatic Roman Marwood, they'll join forces to try to make it to the Gulf . . . but it won't be smooth sailing.

Visionary placemaker Steve Nygren chronicles the rise of Serenbe, a pioneering model in biophilic living outside Atlanta, and charts a path for others wishing to challenge the status quo, embrace optimism, and reinvent their communities—and themselves.

Rockin' in the Ivory Tower takes a close look at two smaller universities, Drew in New Jersey and Stony Brook on Long Island, to see how the culture of rock music played an integral role in student life in the late 1960s.

Two Tales From Herman Melville includes "The Lightning-Rod Man" and "The Bell-Tower."

Award-winning author and journalist Benyamin Cohen has a bizarre side hustle as the manager of Einstein's official social media accounts, which have 20 million followers—more than most living celebrities. In The Einstein Effect, Cohen embarks on a global quest to unearth Einstein's ongoing relevance today. Along the way, he meets scientists and celebrities, speaks to dozens with the last name Einstein (including two rabbis), and even tracks down the brain of Einstein, stolen from his body during the autopsy

By beginning a conversation that encourages self-examination and compassion, Combined Destinies invites listeners to look at how white Americans have been hurt by the very ideology that their ancestors created. Editors Ann Todd Jealous and Caroline T. Haskell, both experienced psychotherapists skilled at facilitating dialogue about racial issues, are cognizant of the challenges that even the thought of such conversations often presents. Their book is based on the premise that for positive and lasting change to occur, hearts as well as minds must be opened.

A young Marine deployed to Vietnam finds terror, danger, and death, but also courage, loyalty, and brotherhood. This intense, gritty tale of the Vietnam War, in a setting depicted so vividly you can almost feel the jungle heat, it will draw you in and won't let go. Silent Valor recreates what happened to Lance Corporal Don Talbot and the squad members of Echo Two in their attempt to save fellow Marines surrounded by the North Vietnamese Army.

In 1977, Ickey Jerusalem, San Francisco’s golden-boy poet laureate (based on Blake), is found dead in a locked, first-class toilet on an arriving red-eye flight. Ded Smith, a desperately unhappy, intelligent philistine with a highly developed philosophy to match, is called in to investigate the poet’s death. Thus begins a series of hilarious encounters with the members of Jerusalem’s coterie (updated amalgams of characters from Blake’s work).

On January 16, 1991, Speicher participated in the initial air strike of the Persian Gulf War. Moments after an attack by an Iraqi MIG-25, Speicher's plane vanished over the Baghdad desert. The next day, Secretary of State Dick Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell told the American public that Speicher was the first casualty of the Gulf War. He was listed as KIA/BNR.