Targets of Opportunity
By Joe Weber
"A first-rate air-combat adventure by a master of the genre."—Publishers Weekly
Joe Weber follows up his best-selling novel Rules of Engagement with another high-stakes thriller about a secret war and the courage of the men who fought it.
The Vietnam War is at its height, and the US has acquired a Soviet-built MiG-17. Marine aviator Brad Austin has been recruited to test-pilot it. The MiG is an aerial hotrod, crude yet lethally effective. But it's not what Austin is flying, it's where—behind enemy lines, disguised as a Russian pilot. If he succeeds in penetrating the enemy air space, he will find easy prey. But if he fails, he will be disavowed.
With edge-of-your-seat tension and gripping realism, Targets of Opportunity is thriller writing at its best!
"Some writers get better with age: Weber is among them. This novel will have great appeal for technothriller and military-fiction buffs, especially for those who love aviation."—Library Journal
"Thanks be to the book-writing gods; we have a writer who does what writers are supposed to do—tell a story."—The Wichita Eagle
When They Were Boys
By Larry Kane
This is the real story of the Beatles’ harrowing rise to fame: focusing on that 7-year stretch from the time the boys met as teenagers in the 50’s to early 1964, when the Fab Four prepared to invade America. From the boys’ humble beginnings in Liverpool, to the cellars of Hamburg, When They Were Boys includes stories never before told, including heartbreaks, lucky breaks, and the dramatic twists of timing, fate, loyalty, and betrayal.
Included are an eyewitness account of that first meeting between Lennon and McCartney, the inside story of how Ringo replaced Pete Best, an exploration of the brilliant but troubled soul of manager Brian Epstein, the real scoop on their disastrous first visit to Germany and the death of Stu Sutcliffe. With an eye for life in Liverpool during the 50’s and 60’s, and with the help of his own conversations with the Beatles in the early years, Larry Kane brings to life the evolution of the group that changed music forever.
Red Badge of Courage, The
By Stephen Crane
Henry Fleming is primed to prove his patriotism and to earn that “red badge of courage.”
Bored with farm life, and anxious for some excitement, Henry Fleming sets off to join the Union troops fighting the Civil War. An inexperienced fighter, he is anxious to get into battle to prove his worth. He swaggers to keep up his spirits waiting for battle, but when suddenly thrust into the slaughter, he is overcome with blind fear and runs from the field of battle.
He is ashamed when he joins the wounded, for he has not earned their "red badge of courage" and becomes enraged when he witnesses the death of his terribly maimed friend. In a confused struggle with his own army’s retreating soldiers, he is wounded but not by enemy gunfire. In an effort to redeem himself in his own eyes, he begins to fight frantically and, in the heat of battle, automatically seizes the regiment’s colors in a daring charge that proves him truly courageous.
This novel is part of Brilliance Audio's extensive Classic Collection, bringing you timeless masterpieces that you and your family are sure to love.
Reunion, The
By Dan Walsh
Aaron Miller knows a thing or two about loss. He’s lost love. Dignity. Second, and even third, chances. Once honored for his heroism, he now lives in near obscurity, working as a handyman in a humble trailer park.
But God is a master at finding and redeeming the lost things of life. Unbeknownst to Aaron, someone is searching for him.
With deep insight into the human heart, consummate storyteller Dan Walsh gently weaves a tale of a life spent in the shadows but meant for the light. Through tense scenes of war and tender moments of romance, The Reunion will make you believe that everyone can get a second chance at life and love.
I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had
By Tony Danza
Long before he starred on some of television’s most beloved and long-running series such as Taxi and Who’s the Boss? and went on to distinguish himself in a variety of film and stage roles, Tony Danza was a walking contradiction: an indifferent student who dreamed of being a teacher. Inspiring a classroom of students was an aspiration he put aside for decades until one day it seemed that the most meaningful thing he could do was give his dream a shot.
What followed was a year spent teaching tenth-grade English at Northeast High — Philadelphia’s largest high school with 3,600 students. Entering Northeast’s crowded halls in September 2009, Tony found his way to a classroom filled with twenty-six students who were determined not to cut him any slack. They cared nothing about “Mr. Danza’s” showbiz credentials, and they immediately put him on the hot seat.
It was only after experiencing abject terror for several weeks — and even dissolving into tears on several occasions — that Tony began to pick up the tricks of how to get kids to learn.
Featuring indelible portraits of students and teachers alike, I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had reveals just how hard it is to keep today’s technologically savvy — and often alienated — students engaged, how impressively committed most teachers are, and the outsized role counseling plays in a teacher’s day, given the psychological burdens many students carry. The audiobook also makes vivid how a modern high school works, showing Tony in a myriad of roles — from lecturing on To Kill a Mockingbird to coaching the football team, organizing a talent show, leading far-flung field trips, and hosting teacher gripe sessions.
