Showing results by narrator "William L Sullivan" in All Categories

Portland police detective Neil Ferguson uncovers a series of puzzling and threatening clues that lead to the identity of D.B. Cooper, the mysterious man who hijacked a plane and parachuted off with $200,000 in 1971. But when Ferguson delves deeper into a web of blackmail and murder, he realizes there may in fact be two D.B. Coopers.

Rich with humor and natural history, this memoir describes 25 summers of back-to-the-earth adventure as author William L. Sullivan and his wife Janell build a log cabin by hand along a roadless river deep in the wilds of Oregon's Coast Range. Along the way they confront beaver in the refrigerator, raise a family, and puzzle out a murder mystery that had haunted their homestead site. Cabin Fever takes listeners to a warm world of kerosene lamplight, wood stoves, and ghost stories that may be true.

When a swami reveals that the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has been reincarnated as a 26-year-old barista in a coffee shop in Northeast Portland, detective Neil Ferguson suspects there will be trouble. In the 1980s the original Bhagwan brought thousands of red-robed followers to Oregon, preaching enlightenment and free love. They built a utopian city in Eastern Oregon's desert - and then poisoned hundreds of people in an attempt to overthrow the government.

This historical novel follows the conquest of Russia by Swedish Vikings, while alternate chapters follow Swedish archeologists uncovering clues about the Viking Age. Swedish Vikings founded Russia and named the realm after their leader, Rurik. A thousand years later, during the Cold War, Swedish archeologists raised the Vasa, a mighty gunship that had been meant to seal Sweden's second claim as a world power.

Joaquin Miller became the Old West's first world-famous cowboy poet in 1871, but he had trouble at home because he really had stolen a horse, shot a sheriff, and married two wives at once. When his white wife found out that he already had an Indian family in the woods, she joined forces with Susan B. Anthony to denounce him from the stage. This carefully researched historical novel follows the saga of the "Poet of the Sierras" as a California gold miner, Idaho pony express rider, Oregon county judge, and London literary star.

Recounting Oregon's history from the first people 14,300 years ago to World War II, Sullivan tells the stories behind 56 of Oregon's most interesting historic sites. Come, follow Lewis and Clark's trail across Tillamook Head, trace Oregon Trail pioneers over the Cascades, and ride with Chief Joseph on his tragic retreat through Hells Canyon. Relive the stories behind gold mines, fire lookouts, and lighthouses.

When Ana Smyth inherits Albert Einstein's violin case and sells it on eBay, she suddenly finds herself dodging international spies. A tip that her long-dead father may be alive sends her racing through Europe to discover her family's past and a lost formula for quantum gravity. The Case of Einstein's Violin is a rollicking mystery that caroms from Oregon to a Greek monastery, an Italian cyclotron, the Slovenian Alps, and the German city where Einstein was born.

Oregon's best-selling author celebrates the state's quirks with this entertaining and often irreverent collection of 20 fictional short stories. Set throughout Oregon's 36 counties, Sullivan's tales range from hilarious to weird. Hang on for the ride as we meet Beaverton roller derby queens, Hells Canyon "Hot Shot" fire crews, cantankerous Newport fishermen, and a Portland bookstore owner who buys the mystic Oregon Vortex on a hunch.

Giant earthquakes and tsunamis devastate western Oregon every 300 to 600 years. The last one hit in 1700, so we're due anytime. This informative, entertaining book tells the stories of Oregon's past floods, fires, and eruptions - including the Vanport Flood, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and the Columbus Day Windstorm. Then it investigates the cycles behind our natural disasters and takes a look at what may happen when the next "Big One" strikes.

Harald Bluetooth, the first king of a united Denmark, was a Viking with a conscience. When an English king slaughtered his daughter in a genocidal attack, the Danes took over the English throne. A thousand years later, the English returned the favor by freeing Denmark from the tyranny of the German Nazis. This historical novel alternates chapters between the two eras, following the Danish archeologist Mette Anderson as she struggles to help her Jewish fiance in World War I.

This historical novel is based on the true story of the excavation of a Viking burial ship from a hill in Norway in 1904. The find dumbfounded archeologists because it was the most elaborate Viking grave ever discovered, yet the bones in the grave belonged to a woman. Historians had assumed that the Viking world - and certainly Viking ships - were ruled by men. Who was this woman?

Sullivan's classic account of his 65 day, 1,361-mile solo backpacking trek across Oregon has been chosen by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission as one of Oregon's "100 Books", the most significant literary works in state history. Sullivan recounts adventures with blizzards, bears, and poisonous mushrooms, but he also spices his journal with notes on history, geology, and the people he meets along the way.