Showing results by narrator "Todd Mclaren" in All Categories

Hewitt Pearce is a 43-year-old blacksmith who lives alone in his family home, producing custom ironwork and safeguarding a small collection of art his late father left behind. When Jessica, a troubled young vagabond, shows up in his backwoods one morning, fleeing her demons, Hewitt's previously hermetic existence is suddenly challenged - more so when he learns that Emily, the love of his life whom he'd lost 20 years before, has been unexpectedly widowed.

The time is 1953. The world has changed. Richard Curtis Van Loan has been forced to hang up his mask. But The Phantom Detective is drawn out of retirement by the sudden murder of his longtime friend, publisher Frank Havens; and must then face the greatest challenge in his long career, as he finds himself pursued and hounded by a vicious, unseen assailant, ?The Phantom's Phantom.? The hot, sunny hills of Southern California present a very different problem from the cold, dark-edged streets of the Big Apple. As the bodies begin piling up, Van Loan is driven to the very limit of his resources. Who is The Phantom's Phantom?

In 2005, 15 workers were killed when BP's Texas City Refinery exploded. In 2006, corroded pipes owned by BP led to an oil spill in Alaska. Now, in 2010, 11 men drilling for BP were killed in the blowout of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. What's next? In In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race That Took It Down, Stanley Reed - a journalist who has covered BP for over a decade - and investigative reporter Alison Fitzgerald answer not only that question, but also examine why these disasters happen to BP so much more than other large oil companies.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is Washington's response to America's call for a new regulatory framework for the 21st century. In The New Financial Deal, author David Skeel offers an in-depth look at the new financial reforms and questions whether they will bring more effective regulation of contemporary finance or simply cement the partnership between government and the largest banks.

The Veles have retreated to their last stronghold. Lance finds himself in an underground facility where old friends and even older enemies must work together to survive the grueling experiments conducted by Irene, Amber, and Doctor Cecil. With no backup and no support Lance's skills are put to their greatest test in a fight for survival unlike any he's experienced. Between what seems like innocent childhood games and military exercises the former SOAT plays a delicate game of cat and mouse where success means survival and failure is not only his death, but those he's sworn to protect.

This preacher man is giving her something to believe in. When country singer Dixie Pearl’s van breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, it feels like rock bottom. Sharp-tongued Dixie prides herself on her independence, but after recent health struggles, her dream of making it big has...

My name is Marten Mann. I work for the devil, or the prince of lies, as you people are so fond of calling him. Yes. You read that last line correctly. I am employed by the powers of evil as acquisitor ad infinitum. I did not seek out this job: I was chosen for the position. To put it in simpler terms, I am a broker of sorts - you know, the guy who finds out what it is that you want the most. I make it readily available to you for a price. I think we all know just how costly that one thing that you think you need so much can be.

In his book To Catch a Predator, Chris Hansen, the on-air correspondent for one of Dateline's most successful series, looks deeper into the world of child predators. The book expands beyond the Dateline series to include more commentary from psychological and criminal experts about the origins and methods of child predators, and includes substantive advice for both parents and children on how to protect kids who use the Internet.

A Journey Through America introduces insightful commentary on our American democracy. Author Lawrence Kadish draws from over eighty-five years of lived experience, allowing him to celebrate our nation's strengths, reflect on our self-inflicted errors, and draw attention to the challenges of a nation that remains humanity's last hope.

Taking us beyond the confines of our own experiences, The Color of North traverses the kingdom of life to uncover the myriad ways that proteins shape us and all organisms on the planet. Inside every cell, a tight-knit community of millions of proteins skillfully contorts into unique shapes to give fireflies their ghostly glow, enable the octopus to see predators with its skin, and make humans fall in love.

As a pirate, Willow Jackson has stolen hundreds of ships, if not thousands, but this ship is the first with someone on board. Trigg Lorrz, brother of the ship's owner and son of the king of Lorr, a powerful alien race, is . . . her hostage? He also happens to be Willow's one-night stand from the night before, the hottest lay she's ever had, and pretty much the epitome of her type. But they're both about to become hostages of Jorvlen attackers, who have a grudge against them both.

Alien warrior Grux Lorrz thought his brother was an idiot for the whole "pro-bono case" thing, but all of a sudden, business is picking up. With his brother disowned by their father—the king—and off making plans for a life with his human mate, Grux finds himself taking charge of their private investigation firm. (Though he doesn't like the administration work that comes along with it—that was always his brother's thing.) With jobs rolling in from all over the galaxy, the brothers are forced to split up, and Grux ends up on the planet Xoyosis, a dark hovel of a place.

Elite networks are informal social networks between politicians in power and top executives of politically connected firms where personal ties and long-term interactions build trust and loyalty between involved actors. Both groups draw benefits from these interactions; politicians stay in power, and corporate executives extract rents for their firms. Firms reward connected executives with higher salaries thus widening the dispersion of earnings in society. In Elite Networks, Vuk Vukovic offers a different perspective on the long-run origins of inequality.

Over the past generation, the Democratic and Republican parties have each become nationally coordinated political teams. American political institutions, on the other hand, remain highly decentralized. Laboratories against Democracy shows how national political conflicts are increasingly flowing through the subnational institutions of state politics—with profound consequences for public policy and American democracy.

The dark elf, Imris, saw me. Chased me. Won me. After I gave in . . . he left me. Not just heartbroken. But also . . . pregnant. A year later, I've moved on and am thriving. Life is hard. But good. And then Imris comes back. He says he never wanted to be sent away. That he fought to come back to me. He says he still loves me. Dare I trust him? Or is it an act? Will he leave again? Do I risk falling in love with him again? And more importantly . . . do I risk letting my kids love him too?