Inevitably, Tony’s students steal their way into our hearts — in a way that always feels authentic. A surprisingly poignant account, I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny but is mostly filled with hard-won wisdom and feel-good tears.
Frankenstein: Lost Souls
By Dean Koontz
#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz raises the stakes—and the suspense—taking his Frankenstein saga to a dynamic new level with the riveting story of a small town under siege, where good and evil, destruction and creation, converge as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
FRANKENSTEIN: LOST SOULS
The war against humanity has begun. In the dead hours of the night, a stranger enters the home of the mayor of Rainbow Falls, Montana. The stranger is in the vanguard of a wave of intruders who will invade other homes . . . offices . . . every local institution, assuming the identities and the lives of those they have been engineered to replace. Before the sun rises, the town will be under full assault, the opening objective in the new Victor Frankenstein’s trajectory of ultimate destruction. Deucalion—Victor’s first, haunted creation—saw his maker die in New Orleans two years earlier. Yet an unshakable intuition tells him that Victor lives—and is at work again. Within hours Deucalion will come together with his old allies, detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison, Victor’s engineered wife, Erika Five, and her companion Jocko to confront new peril. Others will gather around them. But this time Victor has a mysterious, powerful new backer, and he and his army are more formidable, their means and intentions infinitely more deadly, than ever before.
Ghost Time
By Courtney Eldridge
Thea Denny hates the tenth grade, and her home life isn’t easy. But she’s passionate about making art—and about her math-genius boyfriend, Cam, a recent transfer to her upstate New York high school from California.
One day Cam mysteriously vanishes—and then things really get weird. The stars on the school flag go missing, eerily cut out. Intimate videos of Cam and Thea start going viral online—videos they never took. The FBI gets involved. And Thea can hear the voice of Melody—a beautiful, disabled girl her age, whose illness has left her mute since birth.
Cam once claimed to be the world’s foremost hacker…Is he trying to reach her, send her a sign—or is Thea losing her mind?
Nerdist Way, The
By Chris Hardwick
Nerds: Once a tormented subrace of humans…now captains of industry! You don’t have to be a stereotypical geekwad to appreciate the tenets of Nerdism and to make your innate talents for overanalysis and hyper-self-awareness work for you instead of against you. Join Nerd superstar Chris Hardwick as he offers his fellow “creative-obsessives” the crucial information needed to come out on top in the current Nerd uprising.
Nerds subsist on the minutiae of their chosen passions. As a lifelong member of “The Nerd Herd,” as he calls it, Chris Hardwick has learned all there is to know about Nerds. He’s studied them, lived with them, and has endeavored to milk their knowledge nectar and isolate its curative powers for what ails you. Thus, he has founded a philosophical system (and blog) called The Nerdist, and here he shares his hard-earned wisdom about turning seeming weaknesses into world-dominating strengths.
From keeping your heart rate below hummingbird levels to managing the avalanche of sadness that is your inbox, from ignoring your brain to attracting wealth by turning down work, Hardwick reveals the secrets that can help you accomplish what you want by tapping into your true nerdtastic self. The Nerdist Way shows how to focus your mind, body, and time into an unstoppable laser of goodness. Don’t wait for another social tragedy. Don’t resort to cheap “mass murder” tactics to exact your revenge on society. Success is the most satisfying—and legal—form of vengeance there is. And you can achieve it when you follow the Nerdist Way.
Forgetting Curve, The
By Angie Smibert
Aiden Nomura likes to open doors, especially using his skills as a hacker to see what’s hidden inside. He just keeps pulling until one cracks open, exposing the flaws. It’s like a game until it isn’t. When a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic opens in Bern, Switzerland, near Aiden’s boarding school, he knows things are changing. Shortly after, bombs go off within quiet, safe Bern. Then Aiden learns that his cousin Winter has had a mental breakdown. He returns to the US immediately. But back home in Hamilton, Winter’s mental state isn’t the only thing that’s different. The city is becoming even stricter, and an underground movement is growing. Aiden slowly cracks open doors in this new world. But behind those doors are things Aiden doesn’t want to see—things about his society, his city, even his own family. Aiden may be the only one who can fix things before someone else gets hurt.
Cow Can't Sleep
By Ken Baker
Belle can’t sleep. The hay is too scratchy. So she tiptoes around the farm to find the perfect place to sleep. But what if the best sleeping spots are already taken? Belle causes an uproar on the farm...until finally she finds the perfect place to sleep! Good night! Bright, hilarious digital artwork gives just the right touch to this silly bedtime story.
Lucian Freud
By Phoebe Hoban
Phoebe Hoban, author of definitive biographies of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Alice Neel, now turns her attention to Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund and one of the greatest painters England has produced. Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open is the first biography to assess Freud’s work and life, showing how the two converge.
