Showing results by narrator "Peter Berkrot" in All Categories

July, 1944, a full month after D-Day. Billy, Kaz, and Big Mike are assigned to investigate a double murder close to the front lines in Normandy. An American officer and a member of the French Resistance were found dead in a manor house outside the town of Trevieres. The investigation is shrouded in secrecy, due to the highly confidential nature of the American unit headquartered at the Manoir de Castilly; the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.

The enclosed was transcribed from 10 mini-cassette tapes that were recovered from the offices of Boston attorney William J. Latch following his disappearance on June 19, 2014. These tapes are part of the evidentiary record in the civil case of Latch V. Weymouth Life & Casualty. William J. Latch was declared dead by the State of Massachusetts in April 2015 after Magistrate Gavin FitzGerald reviewed these tapes, privately, in his chambers. Weymouth Life & Casualty was therein ordered to release Latch's survivor's benefits to his children. Latch's body has never been found.

Something is definitely wrong with Donald Trump’s presidency, but what exactly? The extraordinary negative reaction to Trump’s election - by conservative intellectuals, liberals, Democrats, and global leaders alike - goes beyond ordinary partisan and policy disagreements. It reflects genuine fear about the vitality of our constitutional system. The Founders, reaching back to classical precedents, feared that their experiment in mass self-government could produce a demagogue: a charismatic ruler who would gain and hold on to power by manipulating the public.

As 1872 opened, the New York Times headlined four stories that symptomized the decay in public morals that the editors so frequently decried: financier Jim Fisk was gunned down in a love triangle; suffragist and free-love advocate Victoria Woodhull was running for president; antivice activist Anthony Comstock battled smut dealers poisoning children’s minds; and abortionists were thriving.

Washed-up celebrity ghostwriter Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag has finally rediscovered his voice and is making progress on what he hopes will be his long-awaited second novel. Burrowed up in his less-than-luxurious, sweltering fifth floor walk-up, he tries not to think of the disparities between himself and his ex-wife, celebrity actress Merilee Nash, who is sifting through film offers - and also her fickle feelings for Hoagy - from her elegant eight-room apartment looking over Central Park.

As soon as artist Robert McCloskey saw the ducks in Boston Public Garden, he knew he had to write about them. But how? Studying stuffed birds didn’t help. Would inviting some into his apartment work? What? Was he quack-ers? For months ducklings slept on his sofa and swam in his bathtub, making incredible messes. Quack! Quack! His roommate was not amused and his neighbors complained, but Robert did not give up. As the ducklings grew, he got down on his hands and knees and followed them with pad and pencil.

In December 2018, we meet Rudy Coyle, a bar owner's son from Flushing, Queens, in the throes of a major quarter-life crisis. Cut out of the family business, he gets a Hail Mary job as a night doorman in a storied Park Avenue apartment building, where he comes under the wing of the family in 4E, the Cohens.

When Kenny is chosen for InterRealm, a real-life wargame where defenders are portaled in from their homeworld, he is forced to survive in a violent fantasy landscape. Build a powerful presence in InterRealm, and his homeworld will likely remain safe. Fail, and the invaders will break through. To top it all off, the game master in his head couldn’t be any less impressed with his assignment. Someone obviously botched their chances when they chose future-college-dropout Kenny. His opportunity to prove everyone wrong starts now.

Two months ago, a new leader arose in the Islamic world, the Mahdi - or the Chosen One. He has rallied fundamentalist Muslim forces across the Middle East who have driven deep into Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Standing against them is an allied force made up primarily of the American military. It's a desperate fight. From armored battles in the desert to American carriers desperately dodging waves of cruise missiles, the Mahdi proves to have many tricks up his sleeve.

In Tokyo Tempos, award-winning mystery writer Michael Pronko explores the mystery of everyday Tokyo life. Drawing on three decades of living, writing, and teaching in Japan, he delves into Tokyo’s dynamism to show what it’s like living with Japanese food, seasons, ceremonies, and special moments he calls “small intensities.”

Mack Banner hasn’t made a movie in fifteen years. He’s been laying low, raising his daughter, hoping not to be recognized. When a hot young screenwriter writes a script for him to star in, he’s drawn out of hiding to a remote island off the coast of Maine where part of the film will shoot. Only, the screenwriter, on location for some last-minute rewrites, is suddenly missing. And as the crew spreads out to search for her, a storm brews on the horizon.

UFOhs! Mysteries in the Sky is the first book to explore the strange, exciting, and unknown world of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena for kids. UFOhs! cuts through speculation and pseudo-science to describe real phenomena as observed and documented by pilots, ship captains, scientists, and ordinary men, women, and children from around the world. Playful and probing, UFOhs! Mysteries in the Sky prompts kids and their parents to talk about the moon, the stars, the planets, and all the things they see in the sky, and to wonder about those we can't yet explain.

In the late Fifties and Sixties, iconoclastic young rebels in Chicago opened two tiny theaters—The Compass and The Second City—where they satirized politics, religion, and sex. Developing scenes by improvising based on audience suggestions turned out to be a fine way to develop great actors, directors, and writers. Alumni went on to create such groundbreaking works as The Graduate, Groundhog Day, and Don't Look Up. Many of them also became stars on Saturday Night Live. Something Wonderful Right Away features the pioneers who founded the empire that transformed American comedy.

A special agent... A journalist... Only they can stop a genocide. Out of the chaotic political turbulence in Europe emerges a frightening new transnational extremist movement called Destiny, modelled on the Nazi Final Solution for the systematic removal of Europe’s Jews. In response, Israel’s government instructs the countries formidable spy agency, Mossad, to sabotage Destiny. The agency implements Operation Aleph Bet to neutralise Destiny’s leadership.

As a massive snow storm paralyzes the US Capital, a secret congressional committee is handed evidence of the unthinkable. A high-level traitor in the U.S. Government selling secrets to China. Before they can act, one of their own is murdered. Enter Colin Frost, an ex-special forces operator. He and his highly-classified black-ops team have been hunting a dangerous serial killer across Afghanistan who is destabilizing the entire region.

US Army Lieutenant Billy Boyle, an ex-cop who serves as detective for General Ike, is sent to Caserta, Italy, to investigate the murders of two American officers stationed there. The MOs are completely different, and it seems like the officers had no connection to each other, but one frightening fact links the murders. Each body was discovered with a single playing card: the lieutenant’s with the ten of hearts; the captain’s, the jack of hearts. The message seems clear—if the murderer isn’t apprehended, the higher ranks will be next.

Captain Kynan Esprit served six years in the Marines, then four more in the Secret Service. Both ended in disgrace. Jobless, his former commander recommends him to weapons manufacturer Whit Lasette, who doesn’t care if Kynan’s moral compass sometimes conflicts with orders from above. Whit admires the captain’s uncompromising valor and hires Ky to protect his adult daughter, Reina, while he campaigns for the US presidency.

One-third of American adults—approximately 86 million people—own firearms. This is not just for protection or hunting. Although many associate gun-centric ideology with individualist and libertarian traditions in American political culture, Race, Rights, and Rifles shows that it rests on an equally old but different foundation.