Showing results by narrator "Shawn Compton" in All Categories

Marshal Biella of House Chi leads the assault, eager to make Lambda pay for all the hurt they have caused her and her House. But House Lambda—led by the ruthless and cunning Lady Leonor—is a formidable opponent that will not be easily intimidated. Far from the battle, Marshal Xanthe’s mysterious empathic affliction is getting worse. The technologically advanced Fraternity believe they have the means to cure her—but in doing so, expose horrifying secrets about Xanthe’s past that force her to question her very identity.

One cycle has passed since the Siege of Clarion, and all of Rhea is supposedly at peace. But the alarming events that sparked the siege have not been forgotten—nor forgiven—and the inhabitants of the Great Houses face a host of challenges. To overcome such tribulations, each must confront old fears, enemies, and dilemmas. But with scylla attacks getting worse, and the Pax already starting to break down, do they have the strength to endure? Or will they stumble, plunging their Houses—and Rhea itself—into chaos once more?

Aaron Platt has spent every day of his life breaking his back to scrape a living from the rocky, played-out fields of the Adirondack farm he inherited from his sadistic father. One winter morning, he follows footprints in the snow to his barn and discovers a man freezing to death in a horse stall. What unfolds between the two men, past and present, is a brisk, gritty depiction of crime and punishment. But their harrowing story is more than that, exposing the shocking hypocrisy of the people who live in the nearby bucolic town.

Life's gotten better for hard-edged security guard Sean Coleman. With personal affairs in order and relationships rekindled, he travels to Las Vegas to help celebrate his buddy's last days as a bachelor. Soon after he arrives, however, a twist of fate spawns a reunion with an old flame. Curiosity and a desire to make amends unexpectedly lead Sean down a dark path into the Vegas underground, where another face from the past emerges---a federal fugitive whose family, years earlier, altered the course of Sean's life.

A trio of vicious World War One veterans descend on the farm in the Adirondack mountains where one of them grew up and his father now lives alone. They embark on, happily wreaking drunken havoc at the old man's place and in the nearby town. But when a naïve, mail-order bride arrives, she ignites a tinderbox of resentment, lust, and betrayal among the men that explodes in brutal depravity, bloody violence, and shocking death. This hard-boiled, literary masterpiece includes a new introduction by Jack Mearns, author of John Sanford: An Annotated Bibliography.

For over 100 cycles, the Marshals of Rhea have defended their strongholds against the wastelands’ many dangers, from vicious raiders to mechanical beasts. Anticipation is high as they gather for a major hunting expedition. So when disaster strikes and House Omega is left leaderless, it falls to no-nonsense Head Cook Xanthe to investigate. She’s not alone, however, and is aided by an unlikely group of individuals - including a haughty young noblewoman, a world-weary Armorer, a fastidious bodyguard, and a whimsical assassin.

The 1830 murder of wealthy slaver Joseph White shook all of Salem, Massachusetts. Soon the crime drew national attention when it was discovered that two of the conspirators came from Salem's influential Crowninshield family: a clan of millionaire shipowners, cabinet secretaries, and congressmen.

Early in the crisis, a global volunteer collaboration called Pivot Projects was formed to rethink how the world works. Some members are experts in the sciences and the humanities; others are environmental activists or regular people who see themselves as world citizens. In The Pivot, the journalist Steve Hamm - who embedded in the enterprise from the start - explores their efforts and shows how their approach provides a model for achieving systemic change.

Combat takes a different toll on each soldier; so does coming home. All the Ruined Men by Bill Glose comprises linked stories that show veterans struggling for normalcy as they grapple with flashbacks, injuries (both physical and psychological), damaged relationships, loss of faith, and loss of memory. Beginning in 2003, All the Ruined Men spans ten years, from the confident beginning of America’s “forever war” to the confusion and disillusionment that followed.

Once he served God as a priest. Once he served his country as a soldier. Now he serves fate...and his need for redemption...by roaming the country as a professional gambler known only as The Preacher, an unforgettable hero who once saved souls and now deals death.

A mysterious new player has entered the competition, claiming to be Julian's friend Emma. It takes Julian only a single match to see the new pilot's skill. The imposter is capable of imitating any pilot, even masters of the game like Vile and Vermillion Angel. Julian had hoped he and his friend could fight side by side. Instead, she sold her spot to a competitor. It's the aspiring professional pilot's first taste of the ruthless business world of Overdrive.

They took away his sight, his hearing, his feeling, and his body. But he got to keep his brain—a fully operational CPU with a nerfed IO. Daler Tait is the youngest of three sons of a mining mogul on a desert planet in the far reaches of the galaxy. He has big ambitions and little patience, but to please his parents, he plans to apply to the Academy of Virtuous Knowledge.

From the dawn of history onward, commanding the most powerful ship around has been a dream of admirals, sultans, emperors, kings, generalissimos, and sea captains everywhere. For what the intimidation factor alone doesn't achieve, a massive barrage from super-weapons probably will.

The grandson and great-grandson of Chicago police officers, Chicago Police Detective James Sherlock was CPD through and through. His career had seen its share of twists and turns, from his time working undercover to thwart robberies on Chicago's L trains to his years as a homicide detective. He thought he had seen it all. But on this day, he was at the records center to see the case file for the murder of John Hughes, who was 17 years old when he was gunned down on Chicago's Southwest Side in 1976. The case's threads led everywhere.

Too often people hold the dream of starting their own business and pursuing their destiny, but they are overcome not just by fear, but by the practical reality that they can not afford to take a financial risk. Third Shift Entrepreneur overcomes that false choice of settling for less or taking a financial risk and instead reveals a third path - one that allows you to fulfill your creative entrepreneurial potential while maintaining financial stability in your life.

Was Harold Dumphy killed to cover up something at the nuclear power plant where he was the head of security? This is what Harold’s widow asks Goff Langdon, private detective, to find out.

Ben Clary is an everyday working man who caps off an afternoon of holiday shopping with a drink at his favorite watering hole. Before long, he is intoxicated, and a brutal winter storm descends. Trapped by a howling storm seems bad enough, until Ben and his fellow bar patrons find out something terrible lurks in the blizzard outside. One by one, unseen assailants pick them off until a local historian claims the attackers may be the remnants of a clan caught up in an ancient blood feud, said to have occurred at the site of the tavern. And, worse, they seem to eat human flesh.

Demon lights, granted wishes, strange things, and brutal love at the Lucky Lounge Motel. A haunted sister, desperate parents, a little human touch, and the end of the world. These are the stories whispered among dead leaves, the script etched bare for all to see. Welcome to Glenn Rolfe’s Land of Bones, 14 tales of the strange and macabre.

Undercover FBI agent Josh Stuart has been tasked with targeting two Las Vegas mobsters who are expanding their criminal enterprise into drug trafficking. When Josh arrives in Tucson to have the mob-owned pickup modified for smuggling, he encounters terrorism and death. New York Times best-selling author and former undercover agent for the FBI Bob Hamer weaves his experience into this undercover thrill ride.

Josh Stuart, undercover agent for the FBI, is in L.A.'s inner city targeting medical clinics that exploit the poor and cheat the government. But when Josh discovers his homeless friend has been murdered, he learns almost too late terrorism is at the core of the investigation.