In Hoban’s dramatic and fast-paced narrative, we follow Freud from his birthplace in Berlin to London, where he fled with his family in the 1930s, and then to Paris, where he mixed with Picasso and Giacometti. He led a dissolute life in Soho after the war, gambling and womanizing with fierce energy. He painted his wives nude, his children nude, himself nude. He married twice, had an uncountable number of children, and kept working through it all, painting everyone from close friend and rival Francis Bacon to Kate Moss and Queen Elizabeth. He sometimes spent years on a single painting, which could require hundreds of hours of sittings. However various his subjects, his intent was always the same: to find and reveal the character hidden within by means of his intense visual imagination.
Along with its startling biographical revelations, the great thrill of Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open is the way Hoban deconstructs the art itself—its influences, models, and technique—to show how Freud reproduced reality on the canvas while breaking down the illusion that what we see is real.
Me & My Invisible Guy
By Sarah Jeffrey
The cheerleader who has everything…? Mallory Dane has a great family (at least on the surface), is popular at school (as long as she doesn’t make waves), and dates an amazing boyfriend, Todd (who happens to be completely made up). Boys—and sex—are something Mallory just can’t deal with, so she created her “invisible guy” to avoid it all. But when Liam Crawford comes along—a real guy, flesh and bones and strumming his guitar—Mallory starts questioning her fictional relationship. Is she really willing to give up Todd for Liam? And can she make amends for the lies she’s told—even to her best friend, Tess? What if your biggest, most embarrassing secret was broadcast to the whole world? Letting go of her secret will be easier said than done, and Mallory will risk everything—her family, Tess, cheerleading, her reputation, and most of all, her heart.
Winners are Driven
By Bobby Unser
Throughout his life, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser has approached his racing career and personal life the same way—with a relentless drive to succeed. Talk to him today and he’ll tell you, “I never really retired from racing, I just retired from what I was racing.” This philosophy has allowed him to achieve success in business and in life, and it can help you do the same.
In Winners Are Driven, racing legend Bobby Unser discusses the principles, strategies, and beliefs that have earned him prosperity, fame, and victory; and reveals how you can apply his winning formula. Blending his personal experiences from both on and off the track with some of today’s most compelling business stories, Unser will help you go faster, take the lead, and win!
Step-by-step, Unser details each of his tenets and discusses how you can apply them to reach your goals. He begins by explaining how the road to success should start with a burning desire to succeed at whatever you do. From here you’ll discover how to visualize a clear objective, sustain mental toughness, plot a course consisting of small objectives that ultimately lead to the prize, and create a workable and flexible strategy to get there. To complete the cycle, Unser shows you how to put your plans into action, recover from failure, rely on family for support, and finish strong. But that’s not all. Winners Are Driven also demonstrates how you can increase your performance while elevating the standard of those around you. You’ll learn how trust and integrity as well as accountability and responsibility can play a significant role in both individual endeavors and team projects.
Overcoming life’s most difficult obstacles and finding the motivation to keep moving toward the checkered flag can be difficult if you’re not prepared. Drawing from the experiences that made him a racing legend—from Pikes Peak Hill Climb to the Indianapolis 500—Bobby Unser will guide you on your quest for success and show you how Winners Are Driven.
Murder at Union Station
By Margaret Truman
Historic Union Station means nothing to the elderly man speeding south on the last lap of what will turn out to be a one-way journey from Tel Aviv to D.C.—on a train that will soon land him at Gate A-8 and, moments later, at St. Peter’s Gate. This weary traveler, whose terminal destination is probably hell, is Louis Russo, former mob hit man and government informer. Two men are at the station to meet him. One is Richard Marienthal, a young writer whose forthcoming book is based on Russo’s life. The other is the man who’ll kill him.
Russo has returned to help promote Marienthal’s book, which, although no one has been allowed to read it, already has some people shaking in their Gucci boots. Those in power fear that the contents will expose not only organized crime’s nefarious business but also a top-secret assignment abroad that Russo once masterminded for a very-high-profile Capitol Hill client. As news of Russo’s murder rockets from the MPD to the FBI and the CIA, from Congress to the West Wing, the final chapter of the story begins its rapid-fire unfolding.
In addition to the bewildered Marienthal and his worried girlfriend, Murder at Union Station features an array of memorable characters: rock-ribbed right-wing Senator Karl Widmer; ruthless New York publisher Pamela Warren; boozy MPD Detective Bret Mullin; shoe-shine virtuoso Joe Jenks; dedicated presidential political adviser Chet Fletcher; and President Adam Parmele himself—not to mention freelance snoops, blow-dried climbers, and a killer or two. There’s no place like the nation’s capital, and as her myriad fans know, Margaret Truman always gets it right. Murder at Union Station is a luxury express, nonstop delight.
Cyanide Wells
By Marcia Muller
A hard, four-hour drive north of San Francisco leads to sparsely populated Soledad County, a combination of spectacular seashore, inland forests, and small towns steeped in gold-mining history. One of those towns is Cyanide Wells, now an artsy community, whose name comes from the miners’ use of cyanide to refine ore and the time the area’s water supply was tragically poisoned.
