Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

Blorange tabby Max and ragamuffin Dooley are on the case again. This time a world-famous reality star has been found murdered in her own bed, and it looks like the crime just might be terror-related. The Kenspeckles, stars of the well-known reality show Keeping Up with the Kenspeckles, are in town to film a new season of their show, so the case soon turns into a complete media circus, with the Kenspeckles insisting the entire investigation is filmed for their show.

The Era of Nighttime Has Begun... Forty years have passed since the end of the vampire/human war. Vampires have taken over the planet and have settled in, making themselves comfortable in the infrastructure their predecessors built, with just a few adjustments to ensure a permanent night. Humans still exist, tightly controlled, because the alpha species needs to eat. But even after four decades of peace, Reginald can't shake his conviction that the war never really ended — that the archive he still holds in his blood warns of an ominous change on the horizon.

Angels and Demons, Myths and Legends... It's been six months since Reginald Baskin became a vampire too fat to live happily with the beautiful undead — six months in which Reginald and his two-thousand-year-old maker Maurice have learned that safety does not come with power. These days, Maurice is Deacon of the Vampire Nation, but plenty beneath Maurice are still plotting to depose him … or dispose of him. But when a new and ancient threat rears its head, the Nation faces extinction and the truest of deaths — and Reginald, Maurice, and Nikki might be the only vampires who can stop it.

ALONG THE BANKS OF THE BOGUE FALAYA RIVER, sits the abandoned St. Francis Seminary. Beneath a canopy of oaks, blocked from prying eyes, the teens of St. Benedict High gather here on Fridays. The rest of the week belongs to school and family—but weekends belong to the river. And the river belongs to Beau Devereaux.

After a series of bizarre and increasingly horrific attacks from pulpy, red, seeded fruit, Mason Dixon finds himself leading a "crack" team of specialists to save the planet. But will they be quick enough to save everyone? To save you? You can't run! You can't swim!

They call him Keeper, but lately Jack Marconi has specialized in losing things. Last year, he lost his wife in a mysterious traffic accident, and ever since, he's felt like he's losing his mind. As the warden of the maximum security Green Haven Prison, home to 2,500 of New York's most hardened criminals, Marconi can't afford to drop focus, even for an instant. But he's been slipping up on the job, and he's tormented by flashbacks to the Attica uprising. All of which makes him ripe for the role of patsy when a convicted cop killer named Eduardo Vasquez stages a daring breakout on his watch.

Nevermore…Nevermore…Nevermore. Ever since Edgar Allen Poe penned those words to paper in 1845, the infamous response of the raven has continued to echo throughout history. The poem has become so familiar that we know it in our bones. From the memorable opening line—Once upon a midnight dreary—Poe paints a bleak scene that swiftly catapults us to the depths of heartbreak and grief.

In the digital age, steering your business to benefit from digital technologies is not only a differentiator, but is increasingly becoming key to profitable growth. Smart, prudent implementation and deployment are necessary to pull off the change successfully.

Dylan Taggart channels his demons through the keyboard. Knocked around by a father who believed weakness was failure, the best-selling suspense author grabs a measure of peace in his gorgeous girlfriend’s arms. But he sees fiction come horrifyingly to life when masked fanatics break in demanding he put his brilliant mind to work and help them steal a secret military super-weapon.

Millie Parker just moved to a new town with her teen sister in tow. The only romance on her agenda is what she's writing in her secret novel, but sometimes romance can't be avoided. Especially when your new neighbor is the insanely handsome and all around nice guy, Jameson Lane. He's everything a woman could want in a man, but Millie doesn't want a man. Not now; not ever. Too bad her heart didn't get the memo.

Hell has come to earth as sadistic zombies rampage and massacre the human population. Reverend Thomas Martin has lost his congregation to the chaos but has found two wayward survivors to protect—Becky and John. The three of them have holed up in Martin's church in a desperate attempt for survival. But as supplies run low and civilization crumbles around them, Martin must come to a realization—God has abandoned them. But why?

The Eyler family was anything but average. The father a top literary agent and the mother a duchess, they thrived in their prestigious Oakmont mansion surrounded by luxury…and secrets. On a cold autumn night, their legacy ended with a grisly massacre in one of the most horrific scenes ever investigated. Soon details splashed across every newspaper of how the family of five lay slaughtered in their library, cursing the mansion as it became branded the Execution Estate. With no witnesses and no motives, the killer remained free. Speculations grew darker. Answers grew dimmer. Until now.

Three friends set out on a mountain hiking adventure meant to pull one of their minds away from the sorrow of losing his wife. But things take a quick and sinister turn when they are forced to camp for the night at the mountain’s dark peak. Something is out there, something evil. It hides in the black of the forest, and it waits. It stalks. And it wants all their lives.

See You At San Diego is the comprehensive chronicle of Comic-Con International and modern geekdom itself as told through countless stories by nearly fifty of the most integral members of the Comic-Con and fandom scene. This full-fledged oral history—bursting with intimate reflections, hilarious observations, and at times, heartbreaking stories—is about how the geek at last inherited the earth and the story of the transformation of mainstream American pop culture into comic book culture over the past century.

With her former captor, the shadow sorcerer Daktari, now serving as her mentor, Princess Shara must learn to control the power of the Divine Key. Concerned about the princess’ growing power, the Void dispatches its mightiest champion, the fallen prince, Nord, to capture her. And lurking in the dark between worlds is the elder demon Balthis, just waiting for a chance to join with his master and destroy the world. Can Shara grasp her power and seal away the Void before Nord forces her to free Balthis? It’s a race to the finish with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Of all the white American pop music groups that hit the charts before the Beatles, only the Beach Boys continued to thrive throughout the British Invasion to survive into the 1970s and beyond. The Beach Boys helped define both sides of the era we broadly call the sixties, split between their early surf, car, and summer pop and their later hippie, counterculture, and ambitious rock.

Although scholars have long recognized that local American parties play an important role in elections, surprisingly little is known about the individuals who lead these typically small, volunteer-based organizations. As Small Power shows, local party leaders influence the electoral process in myriad ways. Drawing from a survey of over 850 Democratic and Republican local party chairs, a nationally representative sample of voters, and dozens of in-depth interviews, the authors describe how parties are organized, who party chairs are, and how they serve the party.

In the aftermath of the release of Dr. Hallie Hayes’ weapon aboard the Nidus, Justin Barclay and his fellow survivors are forced to flee for their lives, but they soon realize they can’t run forever. The weapon is multiplying like a sentient plague...and it will consume everything and everyone in its path. As Justin and Hallie form new alliances with old rivals, facing down monstrous foes and treacherous enemies, they work to destroy the weapon and escape the infected ship. But the plague has other intentions—and it will not be stopped.

Princess Shara of the High Kingdom survived a mad sorcerer and his demonic master. In the process, she gained a rare and powerful gift, The Divine Key. A power so dangerous that even the archangels fear what might happen. And fear can lead even the mightiest of beings to rash decisions. All in the name of the greater good. Meanwhile, Robert and Blade are enjoying their new life, at least until Blade gets bored with the gladiators. Seeking ever greater excitement, they head for the deadly Serpent Island, where they’ll have more than snakes to worry about.

After barely surviving the horrors in ACM mine 1134, Justin Barclay and his ghostly tagalong board a colonist ship bound for a new world. As they explore the futuristic colonist city within the ship, they quickly realize all is not as it seems. The arrival of Dr. Hallie Hayes, a fugitive scientist, arrives on the colonist ship shortly after. Her charge: get her life’s work to the core Coalition planets before it falls into the wrong hands. But she’s too late.