Showing results by narrator "R. Smith" in All Categories

For the past two months, Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner Billie were in limbo. Victims of their own success, they were plucked from their posts on the graveyard shift at the Eighth Precinct and thrust into a newly created role working with the governor’s office when a young woman is shot down outside her front door. Immediately written off by some in the small town as nothing more than a tragic hunting accident; closer examination proves it to not just be a murder, but an execution.

Six weeks prior, on the heels of the most hellish case he could ever remember, Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner, Billie, were placed on administrative leave from the Columbus Police Department. Fearful of what the media might say, the brass decided to put them at arm’s length, allowing the aftermath of that fateful night to settle. Not used to being placed on the sidelines, and no good at sitting still for long, the decision was made to travel west to his native Oklahoma and help his parents begin the long process of unpacking their new home.

It started as a quiet night, a much needed reprieve for the overworked team of Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner, Billie. With just a single phone call from dispatch, both are plunged into a nightmare they could have never imagined. Somewhere in the greater Columbus area, a young 20-something is sealed away inside a coffin. With no recollection of how she got there or who might have put her there, she is desperate.

When Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner, Billie, received a direct summons to the personal residence of Governor Thomas Cowan, he assumed it was another escalation over the particulars of their new position as liaisons between the Columbus Police Department and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

Roughly a month after going head-to-head with the copycat killer who had singled Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner Billie out in an attempt to capitalize on their recent success, the duo is still reeling. Faced with uncertainty over where they are and what they are doing for the first time since partnering together years before, they retreat home to Oklahoma for the holidays to regroup.

Barely a year before, Le Fontainebleau opened to little fanfare in downtown Columbus. A lifetime passion project of an immigrant from the French countryside, it was meant to fill a glaring hole in the local dining scene. Simple peasant dishes offered in a modest setting. Clean cooking that soon developed an avid following, helping to elevate it to one of the must-eat locations in the city. And the site where, at just after noon on a dreary spring Wednesday, a hooded gunman entered, raised the automatic weapon hidden under his jacket, and opened fire.

His routine was the same every day for 38 years...until March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut hospital surgeries all over the world.. Craig Smith, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, went from performing heart surgeries on patients both everyday and celebrated to sitting in his tomb-quiet office looking out at George Washington Bridge. And he started to write. His COVID emails were balm to the staffers and later became celebrated for Dr. Smith’s care and thought in his assessment of the work of the hospital–of any hospital.

We all know the formula, and we all love the stories. Boy meets boy, one's a closeted jock and the other's a sweet college student with a heart of gold. The jock is always cautious and worried how others will perceive him. The gay protagonist is always too good to be true, and dare we say, dumb? Then it's all forbidden glances, angst, and misunderstandings, right? Well, this isn't one of those stories.

For much of the last year, the liaison position thrust on Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner Billie, forcing them to split time between the Columbus Police Department and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation, saw them doing an increasing amount of work for the latter. Cases handpicked by the governor with the hope of currying goodwill on his own behalf, sending them to nearly every corner of the state.

What do people in the United States and Europe think about the rich? There are several thousand books and articles on stereotypes and prejudices directed at women, people of various races or nationalities, and even the poor. In contrast, there has only been sporadic research into stereotypes about the rich, and no published comprehensive, scientific study on the topic—until now.

You’re born with a brilliant mind, but it doesn’t come with a user’s guide or an on-off switch. Left to its own devices, it can feel like your worst enemy when its survival-based default program keeps you focused on what is wrong with you and your world.

Lamb's family strives to better their lives in Jackson, Mississippi, in the late 1930s. Lamb’s mother is a hard-working, creative seamstress who cannot reveal she's a lesbian. Lamb’s brother has a brilliant mind and has even earned a college scholarship for a black college up north—if only he could curb his impulsiveness and rebellious nature.

Poetry. Literary nonfiction. Fiction. Drama. LGBTQIA studies. Women's studies. Compiled in one book for the first time, featuring both new and out-of-print pieces, the contents of The Judy Grahn Reader span four decades of work by the prominent writer and activist. This volume contains writing from every phase of Judy Grahn's career, including poems from all of her major poetry collections, a number of her groundbreaking essays, as well as selected fiction and the full-length play The Queen of Swords.

Have you ever wondered why two people who have a similar physical appearance or medical condition can have such different lives? Some people judge themselves constantly and are obsessed with looking perfect, while others exude confidence despite their imperfections. Some people are sensitive to receiving comments about their bodies, while others aren’t looking to others for approval and acceptance. Some people are depressed by their chronic illness, while others live peacefully despite their disease.

Amanda has it all: a successful career, a loving husband, and a stable life. Until one day, when it all comes undone in an avalanche of murder, blackmail, and an all-in search for big money that can't be found. When Amanda discovers her husband, Brian, having an affair, she wants to end their marriage. But when Brian and his lover are murdered, detectives seeking to catch the killer think that Amanda may have a pretty good motive. Soon, Amanda discovers that someone wanted her husband silenced, and a huge amount of money is missing—money whose whereabouts he has taken to his grave.

This how-to book is actually a user manual for those struggling to sleep better and teaches the listener exactly how to condition the mind, break bad sleep habits, and adopt a holistic approach that invites sleep to your bedside, when sleep is what's next. By learning the simple steps of self-hypnosis, you will enjoy sleep mastery in a matter of a few days! The premise for I Am Sleeping Now: How to Fall Asleep, Stay Asleep and Wake Up Refreshed is based on one simple truth - that the only sleep device you need is the one located between the ears.

In A Commitment to Compassion, Avram R. Kraft, MD, reminds us that each of us can make a difference. Avram makes that difference against a medical landscape, but in sharing his wisdom, insights, doubt, and vulnerabilities, he invites all of us to consider what compassion means and how it can be part of our daily living. As he states in a chapter called "Repairing the World", “Every day, we have an opportunity to make an impact on one another. You are only as good as what you bring to the table and not what you remove from it.”

"Dracula" is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. It introduced the character of Count Dracula, and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and a woman led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

I used to get feelings of pure dread when Sunday night creeped up. By the time the Monday morning alarm clock went off, my heart would sink into my stomach. Every fiber in my body knew I couldn’t do that career for even one more day. Sound familiar? Yet somehow we find a way to keep going hour after hour. The only thing keeping me awake was stress induced adrenaline and pure hatred. I now wake up before my alarm clock goes off. I lay in my bed at night after work and can’t stop thinking about how much I love my career.

When two executives in the pharmaceutical industry step forward to complain the drug test results being published are not accurate, they don’t expect to be fired; and they don’t expect anyone to be stalked, beaten, or killed. They have no idea what they will be up against for revealing a secret that will cost their employer billions of dollars.