Showing results by narrator "James Patrick Cronin" in All Categories

In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies. In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important - even glamorous - department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job. That is, until the Spine Thief arrives. When a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major case of his career.

Prize-winning author Benjamin Hale's fiction abounds with a love of language and a wild joy for storytelling. In prose alternately stark, lush and hallucinatory, occasionally nightmarish and often absurd, the seven stories in this collection are suffused with fear and desire, introducing us to a company of indelible characters reeling with love, jealousy, megalomania, and despair.

Having reclaimed her throne, Queen Myriam is now desperate to find her missing grandmother. Over Ganry's protests, she embarks on a dangerous rescue mission. But with an unexpected threat, and mysterious forces at work, even Ganry's sword may not be enough to protect her.

Former special-ops soldier and now an analyst for the think tank Vektor, Max Anger would kill to move on from the scars of his past - if only for the sake of Pashie, his girlfriend and fellow operative, who wants out of the battle zone. For them, a normal life is just one more dangerous uncertainty. Especially now that evil is hitting closer to home. Sofia Karlsson of the Swedish police wants Max’s help in a high-profile and high-stakes murder investigation: the hunt for a serial killer stalking the streets of Stockholm, who’s eliminating his victims in gruesome ways.

Ganry, former mercenary, has pledged his sword to keep Princess Myriam safe. To claim her throne as the rightful heir, Myriam must overcome the usurper once and for all. With Ganry at her side, and friends at her back, their quest for justice begins.

Nick Moulin is a rational, thinking man, who one day acquires a fascinating old book that brings him a dream of a beautiful woman and an adventure of long ago.

In a provincial town on Lake Constance, Johann basks in the affection of the colorful staff and regulars at the Station Restaurant. Though his parents struggle to make ends meet, around him the world is rich in mystery: the attraction of girls; the power of words and his gift for music; his rivalry with his best friend, Adolf, son of the local Brownshirt leader; a circus that comes to town bringing Anita, whose love he and Adolf compete to win.

The only son of a cattle rancher, Anthony Fry chafed against the expectation that he would take over the business that had belonged to his family for generations. While his ancestors planted deep roots in the unforgiving Montana soil, Anthony wanted nothing more than to leave Billings for the excitement, sophistication, and culture of city life. After college he fled to New York, hoping to turn his lifelong love of the theater into a career.

It is the 147th century. In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man. In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament's most closely kept secret.

His whole life Carter’s fought to hold it together: To help Mom run their store. To be there for his special-needs sister, Sara, and be the perfect boyfriend Mel wants. To dominate on the basketball court - the only place he ever feels free. And to carry Mom up the stairs when she’s too smashed to make it on her own. It isn't like she has a problem. Mom loves them. If she doesn't drink every day, she's not really an alcoholic, right? Wrong. Then Kira Dawson, a girl with a bipolar wardrobe and rotating hairstyles comes to town. Somehow, she sees the truths he hides from the world.

Swordsman Caltus Talienson, sorceress Bith, Hathor the troll, and the elf Endril band together to battle the forces of the Dark Lord of Mistwall, an evil force that has so far decimated the defenders of the Westwoods.

Orphan-warrior Caltus Talienson must capture Skryling's Blade, the ancient rune-carved sword and the only weapon that can slay the Dark Lord's fire-breathing servant.

There was no distress call, no warning. The airliner and its 115 passengers and crew simply vanished. Get the story behind the detective work that solved the mystery.

The defense of Castle Elfwood, hidden in an enchanted forest in Albion, from barbarians and the unearthly Orcs depends on four young people - a lord, a magician, a druidess, and an orphan - in the first book of the series.

A woman's cry for help prompted US Navy medic Chris Walsh to take on a risky new mission.

On a searing summer Friday, Eddie Chapman has been stuck for hours in a traffic jam. There are accidents along the highway, but ambulances and police are conspicuously absent. When he decides to abandon his car and run home, he sees that the trees along the edge of a stream have been burnt, and the water in the streambed is gone. Something is very wrong. When he arrives home, the power is out, and there is no running water. The pipes everywhere, it seems, have gone dry.

They are four outcasts brought together by the god Vili, bonded by a sacred oath and sworn to each other's fealty. Bith the young sorceress. Cal warrior and outlaw for a crime he didn't commit. The troll Hathor who has foresworn his people's barbarous ways. The enigmatic elf Endril. Each had pledged to defeat the Dark Lord and his minions...or give their lives trying.

Bith the sorceress and her companions - Cal the outlaw, Hathor the troll, and Endril the elf - have armed themselves with powerful weapons and magic. They are ready to do battle with the Dark Lord's minions, be they orc or dragon. But are they ready to confront their own nightmares?

When Belle touches the Beast's enchanted rose, memories flood through Belle's mind - memories of a mother she thought she would never see again. And, stranger still, she sees her mother is none other than the beautiful enchantress who cursed the castle and all its inhabitants. Shocked and confused, Belle and the Beast will have to unravel a dark mystery about their families that is 21 years in the making.

When Jafar steals the Genie's lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish. To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed Princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon, their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war.