Showing results by narrator "David Stifel" in All Categories

In an apocalyptic thriller, Father Peter Carenza learns that his extraordinary and seemingly miraculous powers to both heal and kill are the result of a Vatican-orchestrated scientific project to create the next Messiah, and becomes the center of a religious upheaval as he begins his own journey across America in a bitter confrontation with organized religion.

Wounded and alone, Alana has escaped the clutches of the Tsar. She’s determined to forget his world of conquest and dark magic, but fate has other plans. Alana finds herself face-to-face with her grandmother - the one person she loathes even more than the Tsar himself. With his forces closing in, the two must choose whether to tear each other apart, or work together to defy their common enemy. Meanwhile, Devon stumbles upon Alana’s brother lost in the forest.

The formerly laid-back principal has become unusually strict. And with her toadying secretary, she seems to be running the show. That isn’t all. The janitors no longer work nights because of what they hear. The students are frightened by what they see. And things are happening on school grounds that defy rational explanation. But there is an explanation. It’s just not anything that anyone can begin to believe — or hope to survive.

When Alan Hammerstun inherits a quaint ranch house in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, he and his wife Heather seize the opportunity to leave New York and the haunting aftermath of two miscarriages. Eager to start over in the rural North Carolina town, they hope this new beginning will be the antidote to Heather's severe depression. For a time everything seems perfect. Too perfect, in fact.

World-famous detective Hercule Poirot has retired to the English village of King's Abbot, determined to dedicate his little grey cells to the growing of vegetable marrows. But when Roger Ackroyd, a local businessman and former acquaintance, is stabbed to death, the man's niece begs Poirot to investigate. Poirot enlists the local doctor to be his assistant and scribe, and the two of them sift through clues to try to discern the ones that will lead them to the killer.

England, 1776: Lord Gareth de Montforte is known as an irresponsible rake with a heart of gold. When he takes a bullet for boldly thwarting a stagecoach robbery, he is stunned to discover that the beautiful young woman he has heroically rescued, Juliet Paige, is his deceased brother's American fiancée, accompanied by her infant daughter.

Empire of the Romans, from Julius Caesar to Justinian provides a sweeping historical survey of the Roman empire. Uncommonly expansive in its chronological scope, this unique two-volume text explores the time period encompassing Julius Caesar's death in 44 BCE to the end of Justinian's reign six centuries later.

Cloaked by the mists of dawn, Task Force 61 - carrying tanks, aircraft, and over 5000 Marines - steams toward Syria with deadly intent. Their mission: rescue 100 hostages from a terrorist stronghold - alive. With realism seldom seen in military fiction, The Med is a magnificent and timely epic that brings the human drama of armed conflict compellingly to life.

Aboard the guided-missile frigate USS Turner Van Zandt, Lieutenant-Commander Dan Lenson and his dedicated crew take on a daring assignment: escort a convoy of supertankers through the mine-filled Persian Gulf. For Lenson and his men, however, the danger is only just beginning. When a missile from a hit-and-run enemy sinks a US destroyer, every ship and aircraft in the area goes on red alert.  

For the town of Randall, Arizona, the terror starts quietly, oddly - a senile woman in her 80s becomes pregnant. Then the town's beloved minister mysteriously disappears, leaving his church and home hideously defiled by blasphemous obscenities scrawled in blood. Farmers going out to their fields in the morning find their herds of goats slaughtered. Then, as the terror intensifies, the farmers themselves are massacred. The town begins to smell of death, and the trust which has bound neighbors to one another turns to ashes.

Carole and her lover thought they had committed the perfect crime, murdering Carole’s abusive husband and making it look like an accident. Unfortunately there was a witness, someone far more twisted than they are, with plans for a killing spree of his own.

Afghanistan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, has improbably been at the center of international geopolitics for four decades. After the Soviet Union invaded in 1980, Afghanistan descended into an unending conflict that featured at various points most of the world's major powers. In Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to Know, leading scholar Barnett R. Rubin provides an overview of this complicated nation. After providing a concise history of Afghanistan, he explores the various peoples and cultures of the country and its relations with neighbors like Pakistan and Iran.

From the legendary antagonism between Athens and Sparta during the Peloponnesian War to the Napoleonic Wars and the two World Wars of the twentieth century, the past is littered with long-term strategic rivalries. History tells us that such enduring rivalries can end in one of three ways: a series of exhausting conflicts in which one side eventually prevails, a peaceful and hopefully orderly transition, or a one-sided collapse. However, in spite of a wealth of historical examples, the future of state rivalries remains a matter of conjecture.

Following Anne of Green Gables (1908), this book was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1909. From the age of 16 to 18, Anne is about to start her first term teaching at the Avonlea school. The book soon introduces Anne's new and problematic neighbor, Mr. Harrison, and his foul-mouthed parrot, as well as the twins, Davy and Dora. Other characters introduced are some of Anne's new pupils and Miss Lavendar Lewis, a sweet but lonely lady.

Our government organizations face political fallout, media scrutiny, reduced funding, and the many challenges involved in motivating large, multi-layered and highly regulated organizations. It's no surprise that many government organizations report that their employees are less engaged than ever and that leaders feel helpless to change the situation. In many cases, employees and government leaders are caught in a vicious cycle. Performance declines, scrutiny increases, and employee paralysis ensues. How do you break this cycle and begin building successful government?

The most extensive account yet of the lives of cybercriminals and the vast international industry they have created, deeply sourced and based on field research in the world's technology-crime hot spots.

Jonathan Swift is best remembered today as the author of Gulliver’s Travels, the satiric fantasy that quickly became a classic and has remained in print for nearly three centuries. Yet Swift also wrote many other influential works, was a major political and religious figure in his time, and became a national hero, beloved for his fierce protest against English exploitation of his native Ireland. What is really known today about the enigmatic man behind these accomplishments? Can the facts of his life be separated from the fictions?

This volume, aimed at the general audience, presents life and times of the amazing animals that inhabited Earth more than 500 million years ago. The Cambrian Period was a critical time in Earth's history. During this immense span of time nearly every modern group of animals appeared. Although life had been around for more than 2 million millennia, Cambrian rocks preserve the record of the first appearance of complex animals with eyes, protective skeletons, antennae, and complex ecologies.

The Three Nations are crumbling. Darkness is gathering. Only one remains to stand against it. Eric stumbles through the wilderness, searching, hunting - desperate for sign of his sister. But the girl is gone, stolen away by the power of the Soul Blade. With each passing hour its hold on her tightens, her spirit fading before the onslaught of its magic. If he cannot save her soon, it will claim her soul. And he will have to kill her.

Enala is surrounded, trapped on the blood-soaked sands of Malevolent Cove. Desperate and alone, she faces the sky, watching as the Gold dragons circle. Yet it is not the beasts she fears – but the men and woman encircling her. They promise their protection, but they are only words, and she has already lost everything to betrayal. Swamped by grief, she teeters on the edge of madness. Meanwhile, Eric is close to mastering the curse of his magic. The perilous force writhes within him, desperate for freedom, but he refuses to bend to its will. Instead, he is determined to wield it for good, to right the wrongs of his past.