To Matthew Lindstrom, that sinister legacy is ironically appropriate for the place he finally expects to find his ex-wife, Gwen. Fourteen years earlier, her baffling disappearance branded him a murderer and destroyed his reputation and career as a photographer. Suddenly, after all this time, an anonymous phone caller tells him that Gwen is alive - and well aware of what she has done. Matt comes to Cyanide Wells looking for answers...and revenge.
Here, where the surrounding thick forest conceals twisted paths and old sins, Matt works to uncover the details of Gwen’s new life. But before he can confront her, his ex vanishes once more. With his future again threatened by suspicion, Matt must join forces with Carly McGuire - a local woman with secrets of her own - and begin a hunt through Soledad’s untamed landscape and an interior geography of betrayal and darkness. There perhaps lies the truth about past crimes and Gwen’s fate...as well as Matt’s own.
Peter and the Starcatchers
By Ridley Pearson, Dave Barry
In an evocative and fast-paced adventure on the high seas and on a faraway island an orphan boy named Peter and his mysterious new friend, Molly, overcome bands of pirates and thieves in their quest to keep a fantastical secret safe and save the world from evil. Bestselling authors Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson have turned back the clock and revealed a wonderful story that precedes J. M. Barrie’s beloved Peter Pan. Peter and the Starcatchers is brimming with richly developed characters from the scary but somehow familiar Black Stache and the ferocious Mister Grin to the sweet but sophisticated Molly and the fearless Peter. Riveting adventure takes listeners on a journey from a harsh orphanage in old England to a treacherous sea in a decrepit old tub. Aboard the Never Land is a trunk that holds a magical substance with the power to change the fate of the world—just a sprinkle and wounds heal and just a dusting and people can fly.
Towering seas and a violent storm are the backdrop for battles at sea. Bone-crushing waves eventually land our characters on Mollusk Island—where the action really heats up.
Far From the Tree
By Donna Grant, Virginia DeBerry
Celeste English and Ronnie Frazier are sisters, but they couldn't be more different. Celeste is a doctor's wife, living a perfect and elegant life. But secretly, she is terrified: her marriage is falling apart and her need to control the people around her threatens to alienate her entire family. And Celeste allows no one to see how vulnerable she really is. Ronnie is an actress, living in New York. Her life, however, is a lie: she has no money, has no home, and her life is held together by "chewing gum, paper clips, and spit," though she wants everyone to think that her life is one of high glamour and budding fame. When their father dies, the sisters inherit a house in Prosper, North Carolina. Their mother, Della, is adamant that they forget about going there and dredging up the past. Because Della has secrets she'd rather not see come to light-secrets and heartbreak she's kept from everyone for years. Neither Ronnie, Celeste, nor Della realize just what their trip to Prosper will uncover and they must discover for themselves who they really are, who they really love, and what the future holds for them. Far From The Tree is a novel that asks the questions: can the past ever truly remain hidden? Can mothers and daughters put aside their usual roles long enough to get to really know each other? Long enough to see they each have felt the love, loss, heartache and joy that they share as women. And can two strangers realize that they are, and always will be, sisters?
Out of Reach
By Patricia Lewin
In her acclaimed debut Blind Run, Patricia Lewin proved her brilliant command of heart-stopping tales of suspense-and the staggering human emotions that go with them. Now in Out of Reach, Lewin returns with a gripping new thriller-a beguiling story of a man and a woman entering a battle against an unseen evil . . . the kind that targets the most innocent among us.
A rising star in the CIA, Erin Baker is driven by a tragedy from her past. When she was a child, her eight-year-old sister, Claire, was kidnapped. Though Claire was miraculously found, she was changed forever. As was Erin, who now just might get what she's always wanted most: the chance to make a difference in someone's life. But she must be willing to risk everything she holds dear.
A covert officer overseas, Erin now works stateside in the world's most sophisticated intelligence-gathering organization. But her life takes an unexpected turn when she spots an ice cream vendor performing magic tricks for kids. She has seen this man before-the day her sister disappeared. Obtaining access to records few are allowed to see, Erin pries open her sister's cold kidnapping case. With her arsenal of data banks and espionage techniques, Erin hopes to finally bring the criminal to justice.
When a boy disappears near her home, Erin is certain there is a link between the two cases. She meets Alec Donovan, an FBI agent on the hunt to find the missing child, whose record for locating missing children is unquestioned. Suddenly Alec and Erin find themselves on a desperate pursuit-from the streets of America's most peaceful neighborhoods to a horrifying underworld where children are stolen and trafficked. And as they get closer to the truth, they make their own lives, and the lives of everyone they love, into perfect targets for a killer.
With its deeply-drawn characters, relentless pace, and powerful depiction of human courage in the face of danger, Out of Reach is a gritty, terrifying novel of a nerve-wracking race against time. With echoes of today's most shocking headlines, this is fiction at its most passionate and suspenseful.
