Showing results by narrator "Ray Porter" in All Categories

Sam Hunter is a bit of an animal. He's a former Twin Cities cop who lost his badge because of excessive force. Abusive husbands, child molesters, and other lowlifes wound up looking like they'd been mauled by a dog...or a wolf. In this short story taken from Beneath the Skin, Sam is hired to find out who - or what - is preying on a little boy.

Paul Wright's family sends him to find his cousin, a photographer whose subjects have become increasingly macabre. Paul investigates Len's last known address, a cabin in California's Napa Valley, only to discover the frightening and sinister truth behind his cousin's obsession with the past.

A short story from New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry!

In "The Things That Live in Cages", an MMA fighter at the end of his career is offered the chance to stay young, fit, and stronger than ever - but the price is his humanity.

In "The Death Song of Dwar Guntha", two old warriors prepare to ride into battle for the last time to save the future of Barsoom. Set in the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, this story first appeared in the anthology Under the Moons of Mars.

In this short story from New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry, a reporter accompanies a special ops team on a dangerous mission against space pirates.

In "Plan 7 from Sin City", a 1950s seedy Las Vegas PI is hired to follow a philandering husband who may be selling atomic secrets to the Reds. This noir science fiction parody is a prequel to the worst movie of all time, Plan 9 From Outer Space.

After thwarting the Federation's attempt to take over her ship, Captain Sarah Blythe vowed to make President Pleyal himself pay for her cargo losses. Their lone Fed prisoner told them enough of the President's plan: Confiscate all vessels to help equip the fleet he's gathering to end the Venus rebellion once and for all. But the citizens of the Free State of Venus have different ideas. Joining forces with the legendary Piet Ricimer and Stephen Gregg, Captain Blythe plans on making back more than her losses.

The Venus Asteroid Expedition is en route to the "Mirror," an impenetrable membrane to another universe that holds all the riches of the Federation, but the only point of entry is the point through which Landolph and his men traveled long ago - with most of the men never returning.

Joey Anderson attended his great-grandmother's funeral because he expected to receive a little inheritance money. What he didn't expect was to inherit her bed-and-breakfast, provided he lives there and follows her final instructions. With a little help from his friends, Joey grows up and discovers a world beyond me, my, and I.

Clifford Hickey is scheduled to perform at the festival in what might be his last guitar gig before heading off to law school to please his father. He arrives at the peaceful woodland campsite of his brother Alvaro, but within moments six armed men in badges crash the camp, and Alvaro runs. Clifford is arrested and roughly handcuffed. One of the sheriffs’ nephews has been murdered, and Alvaro is the posse’s quarry. When Clifford’s father and mother arrive on the scene, it’s the beginning of a confrontation between the Hickey family and the locals, including the Cossacks, who seemingly have their own agenda for Alvaro.

When a county employee is found shot to death in sun-drenched daylight while sitting in his county road grader, Undersheriff Bill Gastner is faced with puzzling questions. The simplest explanation - that an errant bullet from a careless target shooter’s rifle blew out Larry Zipoli’s brains - is soon discarded as inconsistencies surface. The fatal bullet shows no rifling marks, and investigation shows that the shooter walked directly toward the road grader, in full view of the victim - who did nothing to defend himself.

A fan from the moment the Doors’ first album took over KMPX, the revolutionary FM rock ’n’ roll station in San Francisco, Greil Marcus saw the band many times at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom in 1967. Five years later it was all over. Forty years after singer Jim Morrison was found dead in Paris and the group disbanded, one could drive from here to there, changing from one FM pop station to another, and be all but guaranteed to hear two, three, four of the Doors’ songs in an hour - every hour.

Narrated from the perspective of an American-born contract killer based in London, Calling Mr. King takes us into the mind and life of a man who is growing both increasingly cautious and distracted as he travels from job to job, city to city. Though long considered a first-rate, consistently reliable marksman with a cool, unshakable personality, he appears to be undergoing a severe change of character and focus, taking an interest as never before in the world beyond his targets.

Here is a guidebook to the facts and circumstances surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The listener will examine the people, places, and timeline of that first Easter. But more than that, we delve into the prophecies of those events, given hundreds of years prior, as well what happened after Christ rose from the dead.

God often chooses unsuspecting heroes and writes unlikely endings to his stories. Many of the characters in the Bible are even unnamed, yet their adventures reveal the kind of lasting impact that God intends each of us. Why do the vast majority of us live out unremarkable days in spite of our God-given hunger for significance? Unsung is one thing, but why settle for uninteresting? Or even worse, uninvolved? If you have the eyes of faith to see and the courage to act, you can join God's roster of unforgettable heroes.

Haunted by an ancestor’s tale of near death on a distant battlefield, James Carl Nelson set out in pursuit of the scraps of memory of his grandfather’s small infantry unit. Years of travel across the world led to the retrieval of unpublished personal papers, obscure memoirs, and communications from numerous Doughboys as well as original interviews of the descendents of his grandfather’s comrades in arms.

Hayley Jo Zimmerman is gone. Taken. And the people of the small town of Twisted Tree must come to terms with this terrible loss and their place in it. In this brilliantly written novel, one girl's story unfolds through the stories of those who knew her.

Leo Painter is the CEO of Earth Global, a large energy, mining, and real-estate development firm. He and his party of company executives are traveling in Botswana to consult with the government about accessing their extractable resources. Sekoa is a male lion who shares with his bipedal enemies the misfortune of being the bearer of HIV/AIDS. Painter, pursued by his own "hyenas", only wishes to find a last resting place where he can further his dream. Their paths cross with tragic consequences.

Jim Harrison takes us on a journey of the human heart in three new novellas. Julip follows a bright and resourceful young woman as she tries to spring her brother from a Florida jail after he shot three of her former lovers. The Seven-Ounce Man continues the picaresque adventures of Brown Dog, a Michigan scoundrel who loves to eat, drink, and chase women. The Beige Dolorosa is the haunting tale of an academic who, recovering from the repercussions of a sexual-harassment scandal, turns to the natural world for solace.

In the weeks before the 1979 Mexican elections, San Diego PI Alvaro Hickey is checking the stories that Baja California campesinos are spreading about visits from the Holy Virgin - an apparition with definite political preferences. Though Alvaro doubts that this visitor is divine, he's firmly on her side. Then, Lourdes Shuler asks him to unite her with her sister, Lupe, whom she claims is the campesinos' Virgin.