Showing results by narrator "Tom Fria" in All Categories

Back then, hot-headed gangsters, not-so-gentle dames and bullet-riddled corpses filled the newspaper headlines. And some of the stories below the headlines were even true. The 1920s was a period in American history when even the respectable were unwilling to stay sober. And not-so-fast cars carried assassins across Chicago, a city that for many captures the essence of the USA. In Tough Guys in the Room, the story of Al Capone and his rivals is told in separate and stand-alone topics that cover key figures and events.

Chester Bryers knows a secret. He has kept it for decades but now, as he nears his final days, he is finally telling his tale. A tale of what really happened to the lost Franklin Expedition. A tale of cold vengeance, long planned and of the adventurer George Greener, who discovered a terrible truth. It is a truth that must not be known and by breaking his long silence, Bryers’ life may be coming to a swifter and more violent end than he imagined; because some secrets must be kept, and The Thin man is watching.

Hani is set to investigate thefts from the king’s household that turn out to be related to a more sinister attempt on the king’s life. Meanwhile, witnesses to the crown prince’s dodgy birth begin to die, and Hani fears for his daughter and her friend, who were also present.

If you thought the suburbs were boring, think again. Kelly Fordon’s I Have the Answer artfully mixes the fabulist with the workaday, illuminating relationships and characters with crisp, elegant prose, and dark wit. The stories in Fordon’s latest collection are disquieting, humorous, and thought-provoking. They might catch you off guard, but are always infused with deep humanity and tenderness.

In Irish Mythology, Otherworld is a happy land and Underworld is a foul land. These worlds exist alongside Earth. Wizard Drowe is sentenced to be a swan, but he escapes. He has tricked Ciarán, his apprentice, into becoming the swan. Granny and Aoife pursue the swan because Granny believes it will lead her to her lost village. Hunted by Wizard Drowe and the vampire Dearg-due, Ciarán and Aoife move from initial dislike to romance. These, in turn, are pursued by Venus and the Drimnagh Witches, servants of the Faerie Queen.

This book tells of a young woman who was found to have killed as a child. She was detained in various mental institutes, and then on to prison. It shows how she learned to control herself and whether or not prison reformed her.

FBI Medical Examiner Dr. Jessica Coran's talents have been requested in Philadelphia in the wake of a series of bizarre murders attributed to a maniac called The Poet. His calling card is a scroll of human parchment engraved with toxic verse.

Tens of thousands are flocking to a bustling wind-swept metropolis in the middle of America for the great Exposition of 1893—to see the future and to ride Mr. Ferris' remarkable wheel. A city of hope and hardship has caught the attention of the world—and a maniacal killer has made it his hunting ground. Inspector Alastair Ransom carries the burden of the dead on his shoulders. But a demon far worse than Ransom's own is loose—a bloodthirsty killer who preys on Chicago's most vulnerable citizens.

The body parts were first discovered in the bellies of sharks. Marine scientists in the Florida Keys insist sharks rarely dine on live humans, so there can be only one explanation: They were dead before they hit the water. Dr. Jessica Coran knows why. They call him the "Night Crawler". And he's out there, riding the tides with his victims, feeding the waves after his own perverse hungers are satisfied. But when similar murders surface in London on the Thames River, Jessica faces double jeopardy. One killer? Or two....

He felt most alive when he watched them die - writing, breathless, gasping for oxygen that wasn't there. But, he could only draw out the pleasure for so long before his victims expired. And, then it was time to choose another. Death by asphyxiation. That's what Chicago medical examiner Dr. Dean Grant was forced to conclude by the gruesome evidence before him. Recognizing the work of a serial killer, Grant knew he'd have to move fast.

Fabian Carlson wants nothing to do with Christmas. Having lost his fiancée two Christmases ago, his only wish is to skip the holidays altogether. Until he wakes up to his black Labrador’s loud, persistent barking. When he lets Felix out, he’s astonished to discover a reindeer on his front lawn, eating his neighbor’s prize-winning yews. Carlson’s Christmas Wish is a light-hearted and entertaining story about a man, a neighborhood, and a town whose lives are touched by the magic of Christmas. A truly heartwarming story about renewal and hope.

In this rousing 1852 romp through the eerie woods surrounding Hannibal, Missouri, and up and down the Mississippi River, 14-year-old Daniel Webster Jackson runs into a counterfeit Underground Railroad when he decides to run away from his foster home. At every turn, he musters courage to survive in a land where the law is at odds with the heart and soul of a people, where the Missouri Compromise forces everyone into a disguise or a secret identity.

This fast-moving and sometimes disturbing book starts at the point where Brian is about to be arrested for smuggling a kilogram of cocaine into the UK in 1995, earning him a prison sentence of 12 years. The book explores his disadvantaged life growing up in Wales in impoverished circumstances with a number of brothers and sisters, all with the same mother but several different fathers. He tells of his first experience with drugs at the tender age of 16 and continues to chart his descent into drugs and drug dealing.

Just when Archeologist and Vampire Slayer, Dr. Abraham Stroud thinks he can take it easy, take a second seat on a dig in West Texas, he is wrong from the outset. Plagued by warnings he does not at first recognize, Abe soon finds himself in the thick of an attack on humankind by a pod of prehistoric, giant centipedes that have cultivated a taste beyond livestock to a taste for humans. The creatures are known to local Native Americans as "Burrowers" as they have seen them before, but for Abe and those around him, there is a brewing war anticipated and soon engaged.

When FBI psychic Dr. Aurelia Murphy Hiyakawa is asked in on a case in New Orleans, she soon learns that the missing Gone Girls may as yet be alive and that their abductor is a "collector" rather than a typical serial abductor/killer. With three missing and as yet no clue as to where they may be, the only saving grace is that no bodies have shown up. There is little about this case that resembles anything that "Rae" Hiyakawa has faced before in PSI Blue and DEJA Blue. But the case takes on a new wrinkle that no one could have predicted.

A spy working for religious organizations, Jere Wakely is summoned to Salem Village Parish, where it has become obvious to church authorities that there is serious trouble. He is reluctant to return to his hometown for many reasons, not the least being that his heart is broken, and he's worried about running into his former lover, Serena Nurse. During his investigation, he has no expectation that their love will be rekindled. But their renewed passion parallels a greater fire - one of terror amid the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

This is a short story dealing with an injustice, a town without patience or pity in 1912 for the last living slave woman in this town. Each of six scenes builds to a crescendo of action. It is an old story of injustice brought about by those in power toward the poorest and least powerful in the community. It is also a story of rage when the last straw is put on old, dear Aunt Tilley who has changed the diapers of those who want to remove her. Told in the best tradition of Mark Twain's more serious tales.

Off a near-death experience in chasing down one serial killer in Upstate, New York. Dr. Jessica Coran is back at her Quantico forensic labs, in safe confines. That is until she gets a call from Andover, Massachusetts Police Chief, Shamus Hale. Hale, a descendant of Rev. William Hale of Salem Witchcraft infamy, has a horrid, inconceivable, and huge problem on his hands - a serial killer murdering abducted children, infants in fact.

Step inside a dream which becomes reality. Venture off with Gary, a high school art teacher suffering from insomnia. For 10 years, he’s been keeping the struggle alive for his missing sister Kelly, who disappeared without a trace. When he attempts to get his life back with the help of an experimental pill, he soon finds a dangerous connection between the living and the dead. Now, caught in the clutches of his drug-induced dreams, corrupting him with visions of what really happened to Kelly.

The sequel to Vampire Babies, book number nine in Bloodscreams Series, this is book number 10 Mindbreach. The return of Dr. Abe Stroud, vampire slayer and archaelogist.