Showing results by author "A. Brun" in All Categories

In the heart of Central Asia, a strategic power play unfolds as the People’s Republic of China extends its military might. Under the pretext of protecting their Belt-and-Road projects, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) gains a stronghold in the region. Against this invasion, a courageous band of freedom fighters is the only challenge to the PLA forces. On this geopolitical chessboard, the newly elected U.S. President wants to make a bold statement against Chinese expansionism. Don Riley, recently appointed CIA Director of Operations, is chosen to spearhead the critical mission.

When mercenaries attack in Eastern Ukraine, the world is thrust into turmoil. Russian President Luchnik is quick to respond, launching a full-scale military invasion to quell this “national emergency” in the former Soviet country. The United States, reluctant to put boots on the ground in yet another regional conflict, takes a different path. President Serrano hires Sentinel Holdings, a private military contractor, to hold back the Russian threat. Don Riley, head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, sees trouble ahead.

When China launches a blitz attack on the island of Taiwan, the world order hangs in the balance, and the CIA must mobilize all forces to prevent the start of World War III. But in order to win, the US is forced to throw out the old playbook. What is required here is speed, audacity, and the application of the most advanced technology in the US arsenal. As the head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, Don Riley has seen his share of crises, but nothing has prepared him for the choices ahead.

From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can - visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous.

Don Riley, head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, has never seen anything like this. Riley and his team are tasked with identifying national security threats before they become tomorrow’s bad news. But shortly after an Iranian vessel delivers a surprise attack to a US Navy Warship in the Arabian Gulf, a series of seemingly unrelated attacks crop up around the globe.

For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns. He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone's been acting very strangely.

Following their military defeat in the Battle of Taiwan, China opens a new front in the struggle for geopolitical supremacy. As China's Belt and Road Initiative brings together the final pieces of a 1000-mile rail and road connection between China and Tehran, a series of terrorist attacks rock the fractious states of Central Asia. A declining Russia, an isolated India, and a rising Iran all have a stake in the region. But who is behind the mysterious attacks?

In Cruise Confidential, Brian David Bruns spills the dirt - or, in this case, the dirty water - on those romantic, fun-filled vacations at sea. His hilarious chronicle of the year he spent working for Carnival Cruise Lines takes listeners down into the areas where the crew works and lives, leaving listeners gasping with laughter as they're assaulted nonstop with events that range from the absurd to the utterly bizarre. Stewards fighting over food. Cutlery allowances and other nonsensical rules.

Revolution threatens a longstanding peace.... Thirty years after the Syndicate Corporation saved Earth from climate-change extinction, SynCorp’s Five Factions rule the solar system with an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Food, entertainment, safety, security - SynCorp provides it all. In return, the Company requires complete loyalty and obedience to corporate law.

Alice was a hopeful young graduate student when, on a beautiful August night, her body was found in the woods. She'll always remember the night she was murdered. And she still suffers the grief and rage that destroyed her family. But what Alice regrets most is the last fight she had with her boyfriend, Enrico - and the fact that she never had the chance to tell him something that would have changed everything. A decade later, Enrico has returned to the provincial town where Alice lived and died, to sell his family home.

AC/DC are the number-one Heavy Metal band. Formed in Australia in 1974, by the Young brothers Angus and Malcolm, their family was from Glasgow, Scotland. The original line up consisted of Angus, Malcolm, drummer Phil Rudd, vocalist Bon Scott and bassist Mark Evans, who was replaced by Cliff Williams from Romford, England. When original lead singer Bon Scott died in the early 80's, the group overcame that bombshell by appointing British singer Brian Johnson and the result was a number-one album.

SynCorp’s leaders are on the run, and the Soldiers of the Solar Revolution are hot on their trail. A desperate Ruben Qinlao hides the injured Tony Taulke in the moon’s rundown barrio of Darkside. When the SSR attacks Callisto, Kwazi Jabari is pressed into service as the face of a revolution he soon begins to question. Orbiting Titan, Masada Station holds the Company’s treasure trove of tech secrets, and Cassandra Kisaan pulls out all the stops to secure ultimate victory by stealing them. Only Stacks Fischer, corporate enforcer, stands in her way.

Metallica, who are unparalleled in the hard rock market, have sold well over 30 million albums. They are a band that refused to compromise. They have stuck to what they know, and they have abided by their own rules.

With a cataclysmic climate crisis on the horizon, Colonel William Graves, head of the US Disaster Mitigation Corps, has been ordered on a bold and highly classified mission. Graves must help billionaire tech entrepreneur Anthony Taulke develop the Lazarus Protocol, a secret plan to geoengineer the Earth's atmosphere, and prevent disaster. Taulke's vision is to create a Manhattan Project for repairing the earth's air, and he quietly recruits four other family-owned conglomerates to take part in the project.

Eight deliciously talented mystery authors have lent their skills of crafting murder and suspense to this collection of gripping short stories. Each of these eight provocative tales is designed to entertain and mystify—and maybe even chill you to your core. Get lost in the wild imaginations of such New York Times bestselling writers as Andrew Child, Heather Graham, Reed Farrel Coleman, and John Gilstrap, plus authors Rick Bleiweiss, Jennifer Graeser Dornbush, Amanda Flower, and Don Bruns.

Ian Thomas is supposed to be dead. An international terrorist responsible for the bombing of the US Naval War College, he's been deceased for three years. But Don Riley, head of the CIA’s Emerging Threats Group, is staring at a social media post showing him to be very much alive and on the run in South America. The video of Thomas sparks a global hunt: The Americans want to bring him to justice. The Chinese want him to disappear. And the Russians want to kill him very, very slowly. But the world's most powerful nations aren't the only ones pursuing the most wanted man on the planet.

Amy Bruni, co-star of Kindred Spirits and one of the world's leading paranormal investigators, has learned a lot about ghosts over her years of research and first-hand experience. Now, in Life with the Afterlife, she shares the insight she has gleaned and how it has shaped her unique approach to interacting with the spirits of the dead and those who encounter them.

The fourth installment in the Music and Murder Mystery series, edited by Don Bruns, Bat Out of Hell is a nonstop thrill ride of engrossing mysteries from some of the best authors in the business. An anthology unlike any other, this collection includes a brand-new Jack Reacher story from Andrew Child, a never-before-seen Pignon Scorbion prequel from Rick Bleiweiss, as well as exciting new mysteries from Heather Graham, Don Bruns, John Gilstrap, Dave Bruns, C. J. Kudlacz, and Charles Todd.

With war looming dangerously close, Ilse’s school days soon turn to lessons of survival. In the harshness of winter, her family must join the largest exodus in human history to survive. As battle lines are drawn and East Prussia’s borders vanish beneath them, they leave their farm and all they know behind for an uncertain future. But Ilse also has Janusz, her family’s young Polish laborer, by her side. As they flee from the Soviet army, his enchanting folktales keep her mind off the cold, the hunger, and the horrors unfolding around them.

One morning in late 2017, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni woke up with strangely blurred vision. He wondered at first if some goo or gunk had worked its way into his right eye. But this was no fleeting annoyance, no fixable inconvenience.