Showing results by narrator "Simon Vance" in All Categories

This historical romance, perhaps the greatest cloak-and-sword story ever, relates the adventures of four fictional swashbuckling heroes who served the French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV. When the dashing young D'Artagnon arrives in Paris from Gascony, he becomes embroiled in three duels with the Three Musketeers: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. But when he proves himself by fighting not against, but with, the Three Musketeers, they form a quick and lasting friendship.

After the war that cost him so much, Kylar Stern is broken and alone. He's determined not to kill again, but an impending amnesty will pardon the one murderer he can't let walk free. He promises himself this is the last time. One last hit to tie up the loose ends of his old, lost life. But Kylar's best - and maybe only - friend, the High King Logan Gyre, needs him. To protect a fragile peace, Logan's new kingdom, and the king's twin sons, he needs Kylar to secure a powerful magical artifact that was unearthed during the war.

This last novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series involves Mr. Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, who is accused of theft when he uses a large check to pay off his debts. The scandal fiercely divides the citizens of Barsetshire and threatens to tear apart Mr. Crawley's family.

Nikki Serafino is enjoying the sunset from her boat in her beloved port city of Naples, Italy, when she discovers the body of a man in the warm waters of the bay. An investigator working as the liaison between local police and American troops, Nikki is certainly no stranger to violence and organized crime, but this case grows complicated when the victim turns out to be a U.S. Navy captain stationed at the nearby military base—and the autopsy reveals foul play.

A watchman of the Yenara City guard has gone missing. The culprit could be any of the usual suspects: drug-dealing orcs, mind-controlling elves, uncooperative mages, or humans being typical humans. It's up to two reluctant partners - Rem, a hungover miscreant who joins the Watch to pay off his bail, and Torval, a maul-wielding dwarf who's highly unimpressed with the untrained and weaponless Rem - to uncover the truth and catch the murderer loose in their fair city.

Desil and a few allies must race to obtain two rare ingredients that could create a swing of power strong enough to end the burgeoning war. Hundreds have already perished in battle, and thousands more are likely to die, pitting time against Desil and his allies. But they aren't the only ones scrambling to collect these ingredients in forgotten corners of the world. One is a king desperate for more power with an entire army at his disposal. The other contender remains a mystery, though his abilities are vast.

A scandal is threatening to engulf the popular spa town of Aquae Sulis (modern-day Bath). The wife of Ruso's best friend, Valens, has been found dead in the sacred hot spring, stabbed through the heart. Fearing the wrath of the goddess and the ruin of the tourist trade, the temple officials are keen to cover up what's happened. But the dead woman's father is demanding justice, and he's accusing Valens of murder. If Valens turns up to face trial, he will risk execution. If he doesn't, he'll lose his children.

In A Suspension of Mercy, a masterpiece of noir fantasy, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

In this thought-provoking life of René Magritte (1898-1967), Alex Danchev makes a compelling case for Magritte as the single most significant purveyor of images to the modern world. Magritte’s surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tuned outrageousness have become an inescapable part of our visual landscape, through such legendary works as The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), and his celebrated iterations of Man in a Bowler Hat.

Julian Barnes pens a kind of detective story, relating a cranky amateur scholar’s search for the truth about Gustave Flaubert and the obsession of this detective, whose life seems to oddly mirror those of Flaubert’s characters.

From Victorian India to near-future New York, The Calcutta Chromosome takes listeners on a wondrous journey through time as a computer programmer trapped in a mind-numbing job hits upon a curious item that will forever change his life. When Antar discovers the battered I.D. card of a long-lost acquaintance, he is suddenly drawn into a spellbinding adventure across centuries and around the globe, into the strange life of L. Murugan....

The 1920s are famous as the golden age of jazz and glamour, but it was also an era of fevered yearning for communion with the spirit world, after the loss of tens of millions in the First World War and the Spanish-flu epidemic. A desperate search for reunion with dead loved ones precipitated a tidal wave of self-proclaimed psychics - and, as reputable media sought stories on occult phenomena, mediums became celebrities.

The battle for Echo Hold begins, the Uyumaak throwing their might at the fortress. The birth of the Holy Child draws near, and the Chalaine and Padra Athan try to prop up the Ha'Ulrich's failing courage so he can face Mikkik when the time comes. Gen, still separated from the Chalaine, watches from a distance, fearing treachery, hoping he can save her from Mikkik and the incompetence of her cowardly husband.

In his most dazzling novel since the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and arms dealer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed entire countries and continents.

When M receives word that a known terrorist organization is planning to infiltrate and destroy a top-secret British Royal Navy aircraft carrier-based summit of world leaders, James Bond is returned to active duty in the Royal Navy. Promoted from Commander to Captain, Bond is expected to infiltrate the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and identify potential sleeper agents.

An abandoned building goes up in flames. Six women are chained inside and left to die - the truth is left to burn with them. Only one piece of evidence remains, but will it be enough to find their killer? Retired detective Warren Carter has been suffocated by grief for his wife and is looking for a new start. But when he gets a call that cuts to the heart of the force, investigating a corrupt police officer, he has to accept. This time, though, he’s going to have to face his demons and work out who to trust when the truth is guarded by his own colleagues.

Doctor Thorne adopts his niece Mary, keeping secret her illegitimate birth as he introduces her to the best local social circles. There she meets and falls in love with Frank Gresham - the heir to a vastly mortgaged estate and obliged to find a wealthy wife. Only Doctor Thorne knows that Mary is to inherit a large legacy that will make her acceptable to the otherwise disapproving middle-class society to which Frank belongs.

When Lawrence Anthony learned that the northern white rhino, living in the war-ravaged Congo, was on the very brink of extinction, he knew he had to act. If the world lost the sub-species, it would be the largest land mammal since the woolly mammoth to go extinct. In The Last Rhinos, Anthony recounts his attempts to save these remarkable animals. The demand for rhino horns in the Far East has turned poaching into a dangerous black market that threatens the lives of not just these rare beasts, but also the rangers who protect them.

Threatened by an Elloryan invasion reinforced by the Ancients, the sanctuary Ember and Max sought in DormaSai after Kael’s burial is at its end. A civil war rages in Cethos, and the threat of Wildland tribal attacks in the Blood Kingoms is imminent. They can offer no help to their Southern neighbors, leaving DormaSai as all that stands in the Ancients’ way. When the peace conclave crumbles and the Ancients are forced from DormaSai by unexpected allies, Ember and Max turn their attention to preparing for the Ancients’ inevitable return.

After escaping the horrors of Arkum Zul, Kael and his companions survive a terror-filled night on the ocean only to find themselves shipwrecked and stranded in the Wildlands. With forest tribals on the warpath and old enemies roaming the forest, Kael struggles to come to terms with what he is slowly becoming - a killer. A DeathWizard. In the fight against the evil that threatens to consume him, Kael learns that the Dwarven Mountains far to the north may hide an ancient monolith that holds the answer to the corruption that flows in his veins.