Showing results by narrator "Michael Levine" in All Categories

James Murphy is a Marine Corps sniper. He’s done two tours in Afghanistan. He’s considered an American Hero. And James is out for revenge. Alejandro Rocha, a massively powerful drug kingpin who operates out of La Paz, Mexico, is responsible for the death of James’s sister, and James intends to make Rocha pay for it. James goes AWOL from his unit and travels to Mexico, ready to enact bloody vengeance, but before he can go through with his plan, the crooked police of La Paz arrest him.

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise, as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden - and of war. Colossal plant eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat eaters like Allosaurus; and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex.

Russia is famous for its vodka, and its culture of extreme intoxication. But just as vodka is central to the lives of many Russians, it is also central to understanding Russian history and politics. In Vodka Politics, Mark Lawrence Schrad argues that debilitating societal alcoholism is not hard-wired into Russians' genetic code, but rather their autocratic political system, which has long wielded vodka as a tool of statecraft. Through a series of historical investigations stretching from Ivan the Terrible through Vladimir Putin, Vodka Politics presents the secret history of the Russian state itself.

In a forgotten town on the wrong side of Texas, James Hawker stumbles into a fetid dive bar. The most dangerous vigilante in America is blind drunk, and stinks of mescal. He begs the bartender for help getting back across the border, and the man obliges - for a fee. He introduces Hawker to a pair of toughs, who chain him up in the back of a truck and begin the long trip north. Hawker has been captured by a modern-day slaving outfit - and it's exactly what he had in mind.

The pro football season of 1963 was dominated by the unexpected. In April, months prior to the beginning of play, it was revealed that two All-Star players, Paul Hornung and Alex Karras, were gambling on the sport and would be suspended from play for at least a year. Even worse, in May, one of the league’s bigger-than-life personalities, Big Daddy Lipscomb, was found dead, with police saying he perished from a heroin overdose, something those who knew him best still dispute.

Elaine Watkins knew there would be challenges loving the great Dr. Xavier Vincent - medical icon, enigmatic genius and broken man - but when she finds herself the focus of the Society, a group sociopaths who manipulate people for pleasure and sport, finding someone she can trust becomes her biggest test.

I became a superhero to protect my son. Now the whole world needs me. Being a single dad is hard for anyone, but I managed to make it work. I always knew my six-year-old son, Jake, was a special little guy, but even I had no idea how special he really was or the potential that both of us had for greatness. When masked men assaulted my home to kidnap him, the powers I never knew I possessed manifested themselves. Now, I must rely on the two women who love my son the most.

Created as an experiment by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community populated by over 10,000 children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future - all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past.

With the Coopers taking the lead again in the battle for Chance Creek’s Founder’s Prize, Liam Turner is determined to put his family back on top. And if that means kidnapping his secret childhood crush, Tory Cooper, well - a cowboy’s got to do what a cowboy’s got to do.

Curate James Fletcher is content shepherding his parishioners through the good and bad times of their lives. If he sometimes dreams of making a deeper connection with a man who truly knows everything about him, it is an impulse he ignores. Declan Shaw solves problems at his family's many business enterprises. Recently, he's considered ceasing his travels to pursue a few desires of his own. He'd love to explore his secret love of cooking and perhaps have a relationship with a man that lasts longer than a night.

Logan "Rocket" Carrera has a history he prefers to leave buried under prickly layers of standoffish personality. He's seen and done things that would make most people lie awake at night. A master of compartmentalization, he's never had trouble moving on until the night he rescues the redheaded Chloe from a sadistic gang.

Gina Torrio is trying to break her addiction to bad boys with wounded spirits and dysfunctional pasts. Micah Wyatt is a flirt and a player, a little naughty but with no real harm in him. Gina thinks they might have a simple, no-strings fling without endangering her heart. But as animal attraction and flirtatious friendship blossom into sincere affection, neither Gina nor Micah knows how to deal with the depth of feeling growing between them.

At the height of power, one ruthless misstep crumbles Snake’s kingdom in an instant. Beaten within inches of his life, betrayed by his own club, and left for dead, he has nothing remaining to focus on but healing and revenge. Physical therapist Amanda thinks she’s seen it all. Then, she meets Nick, a broken man who has sustained the most severe beating she’s ever encountered. Surly, brooding, and angry, he should be a nightmare patient. But under the rough exterior lies a man determined to overcome his devastating injuries, a quality Amanda can’t help but be drawn to.

In this new collection, Richard Thomas has crafted 14 stories that push the boundaries of dark fiction in an intoxicating, piercing blend of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Equally provocative and profound, each story is masterfully woven with transgressive themes that burrow beneath the skin.

As a newcomer to the Greenland werewolf pack, Dee has struggled to find her place. She's too outspoken, too smart, too independent to play mate and second fiddle to the male wolves. But belonging is important and life as an outsider too rough, so all this wolf wants for Christmas is a mate and a home of her own. You'd think shopping for a wolfie playmate would be easy - and you'd be wrong. Because available wolves are in short supply and the only other candidate she's met? Carr's a big, violent Viking werebear who can't wait to hit the road.

During a cross border shopping trip, a family vanishes. No reason. No ransom. No cry for help. Bus driver Wallace Carver fears the worst when his family fails to meet him at the Bellingham, Washington mall. His anxiety is justifiably heightened when security cameras unexplainably show that he crossed the Peace Arch border alone. Now, all Wallace wants to do is get his wife and sons back. But first he has to work out why they were taken and by whom.

When Navy SEAL sniper Harris "Hawk" Wentworth stumbles on the ad calling for participants in a new sustainable community and TV show, he can't wait to join Base Camp in Chance Creek, Montana, and get started building a new future. After a lifetime of living on the fringes, always on the lookout for danger, he's ready to hang up his rifle and finally relax. And if someone else is willing to find him a bride, he's all for it.

Robert Westfall's life is falling apart - everywhere but in math class. That's the one place where problems always have a solution. But in the world beyond high school, his father is terminally ill, his mother is squabbling with his interfering aunts, his boyfriend is unsupportive, and the career path that's been planned for him feels less appealing by the day. Robert's math teacher, Andrew McNelin, watches his best student floundering, concerned but wary of crossing the line between professional and personal. Gradually, Andrew becomes Robert's friend, then his confidante.

Layla grows restless. The Colony is filled with secrets, and James keeps her in the dark. So, when a woman from her youth opens a crack into her past, Layla discovers everything she believed about the Colony has been a lie - even the baby she carries. Burdened with an unnerving pregnancy and tormented by terrifying hallucinations and blackouts, she sets out to uncover the unspeakable truths inside the Colony’s walls.

Outside the cabana, an assassin waits for James Hawker, the country's most dangerous vigilante. Hawker's nationwide crusade against organized crime has led him to the Fister Corporation - one of the most corrupt businesses on the planet - and for that, he has been targeted for death. The assassin draws a .38 and screws on a silencer, planning a quick and quiet kill. But it won't be so easy. He bursts into Hawker's room, gun drawn, but Hawker is waiting. The gunman is dead within seconds, and Hawker is safe - for now.