Showing results by narrator "J. A. Scott" in All Categories

The young street urchin Hissune gets his due for helping Lord Valentine regain his throne. As a reward, he is sent into the depths of the Labyrinth, a massive library of memory cubes in which the entire history of Majipoor is preserved. As Hissune prepares for a summons to return to Castle Mount, he relives the lives of Majipoor's most famous and notorious inhabitants.

Camavor is a brutal land with a bloody legacy. Where the empire's knights go, slaughter follows. Kalista seeks to change that. When her young and narcissistic uncle, Viego, becomes king, she vows to temper his destructive instincts, as his loyal confidant, advisor, and military general. But her plans are thwarted when an assassin's poisoned blade strikes Viego's wife, Isolde, afflicting her with a malady for which there is no cure.

Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are vacationing in Washington State’s Hood Canal for Memorial Day weekend. It’s the perfect getaway to unplug—and to calm an uneasy marriage. But on Adam’s first day out on the water, he sees Sophie abducted by a stranger. A hundred yards from shore, Adam can’t save her. And Sophie disappears.

In December 1941, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor plunges the United States into war. Fresh from the hardscrabble mountains of Appalachia, Deacon Cole joins the fight against Imperial Japan. In his first test against the enemy, he will use all his skill with a rifle against a deadly Japanese marksman. Across the beaches and jungles, they take part in the savage battle for control of a Pacific island. Can he protect his squad, or will they fall, one by one, under the enemy’s crosshairs?

This collection includes The Accidental Mistress, The Incorrigible Courtesan, and The Delectable Tart.

Gloria Burtzlaff feared for her life one day back in April of 1991 when her abusive husband, Larry, drunk and violent, slapped her, hit her, and began pelting her with glasses. After he tried to drown her in a tub, she got the family shotgun and confronted him in his underwear. “Larry, I’m going to kill you,” she declared. Defense lawyers would later claim he lifted a glass as if to say, “Have at it, sister.” Have at It, Sister is a true-crime tale about Gloria, a South Dakota woman who shot her abusive husband and was put on trial in a precedent-setting case.

In the frigid winter of 1944, amidst the chaos of the Battle of the Bulge, US sniper Caje Cole fights for survival in the encircled town of Bastogne. With Panzer tanks and a deadly enemy sniper on his heels, Cole and his squad are given a high-stakes mission: escorting a captured German officer to headquarters for interrogation. But this is no ordinary prisoner—he's wanted for war crimes by the Americans and considered a traitor by his own countrymen.

December 1944. As German forces launch a massive surprise attack through the frozen Ardennes Forest, two snipers find themselves aiming for a rematch. Caje Cole is a backwoods hunter from the Appalachian Mountains of the American South, while Kurt Von Stenger is the deadly German "Ghost Sniper". Having been in each other's crosshairs before, they fight a final duel during Germany's desperate attempt to turn the tide of war in what will come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. Can the hunter defeat the marksman?

In Rip-Off!, 13 of today’s best and most honored writers of speculative fiction face a challenge even they would be hard-pressed to conceive: Pick your favorite opening line from a classic piece of fiction (or even non-fiction) - then use it as the first sentence of an entirely original short story.

Dean Milo was a phenomenally successful businessman. Along the way, he established a lengthy list of enemies. His fast-track ride to the top came to a violent halt on August 11, 1980, when Milo was found dead in his luxurious Ohio home, shot twice in the head. A blank telegram form lay nearby. This is the gripping story of the remarkable collaboration between Texas private eye, Bill Dear, and the police detectives of Akron, Ohio, that led to the convictions of the people responsible for the death. It is also a tale of the human weakness, desperation, and overwhelming greed.

Tessa O’Connor is tired of the high society lifestyle, and the pressure is on for her to marry a wealthy man. Fearful of becoming trapped in a life that would make her increasingly miserable, she decides to try the mail-order bride approach.

June 6, 1944. On the dawn of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, two snipers find themselves fighting a battle all their own. One is a backwoods hunter from the Appalachian Mountains in the American South, while the other is the dreaded German "Ghost Sniper" who earned his nickname on the Eastern Front. Locked in a deadly duel across the hedgerow country of France, the hunter matches wits and tactics against the marksman, both of them one bullet away from victory or defeat as Allied forces struggle to gain a foothold in Europe.

Summer 1944. When German sniper Dieter Rohde's older brother is unjustly shot for desertion by the SS, he will stop at nothing to win the Iron Cross medal and redeem his family's name by targeting as many Allied troops as possible. Rohde's deadly efforts bring him into direct confrontation with American sniper Caje Cole as the final pitched battle for France takes place around them at the Falaise Pocket.

Autumn 1944. With the Allies giving chase across France, German forces are in full retreat after the defeat at the Falaise Gap. Now, two of these orphaned squads - one American unit, one German - find themselves in a small French village with a bridge across that river. Both sides want possession of the ancient bridge across the Moselle, and the result will be an epic showdown that pits general against general, and sniper against sniper.

"You haven't heard the last of us yet..." These were chilling words on a note left behind by seven armed and dangerous inmates who escaped from the John Connally prison in South Texas on December 13, 2000. Their promise has apparently been fulfilled. The inmates, now known as the Connally Seven, are suspected of having first robbed a Radio Shack in Houston, and then, days later, on Christmas Eve, of having fatally shot and run over a young police officer during an assault on a Dallas sporting goods store. For six frantic weeks, a massive manhunt with a significant reward had only turned up dead ends - until a tip came in from someone who had seen the gang on Fox TVs, America's Most Wanted. Authorities arrested four of the seven prisoners, including suspected ringleader George Rivas, in Woodland Park, Colorado, and a fifth inmate shot himself during police negotiations.

In the game, the people of Tamernil live under the harsh rule of a vile bureaucrat, and Bokta - an outcast blood witch practicing forbidden magic - has a bold plan to save them all. She'll need to summon a powerful demon, one she's been watching through a scrying mirror for years. There's just one hitch: the mighty demon she's been watching isn't real. He's a character in Realm of Crafted War, and the man behind the keyboard is a far cry from a savior.

Family drama is bad enough without adding magic and human sacrifice. Ten years ago, Paxton Locke's mother killed his father in a mysterious ritual that - thankfully - went incomplete. Now, Paxton makes his living as a roving paranormal investigator, banishing spirits while Mother languishes in jail. When a terrified ghost warns him of a dangerous, newly freed entity, Paxton faces a fight far beyond simple exorcism. In a battle for his very soul, will he be able to endure - or simply fade away?

Patrol Easy finds itself divided as the battle rages for the Philippines. One group of snipers sets sail for yet another beach landing on the far side of the Leyte peninsula. Crack shot Deacon Cole joins a unit fighting its way across the jungle interior, where he encounters not just the enemy but also a nasty tropical fever.

Janey's family is about to set sail for the adventure of a lifetime! The only problem? Janey must leave her school, her life, her best friend, the entire country behind for new adventures—coral reefs, colorful markets, and new cultures. Life at sea is exhilarating, but there's a major downside: when you're raising anchor every few days with sights on a new harbor, it's almost impossible to make new friends.

Joseph Duncan had been convicted of raping and torturing a 14-year-old boy in Tacoma, WA. On the Internet he proudly boasted of his perversions. But the system turned Duncan loose, and no one would stop him from committing an even more horrifying act. This time he prepared meticulously. He chose his getaway car. He chose his murder weapon and loaded a video camera. Then, when he saw young Shasta and Dylan Groene playing outside their Idaho home, he struck - killing their mother and her boyfriend, and vanishing into the night with Shasta and Dylan.