Showing results by narrator "Patrick Lawlor" in All Categories

Former Las Vegas homicide detective Jim Snow's luck has been going from bad to worse, spurred by a series of rash decisions and a quickly developing mid-life crisis. He quit the force a few years ago to play poker for a living and has been losing steadily for months. His money is running out - and so is his live-in girlfriend.

The Island of Yew is divided into five kingdoms, the central of which, Spor, is a place ravaged by crimes and robbers. One day, a young girl, Sesely, living in the nicer kingdom of Heg, is enjoying a picnic with some companions. A fairy comes down and begs them to help change her into a human. Sesely and her friends, amazed, obey her orders and soon they find themselves in the company of a young man, named Prince Marvel. Prince Marvel desires to go on adventures and become a hero, which he is able to do easily enough in crime-ridden Yew.

A man decides to visit a relative living near the Hudson River for two weeks during a cholera epidemic that occurred during the summer of 1832. One day during this visit, the man is reading a book near the window revealing a scenic view of the river. His attention is focused upon the epidemic nevertheless, and when he glances up from the pages, the man sees a ghastly sight in the distant hills—there an enormous creature larger than any oceangoing ship is climbing down!

"A Tale of the Ragged Mountains", published in 1844, is a short story partially based on Edgar Allan Poe's experiences while a student at the University of Virginia. Set near Charlottesville, it is the only one of his stories to take place in Virginia.

"A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" highlights scientific theories of Poe's day, engages with British imperial history, and forecasts contemporary interest in psychoactive drugs, the transmigration of the soul, and the dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship.

The life of John Hancock, contemporary of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, and first to sign the Declaration of Independence, is featured in this volume of the Young Patriots series. Detailing Hancock's early years, this work focuses on his relationship with boyhood friend John Adams and his academic struggles with what he would later become most famous for: his writings.

An ordinary boy, a mysterious letter, a royal birth, a giant trout, a near-death experience, and an unexpected romance magically come together to create a touching and good-hearted novel about the search for self and the power of belief.

The Weekly World News team uncovers the definitive and faux-tastic story of Bat Boy, from his hardscrabble origins in the caves of West Virginia to his global influence in the 21st century. Going Mutant reveals how Bat Boy has heeded a call to service that has embarrassed less forthcoming mutants.

Eddie Rickenbacker was a World War I Flying Ace, a Medal of Honor winner, and even a racecar driver. But did you know that his first attempt at flying was to ride his bicycle off the roof of his house while holding an umbrella?

Along with the volcanic destruction of Pompeii and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Lisbon quake of 1755 is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. After being jolted by a massive quake, Lisbon was then pounded by a succession of tidal waves and finally reduced to ash by a fire that raged for five straight days.

Jack London was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild and other books. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from writing. Here are four of his best stories: "The Whale Tooth", "To Build a Fire", "The House of Pride", and "The House of Mapuhi".

Edgar Allan Poe, best known for his tales of ratiocination, fantastical horror, and genre-founding detective stories, tells the story of Bobby, who wants to marry cousin Kate. Uncle Rumudgeon says he can - when there are three Sundays in a week.

He's suave, he's sexy, he's cool...and he's an undertaker!

After spending the summer of 1853 in the Berkshire Mountains, where he supposedly had a real life encounter with a lightning-rod salesman, Melville published "The Lightning-Rod Man". At the end of this short story, the lightning-rod salesman is exposed for the fraud that he is. However, that will not keep his successors from fanning out to the Middle West, where lightning storms abound and farmers are gullible.

Gary Paulsen’s slapstick tales capture the “wonderful madness” of growing up in a small town in northern Minnesota, when high spirits, showing off for girls, and general idiocy led Gary and his pals to attempt some amazing stunts! Wacky, daring, just plain nuts - extreme sports lead to extreme fun in new stories from Gary’s boyhood.

Beamer, age 13, who speaks only Californian, is an alien in the world of Middle America, exiled to a bizarre, ancient house on a mysterious street that may or may not exist on any map. With the help of a nerdy African-American kid named Ghoulie, a gangly tomboy named Scilla, and a miraculous, broken-down tree house shaped like a spaceship, he battles the indigenous life forms in his new home, from bullying creatures to the strange inhabitants of dark castles, subterranean caverns, and a spider web the size of a house.

He is a man alone, a drifter haunting the back roads and highways of America. Every town he leaves behind preserves but a glimmer of him, the cool, handsome man with the teardrop scar whose presence fades with the sunlight. But all that changes when a brutal assault forces him to play Good Samaritan for a beautiful young woman, placing him squarely in the crosshairs of a vengeful ex-con. Caught between duty to his fellow man and the anonymity of life on the road, the Samaritan struggles to resist the forces drawing him into a shadowy world of violence, intrigue, and deception.

Determined to save an innocent man from death and unlock the mystery of his own wife’s murder, Lije Evans faces racism, betrayal, and international terror in Swope’s Ridge, the harrowing second book of the Lije Evans Mysteries series.

Prepare to meet the most seductively female and the most shockingly fatal of femmes fatales, brought to you by 17 of today's finest authors of mystery and suspense fiction. Award-winning editor Otto Penzler presents a collection of short and sizzling masterpieces of kisses and kiss-offs, gams and gats, published for the first time anywhere.

Mark Gillen has the storybook life other men dream of, complete with a beautiful wife and an adoring five-year-old daughter. Then his wife announces she's leaving him. And taking their daughter with her. The other man is a famous film director with unlimited funds and the keys to stardom and wealth for Paula. How can Mark begin to compete? But the most bitter blow comes when he is kept from seeing his daughter because of false charges....

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practictioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.