Jury of One
By David Ellis
In Jury of One, Shelly Trotter, an able and determined lawyer and a children’s rights advocate, is thrust into a world in which she’s completely unschooled — the criminal court. Her client is a seventeen-year-old accused of killing a policeman, and she begins to suspect that he may have been involved in an undercover operation to entrap dirty cops, though his role in the scheme remains unclear. Was he the target or the bait—and what does the prosecution really have against him?
Then comes the shocker: Shelly fears that she has a connection to this boy, something she has kept secret for years, knowledge that she has hidden from her family and friends for most of her adult life. And as the evidence against the boy mounts, she finds that nothing—not legal ethics, not a statewide political campaign that could swing in the balance—will stop her from keeping him off death row. For with this client, she is truly a jury of one.
Drive Me Crazy
By Eric Jerome Dickey
"Driver" is an ex-con trying to make his life right but who shares an expensive secret and a past affair with his boss's wife—a woman who is nothing but trouble. Dickey's rich characters make listeners feel as if they are present in the hustle-filled pool hall, the bedroom, and the Lincoln Town Car that "Driver" chauffeurs his wealthy and notorious clients around in.
Dickey's millions of fans will be happy to see the reappearance of a femme fatale from Thieves' Paradise, who adds spice and surprises every time she turns up.
Bone Harvest
By Mary Logue
Then the quiet was broken. The baby reached up a hand and jerked at the tablecloth. A spoon hit her on the head, and she started to cry. Bertha Schuler stuck her head out the door and called that dinner was ready. The clock in the hallway struck the half hour. And the first shot was fired.
The unsolved murders at a remote Wisconsin farmhouse half a century ago have receded into time. But one deranged man will do anything to make sure that all of Pepin County remembers that bloody day.
The world was out of balance. It had been so for nearly fifty years. Only he could see it. Only he could change it.
When a quantity of dangerous pesticides is stolen from the local co-op, Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins is called in to investigate. The thief has left one bizarre clue: the finger bone of a child long dead.
The pesticides soon reappear with devastating effect—in flowerbeds, in animal feed, and in a fatal concoction at a Fourth of July picnic. Each time, a tiny human bone is left at the scene. With the help of Harold Peabody, the quirky, aging editor of the Durand Daily, Claire unravels the secrets of the past, leading her to a pair of young lovers, a man enraged over his mother's death, an obsessive recluse, and the deputy who first discovered the corpses of the Schuler family Claire desperately races against time to find the madman before he uses the lethal pesticide again. But he won't be stopped. Not until he gets what he wants.
The truth must be told. Or more will die. The flowers and the birds were only the beginning. . . .
Written with Mary Logue's trademark power and compassion, Bone Harvest is a bold, brilliant thriller that carries the reader deep into the heart of the Wisconsin bluffs country, into the hearts of its people—and to a startling conclusion.
Night Over Water
By Ken Follett
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ken Follett takes to the skies in this classic novel of international suspense. Set in the early days of World War II, Night over Water captures the daring and desperation of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances—in prose as compelling as history itself….
September 1939. England is at war with Nazi Germany. In Southampton, the world’s most luxurious airliner—the legendary Pan Am Clipper—takes off for its final flight to neutral America. Aboard are the cream of society and the dregs of humanity, all fleeing the war for reasons of their own—shadowed by a danger they do not know exists—and heading straight into a storm of violence, intrigue, and betrayal….
Naked in Death
By J. D. Robb
THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING IN DEATH SERIES
It is 2058, New York City. Technology now completely rules the world, but for New York Detective Eve Dallas, one irresistible impulse still rules the heart: passion…
Eve Dallas is a New York police lieutenant hunting for a ruthless killer. In over ten years on the force, she’s seen it all—and knows her survival depends on her instincts. And she’s going against every warning telling her not to get involved with Roarke, an Irish billionaire—and a suspect in Eve’s murder investigation. But passion and seduction have rules of their own, and it’s up to Eve to take a chance in the arms of a man she knows nothing about—except the addictive hunger of needing his touch.
Blood Work
By Michael Connelly
From the #1 bestselling author of the Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer series and who "is the master of the universe in which he lives" (Huffington Post), comes the gripping novel that inspired the film starring Clint Eastwood.
When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful. But when Graciella tells him the way her sister, Gloria, was murdered, Terry realizes he has no choice. Now the man with the new heart vows to take down a predator without a soul. For Gloria's killer shatters every rule that McCaleb ever learned in his years with the Bureau-as McCaleb gets no more second chances at life...and just one shot at the truth.
*Winner of the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière- International Category
*Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel
*Winner of the Anthony Award for Best Novel
Vincent Price Presents - Volume Five
By Deniz Cordell, M. J. Elliott
The Gothic horror tradition of film icon Vincent Price is revived in these twisted radio plays that transplant the best of the horror genre into innovative and bizarre landscapes for these unforgettable stories, which include horrific transformations, twisting plots, perversions of science, labyrinthine castles, Gothic dread, surreal revelations, and a little unexpected genre-bending. Now, The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air in Association with Bluewater Productions brings you Vincent Price Presents - featuring stories of horror and suspense inspired by some of Mr. Price’s most famous films, as well as creating new frightening tales with the assistance of his estate. Now .... turn the lights out .... sit back ... and welcome .... to the macabre world of Vincent Price.
