Showing results by narrator "Christopher Lane" in All Categories

When Kilkenny is invited to Rome to consult on the functioning of the Vatican Library, he is still grieving the death of his wife and son and welcomes the distraction of the assignment. But Pope Leo XIV has a startlingly different task in mind for him. In a private audience, Kilkenny learns of an unreported atrocity committed against the underground Church in China and its link to Yin Daoming, the long-imprisoned Bishop of Shanghai who has served thirty years of a life sentence in a Chinese laogai for refusing to renounce the Church of Rome.

Pete Simon's all-American life was everything he had ever wished for: a good home, a satisfying career, and a marriage still strong and loving after nearly 20 years. But in the days following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, everything was about to change.

In August 1940 - 18 months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor - Anglo American MI6 agent Roy Hawkins is mysteriously rushed from Nazi-occupied Paris to New York. Enraged at being ordered away from what he believes is the real fight against Nazism and Fascism, he wants to get back to Paris as soon as possible, even though he knows it means almost certain death.

Oliver Grant. Decorated soldier, then Major in Military Intelligence. Now a case-hardened mercenary - selling his services to the highest bidder wherever the going is rough. Seemingly the perfect choice to rescue the stepson of a millionaire Mafia boss from a Libyan prison fortress. Except for one tiny detail. Grant doesn't want the job. It takes kidnapping and threatening his younger sister before even Grant is forced to see sense. Dimitri Stavrou does not play games. But then Grant's beautiful, gentle lover turns up on the wrong end of a machine gun....

How wonderful it is for those who love Christmas to listen to stories that inspire the happiest of seasons. And no story is as compelling as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, penned in 1843. But what triggered Dickens' imagination to write a story so unlike anything he had written before? In Eben Kruge, author Richard Barlow Adams delivers a pause-resisting narrative that weaves fact and fiction for a penetrating look inside the life and psyche of Dickens when he and wife Catherine traveled to America in 1842 at the invitation of Washington Irving.

Capturing the seedy and sordid side of life isn't anything new for photojournalist-turned-paparazzo Graham Wells. But when a shoot turns deadly - secretly causing the car crash that takes the lives of two beloved public figures - he knows the ensuing media spotlight could easily destroy him. Fortunately, no one else knows his shameful secret except for a mysterious CIA operative, and that clandestine agent swears he'll keep quiet...for a price.

In space, a technological nightmare orbits the Earth, stalking its prey. Sheathed in a black multifaceted skin, a secret all but invisible against the darkness of space, the killer satellite hunts with one of the deadliest weapons ever created. It is Zeus - and like the god of myth it hurls lightning from the heavens. Astronaut Kelsey Newton and her crewmates aboard the International Space Station have just settled in for a six-month mission when they discover the existence of Zeus.

It's been two months since Travis' family moved from their shabby old house to a development so new that it seems totally unreal. There's one place, though, where Travis can still connect with his old life: the Salinas library. Travis and his family used to go there together every Saturday, but now he bikes to it alone, re-reading his favorite books. Suddenly, Travis is seeing John Steinbeck's characters spring to life.

New York, early 1900s: Jimmy Montgomery comes from old New York money and grows up among the Manhattan elite. At the age of 18, Jimmy discovers he's been living a lie. He follows his roots back to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to answer the burning questions in his life. Who is he? What is he? Where does he belong?  

The dilapidated shanty stood at the end of a trail birthed from the undergrowth by the feet of travelers numerous. Buck Lightningfast and his girl Sugarplum were two of the many. The lady was draped over Lightningfast's shoulders, screaming and kicking in nothing but his Superman t-shirt and her panties and she was toting a carry bag in which she carried little but her toothbrush and other toiletries. 

Dive into one of World War II’s most unique rescue missions: Operation Cowboy. Any military rescue mention is likely to be an interesting subject in its own right, but there was one that took place during World War II that was set apart from many others by one factor: The targets were not human. 

Thirty years hasn't changed Las Vegas - the desert just got dirtier. The biggest game in town centers on a massive, deadly roller coaster that winds its way through the Strip's most famous attractions. On the first Saturday of every month, twenty-four desperate passengers get strapped into the notorious ride and gamble with their lives in a twisted game of chance, to the thrill of webcast audiences worldwide. One of them will win, and one will die, but the other twenty-two will escape with nothing but their lives.

Celebrated for more than fifty years as a world-renowned novelist, essayist, and political figure and commentator, Gore Vidal is less known for the exquisitely crafted short fiction he wrote as a young man. Like the work of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, his stories have been overshadowed by the author’s triumphs writing in other genres. Still, Vidal’s short fiction offers us a portrait of the young artist in the 1940s and 1950s. His subtle and comic tales often center on adolescence and homosexual themes.

Ghosts of the Unremembered Past is a suspenseful story of a young boy growing up in a family shaped by intrusion, loss, and tragedy and of that same boy, as a young adult, seeking help from a gifted psychoanalyst. The juxtaposition of the protagonist's childhood and early adulthood highlights the crippling effects of emotional isolation and the transformative power of relational connection.

Gangsters, dead poets, zombies, serial killers, and other malcontents come together in an eclectic assortment of contemporary fables and morality tales which span the genres. Full of ironic twists and outlandish premises, 13 Stories is guaranteed to leave the listener breathless in anticipation for what happens next.

It is 1777, in a colonial America where the internet, social media, and ubiquitous electronic communications are fully woven into the fabric of society. Hours after a top-secret Congressional sub-committee uploads the Articles of Confederation, a mysterious internet plague breaks loose in the cloud, killing any user who accesses a networked device. 

Nick Finn and his partner and brother-in-law, Diego Jimenez, are used to rough water. As Marine Interdiction Agents for Customs and Border Protection, the two hunt drug smugglers, human traffickers, and other criminals who hide in the vastness of the waters surrounding southern California. One night, Finn and Diego track a phantom boat off the Los Angeles coast, but it disappears before they can intercept it. They find a dead body in its wake, ravaged by sharks.

The Book Hunter in London is a fascinating look at those who love books, collect books, and sell books. Published in 1895, this is a remarkable look back at how books were viewed in the 19th century and before. 

Iry - A planet out of myth, whose very existence could bring down an empire. Alihahd - The captain was a notorious rebel runner. To most of the known galaxy he was a legend without a face, to the rest, a face without a name. He was called Alihahd. "He left." It was the word Na'id enforcers heard when they demanded to know where the rebel had gone - always one step ahead - as if he knew his enemy very well. Hero, villain, coward. Three times a legend on both sides of the same war.

As a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Nick Angel has seen a lot. But now he sees almost nothing after being struck with PTSD-related blindness resulting from the trauma of his last tour. In an attempt to put the past behind him, he travels to Venice, Italy, with his fiancée, Grace, to recover, reconnect, and rekindle their love. Despite his physical and emotional setbacks, Nick senses something dangerously amiss in Venice, and his hunch proves right when Grace is abducted right in front of him.