Showing results by narrator "Patrick Cronin" in All Categories

His abductors forced him to a lying position in the box, placed a lid on top, jammed in four lengths of 3/4-inch plastic pipe for breathing tubes, and started shoveling in dirt to fill the hole. To cover their handiwork, they scattered some worn-out tires over the burial site. Then they drove away.

A twisting thriller that taps into a deep well of erotic obsession, sexual betrayal, madness, and murder, Darkness Bound goes to fearless extremes to become an authentic and shocking suspense novel. In darkness…. Two strangers meet. A woman without inhibitions…a man without limits…for a private game between two consenting adults. In darkness…. They indulge in every secret fantasy, cross every boundary of sexual deviation. But one of them has a secret yet to be shared, a desire yet to be explored…

It is 1951. The close-knit community of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, does not welcome those who are different. Jacob Hampton's wealthy parents disinherited him when he married Naomi, an uneducated hotel maid from out of town. They had bigger plans for him. Now Jacob has been called up to fight in Korea, leaving a pregnant Naomi behind. The only person he can entrust to take care of her is his lifelong friend, Blackburn Gant. Blackburn, who tends the local cemetery alone, is an outsider too, his appearance irrevocably altered by childhood disease.

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.

Summer 1991. Joseph March, a 21-year-old working-class kid from Seattle, is on top of the world. He has just graduated college and his future beckons, unencumbered and magnificent. But Joe's life implodes when he starts to suffer the symptoms of severe bipolar disorder and, shortly after, his mother kills a man she's never met with a hammer. Joe moves to White Pine, Oregon, where his mother is in jail and his father has set up house to be near her. He is joined by Tess Wolff, a fiercely independent woman with whom he has fallen passionately in love.

Magentite. The rarest of gems, one capable of turning any mage into an unstoppable force of destruction. A gem found only in the empty lands surrounding the Tyber River. And now war has come. Endless war between Esteria and the native Tyberons, a savage and mysterious people who prowl the grass-covered land with spearpoints ready. Unable to end the conflict the Esterians rely on mercenaries to bolster their military, desperate men like Dain Gladstone, a disgraced Paladin.

Now an agent for the small, covert SIFTR Agency, Rob Chandler is confronted with the possibility something terrible has occurred to a beloved fellow agent. He knows who is responsible, the WWZ, a fanatical neo-Nazi organization and another, even more powerful organization, called the Order. Together they are making their move - one that could alter the geopolitical landscape of the United States, forever. The newly selected multi-billionaire leader of the Order, Rudy Palmolive, has a unique hobby...he's built an 1881 re-creation of the town of Tombstone. It's a testing ground....

When the Colonial Marines set out after their deadliest prey, the Xenomorphs, it’s what Corporal Hicks calls a bug hunt—kill or be killed. Here are fifteen all-new stories of such “close encounters,” written by many of today’s most extraordinary authors. Set during the events of all four Alien films, sending the Marines to alien worlds, to derelict space settlements, and into the nests of the universe’s most dangerous monsters, these adventures are guaranteed to send the blood racing—one way or another.

When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited—to fill five places.

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.

Ruby was murdered on Earth 18 years ago and reincarnated on Zadok as a Pastel Zeek named Harlow. To be born at the bottom of her race’s caste colour system to a middle-class family of Magentas has made Harlow a source of conflict amongst the ruling Purples, and a source of derision from all three colours.

The year is 1922. The carnival is Pontilliar's Spectactular Star Light Miraculum, set up on the Texas-Louisiana border. One blazing summer night, a mysterious stranger steps out onto the midway, lights a cigarette, and forever changes the world around him. Tattooed snake charmer Ruby has traveled with her father's carnival for most of her life and, jaded though she is, can't help but be drawn to the tall man in the immaculate black suit who has joined the carnival as a geek, a man who bites the heads off live chickens.

In the baking heat of a Mexican resort town, life is spare but satisfying for David Rhodes, American exile and tennis bum, who is content with his low-key existence. But when a young female American drifter is found raped and murdered at the bottom of the seaside cliffs, Rhodes, an illegal alien, is an easy target and an immediate suspect - particularly to the town's sadistic police chief. David's comfortable life explodes in a sudden hell of accusation, imprisonment, and flight that can only end in one final, nightmarish confrontation.

When Harlow is imprisoned by the Queen’s guards, Slater is forced to flee for his life and team up with Jax — the one man he detests more than any other. Together with courageous Zadonians from all four races, they devise a daring rescue mission to save Harlow from impending death.

Paladin, traitor, outcast, mercenary... Dain Gladstone has been all of these. From childhood he’s been groomed for battle and trained in the Light. When war came he was branded a traitor and exiled for a treasonous act of mercy. To make his way in the world, Dain has sold his skills to the highest bidder. But now he’s grown tired of war, tired of fighting for causes not his own, and he’s got a plan.

Two years have passed since Agent Thomas Walken and Bobbi January found themselves at the heart of a conspiracy of unimaginable greed and cruelty. The Genefex Corporation remains shrouded in mystery, and Bobbi faces a life of unanswered questions and mounting disillusionment to look forward to. But when she receives a mysterious message from one of Walken’s former comrades, she is drawn back onto the trail.

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.

Max Anger is a man on the edge. The former fighter in an elite band of special-ops soldiers in Sweden, Anger is haunted by battle scars, a childhood spent in the Stockholm archipelago, and his own mysterious family past. Now behind a desk at Vektor, a think tank conducting research on Russia, he’s met his match - and fallen in love - with fierce fellow operative Pashie Kovalenko. Like all of Vektor, she’s set her sights on the tenuous future of her country.

Paul How guides you on what to expect once you commit to learning, with all its ups and downs, so that you can optimize the experience. The first section of the book examines the mindset necessary to acquire a skill, emphasizing processes rather than results. Next, the book delves into techniques for better memorization of your subject matter. The final section on "Action" discusses how to best apply what you've learned in order to lessen anxiety and maximize enjoyment.

Meet Dug, a scrawny but cheerful caveman who loves his valley and just wants the best for his tribe of misfits. Accompanied by his faithful pig sidekick Hognob, Dug is a dreamer - why settle for hunting rabbits when you can hunt a mammoth?! Then there’s Dug’s tribe, led by the cautious Chief Bobnar. Bobnar wants the best for the tribe, too, but he sees things a little differently from Dug. Then Dug meets the evil Lord Nooth. He’s the leader of the Bronze Age City invading the valley.