SPIRIT RADIO – from a story by William Tooker.
When his hot-air balloon crashes, a wealthy playboy finds himself perched on the brink of two worlds. His only hope of returning to the life he once knew: a mysterious radio the inhabitants of the island are obsessed with.
A SKUNK’S TALE – from a story by Chad Helder.
In this special episode of Vincent Price Presents, adorable forest animals meet the apocalyptic zombie horde! Young Stevie the Skunk only wants to stink like the other boys at school. When he makes a devil's bargain with a sinister and powerful owl all hell breaks loose. Don't miss this twisted tale of adolescent angst and zombiehood. It's only cute until the horror begins.
THE HOUSE OF THE RAVEN – from a story by Clay & Susan Griffith.
Aubrey Pitt is a 1930s magician/gentleman detective known as The Raven. He is a suave fixture of high society as a crime solver and occult expert. When the Raven is summoned to a mysterious meeting with a wicked old colleague, he is presented with a puzzle worthy of his extraordinary talents. If he fails to solve it, he dies. If he succeeds, he lives in misery. The House of the Raven is a sinister tale of mystery and magic, demons and cocktail parties, and lederhosen as only Vincent Price could imagine!
Tears in Rain
By Rosa Montero
Death is inevitable. Especially when you have an expiration date.
As a replicant, or “techno-human,” Detective Bruna Husky knows two things: humans bioengineered her to perform dangerous, undesirable tasks; and she has just ten years on the United States of Earth before her body automatically self-destructs. But with “anti-techno” rage on the rise and a rash of premature deaths striking her fellow replicants, she may have even less time than she originally thought.
Investigating the mysterious deaths, Bruna delves into the fractious, violent history shared by humans and replicants, and struggles to engage the society that fails to understand her—yet created her. The deeper she gets, the deadlier her work becomes as she uncovers a vast, terrifying conspiracy bent on changing the very course of the world. But even as the darkness of her reality closes in, Bruna clings fiercely to life.
No Show
By Simon Wood
Englishman Terry Sheffield has just arrived in San Francisco to start his new life with Sarah, the investigative journalist he married after a transatlantic love affair. But Sarah never shows up at the airport…
When Terry reports his wife as missing, the police chalk it up to a new bride with cold feet. Then one murdered woman after another turns up, all with something in common: they had exposed scandals just before their deaths…and their names appear on a list that Sarah composed. As a journalist, Sarah’s exposed her share of scandals, and Terry realizes that she’s not missing—she’s on the run.
To find her before the killer does, Terry must explore the dark recesses of his new homeland and rely on the help of some new friends. But as his search brings him closer to finding Sarah, Terry realizes she’s very different from the woman he thought he married.
Secret Piano, The
By Zhu Xiao-Mei
Zhu Xiao-Mei was born to middle-class parents in post-war China, and her musical proficiency became clear at an early age. Taught to play the piano by her mother, she developed quickly into a prodigy, immersing herself in the work of classical masters like Bach and Brahms. She was just eleven years old when she began a rigorous course of study at the Beijing Conservatory, laying the groundwork for what was sure to be an extraordinary career. But in 1966, when Xiao-Mei was seventeen, the Cultural Revolution began, and life as she knew it changed forever. One by one, her family members were scattered, sentenced to prison or labor camps. By 1969, the art schools had closed, and Xiao-Mei was on her way to a work camp in Inner Mongolia, where she would spend the next five years. Life in the camp was nearly unbearable due to horrific living conditions and intensive brainwashing campaigns. Yet through it all Xiao-Mei clung to her passion for music. And when the Revolution ended, it was the piano that helped her to heal. Heartbreaking and heartwarming, The Secret Piano is the incredible true story of one woman’s survival in the face of unbelievable odds—and in pursuit of a powerful dream.
Bitter Drink
By F.G. Haghenbeck
Beatnik detective Sunny Pascal is an expert at two things: cocktails and finding trouble. And when the filming of John Huston’s The Night of the Iguana hits a few snags with its sexed-up, star-studded cast in a Puerto Vallarta paradise, producer Ray Stark brings Sunny in to chill out the set. But matters get tipsy when someone’s found deader than dead, shot down by a gun belonging to one of the cast members.
Now Sunny’s got to keep his Hollywood stars out of jail long enough for him to solve the case. But the trouble doesn’t stop with murder. The Mexican mafia and local newspapers wage a tension war against the hedonistic Americans, and if John Huston has anything to say about it, Sunny’s got to be the one to keep the show on the road. Only Sunny will be doing it his way: with a martini in one hand and a Colt in the other.
Prolific Mexican comic book writer and Turn of the Screw Award–winner F.G. Haghenbeck gives us the spins with Bitter Drink, a tense tale of crime, passion, and cocktails.
Concrete Pearl, The
By Vincent Zandri
How does a headstrong girl like me learn to survive in a man’s construction racket? By taking your old man’s advice, even if it comes from six feet under.
Thirty-eight-year-old Ava “Spike” Harrison can hold her own in the boys club that is the construction business. Her late father saw to it that she was as comfortable on a job site as she was behind a textbook. But the past few years have had her over a barrel—job site injuries and a string of bad luck, including the death of her husband, have hampered the venerable Harrison Construction Company. Taking a cheap job here and there has been her only option.
Grasping at straws, though, comes at a price: an asbestos removal contractor she’s hired, Jimmy Farrell—a lifelong acquaintance who gladly accepted $10,000 from Spike as a “good faith” incentive—has gone AWOL. The three hundred students at Albany’s PS 20, the job site, are about to be exposed to deadly asbestos fibers.
What starts out as a goose chase—from a cleared-out office to Jimmy’s impounded car—turns into an all-out search for the real story behind the man’s sudden disappearance. Trading in her work boots for gumshoes, Spike must tread a path paved with deception, greed, and even murder if she’s going to nail down the truth.
Vincent Zandri, author of the popular Moonlight saga, spins intrigue and danger with a thrilling new series and a sharp, feisty heroine who has little left to lose.
Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Planet Girl
By Tommy Greenwald
There's a crisis at Eastport Middle School! It appears that everyone has a boyfriend or girlfriend except . . . Charlie Joe Jackson??!? Yup-he's the only single guy out of all his friends. How is this possible? Even Pete Milano snagged a girl! Well, Charlie Joe refuses to be left out. He quickly goes looking for help in the last place anyone would think to find him-the library. And what he finds is the gem of all gems, the guidebook of all guidebooks, the key to finally getting a girl! Now, everyone is suddenly coming to him for love advice. (Oh, how the tables have turned.) But Charlie Joe's world is swiftly turned upside down when he realizes the girl he actually likes... might not actually be the girl he likes.
The fifth book in the acclaimed Charlie Joe Jackson series, Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Planet Girl by Tommy Greenwald, returns to give young readers a hilarious and engaging story about trouble, failure, and awkward middle school romance.
Tyr's Hammer
By Michael "Tinker" Pearce, Linda Pearce
SideQuests are stand-alone stories or novellas that chronicle the heroes, villains, and adventures in The Foreworld Saga across numerous eras and ages. They can be read in any order with or without prior knowledge of The Foreworld Saga.
In this quick-witted and action-packed addition to The Foreworld Saga series, the leader of the Shield-Brethren has dispatched two of his men northward to secure land for a new citadel. When Tyr and his companion come upon the perfect spot, they discover that it is owned by Voldrun, a northern king with a questionable sense of justice. Although he welcomes the travelers, the king’s true motives eventually become clear. Determined to be compensated for his hospitality, Voldrun subjects the duo to several challenges, culminating in a game more dangerous than either warrior could ever have imagined. Steadfast and brave to the end, Tyr must draw upon all of his considerable skill and cunning as he endeavors to outwit the sly Voldrun and strives to secure a bright future for the order.
Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life, The
By Leo Babauta
This guide will show you how to find minimalism in all areas of your life: from decluttering your possessions and digital life to working less to finding time for what's important.
After Tupac & D Foster
By Jacqueline Woodson
When D Foster walks into Neeka and her best friend’s lives, their world opens up. D doesn’t have a “real” mom constantly telling her what to do, and the girls envy her independence. But D wants nothing more than to feel connected, and the three girls form a tight bond—and a passion for the music of Tupac Shakur. D’s the one who understands Tupac’s songs best, and through her, his lyrics become more personal for all of them.
After Tupac is shot the first time, the girls are awed by how he comes back stronger than ever. And seeing how Tupac keeps on keeping on helps when Neeka’s brother is wrongly sent to jail and D’s absent mom keeps disappointing. But by the time Tupac is shot again, the girls have turned thirteen and everything’s changed, except their belief in finding their Big Purpose.
Newbery Honor winner Jacqueline Woodson’s compelling and inspiring story shows us how music touches our lives, how much life can be lived in a short time, and how all—too—brief connections can touch us to the core and remain a part of us forever.
Shadows, The
By Megan Chance
Grace Knox is about to turn seventeen, and the world of Victorian New York society should be opening to her—a time of dances and parties and boys vying for her heart and her hand. Instead, Grace’s world is closing in: the family business is gone; her brother is drinking and gambling away whatever is left; her widowed mother cannot cope; and her grandmother is slipping into madness. And now Grace is having disturbing dreams of ancient battles.
Grace’s only hope is to marry Patrick Devlin and let his fortune save them all. But she isn’t sure she loves Patrick, and she doesn’t share his passion to free Ireland from British rule. Why look to Ireland when there is so much poverty and despair here?
Then Grace meets Diarmid, an Irish stableboy. Being with him means losing everything. But the secrets and mystery surrounding him are too compelling to ignore. Soon Grace is drawn into his world of legend and heroes, magic and prophecy—the world of her dreams—where her own choice between faith and fear holds the greatest power of all.
Devil is Waiting, A
By Jack Higgins
“Jack Higgins has written some of the best suspense fiction of the past fifty years,” wrote the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Strand Magazine agreed: “With fresh plots, interesting characters and vibrant settings, Jack Higgins has firmly cemented his reputation as one of the world’s most successful thriller writers.” And in his new novel, a devil is indeed waiting.…
The President is coming to London, but not to an entirely warm welcome. A fanatical mullah is offering a blessing to anyone who will assassinate the President, and though most London Muslims think the mullah has crossed the line, a few think otherwise.
Urgently, Sean Dillon, General Charles Ferguson, and the rest of the small band known as the “Prime Minister’s private army” are called in, augmented by an extra-ordinary new recruit, an intelligence captain and Afghan war hero named Sara Gideon. She has her own contacts and ways of working, but the more she explores the threat, the more she discovers herself in a very dark place indeed.
Brilliant Blunders
By Mario Livio
We all make mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. Not even some of the greatest geniuses in history, as Mario Livio tells us in this marvelous story of scientific error and breakthrough.
Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle, and Albert Einstein were all brilliant scientists. Each made groundbreaking contributions to his field - but each also stumbled badly. Darwin’s theory of natural selection shouldn’t have worked, according to the prevailing beliefs of his time. Not until Gregor Mendel’s work was known would there be a mechanism to explain natural selection. How could Darwin be both wrong and right? Lord Kelvin, Britain’s leading scientific intellect at the time, gravely miscalculated the age of the Earth. Linus Pauling, the world’s premier chemist (who would win the Nobel Prize in chemistry) constructed an erroneous model for DNA in his haste to beat the competition to publication. Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle dismissed the idea of a "Big Bang" origin to the universe (ironically, the caustic name he gave to this event endured long after his erroneous objections were disproven). And Albert Einstein, whose name is synonymous with genius, speculated incorrectly about the forces that hold the universe in equilibrium - and that speculation opened the door to brilliant conceptual leaps.
These five scientists expanded our knowledge of life on Earth, the evolution of the Earth itself, and the evolution of the universe, despite and because of their errors. As Mario Livio luminously explains, the scientific process advances through error. Mistakes are essential to progress.
Brilliant Blunders is a singular tour through the world of science and scientific achievement - and a wonderfully insightful examination of the psychology of five fascinating scientists.
Rosehaven
By Catherine Coulter
Severin of Langthorne returns to his family's estate to find his family and land in ruin. His father and brother dead, his mother demented, he is the new Baron Louges, an empty title due to the destruction of his world.
Meanwhile the Earl of Oxborough, Fawke of Trent, has selected Severin to marry his daughter and only heir. While his new place in society seems enviable, his new wife detests him. The ill-matched marriage, coupled with "Rosehaven," the mysterious property in which they live, presents a challenge once again for Severin.
Awakening, The
By Heather Graham
The tree-lined streets and mystical shops of Salem, Massachusetts resonate with a seductive and brutal history. New Orleans musician Megan O’Casey has returned to the home of her ancestors to perform , with her husband Finn, in a weeklong series of concerts, culminating on All Hallow’s Eve…and to renew her connection with the past.
But from the moment they arrive in Salem, Finn seems different—sensual beyond belief one moment; cold and ruthless the next. The locals—even Megan’s relatives—regard him strangely, with a distrust bordering on hatred. Megan must soon face the fact that something powerful is rising, a malevolence that may have already claimed Finn for its own…
As the full moon approaches, Megan senses that she, too, is in great danger. Sinister forces seem to be bringing her closer to darkness in a centuries–old ritual that music cannot tame…and time cannot conquer…
Rain on the Dead
By Jack Higgins
The past comes back to haunt Sean Dillon and his colleagues, as the New York Times bestselling master of suspense returns with a knife-edge story of terrorism, revenge, and a very old nemesis.
In the past few years, the killing and capture of many Al-Qaeda leaders has left the terrorist organization wounded—but by no means dead. And they intend to prove it.
On a dark summer night, two Chechen mercenaries emerge from the waters off Nantucket to kill a high-value target, the former president of the United States, Jake Cazalet. Unfortunately for them, Cazalet has guests with him, including black ops specialist Sean Dillon and his colleague, Afghan war hero Captain Sara Gideon.
The Chechens do not survive the night, but Dillon is curious as to how they even got on the island. What he discovers sends a chill through his bones—a name from very far back in Dillon’s past. If this man is working with the terrorists now, the assassination attempt is only the beginning—and the next time, the results might be much, much different.
