Showing results by narrator "Mike Ortego" in All Categories

Forged in the hot West Texas wind, the Allen brothers grew up. Johnny and Coy had the same parents, same environment, and had the same advantages and disadvantages. Yet they would grow up to be so different. Coy, the younger Allen brother, grew up to be a successful Baptist Pastor; Johnny, a death row inmate. With years of separation and a wall of bitterness and rage, can these two men come together? Can there be reconciliation? This is a story of murder, mystery, and redemption.

It's been six years since Grant Justice was brought back to life to help the Peaceful citizens of Earth defeat the Minith. Life should be good. The Minith are gone. Grant now has a loving wife and a remarkable son. He is a hero to the society that once shunned him. But Grant hasn't been taking life easy. He's been recruiting fighters away from Peace. He's been cobbling together an army from the dregs of society and training them to fight. Which is a good thing, because another alien Mothership is headed their way.

Travels is a thrilling anthology of the travel writings of Paul Bowles, author of the era-defining post-war novel The Sheltering Sky. The acclaimed essays in Travel—never before collected in a single volume—span more than sixty years and range from Bowles’s early days in Paris to his time spent in Ceylon, Thailand, Kenya, and his expatriate life in Morocco. Insightful, exciting, and evocative, Travels is a stunning collection of rarely seen shorter works—a showcase of the literary artistry of one of the truly great American writers of the twentieth century.

Years ago, when he was a homicide detective with the Seattle PD, J. P. Beaumont’s partner, Sue Danielson, was murdered. Volatile and angry, Danielson’s ex-husband came after her in her home and, with nowhere else to turn, Jared, Sue’s teenage son, frantically called Beau for help. As Beau rushed to the scene, he urged Jared to grab his younger brother and flee the house. In the end, Beaumont’s plea and Jared’s quick action saved the two boys from their father’s murderous rage.

Reanimated after six hundred years, Grant Justice has become the leader of Earth's new army. Unwilling to sit back and wait for the next attack, Grant decides to take the fight to the enemy. He and a mothership full of his best fighters are headed toward Waa, the aliens' new home world. Unknown to Grant, a fleet of alien motherships is headed toward Earth-intent on punishing the planet for destroying Minith. Who will win the battle for supremacy-the alien slavers with a thirst for war, or the humans struggling to survive and save their way of life?

Dragon Soul begins in a small village of the Palmir people. A quiet, productive, and peaceful clan with an almost forgotten violent history. The Plague from the North - an attack of powerful, evil creatures - virtually annihilated them generations ago. They defeated the Plague, with the help of mystics and dragons - but at great cost. A Prophet has a vision that takes shape in a physical form and warns the Palmir people of an ominous event. Was it a just a reminder of the hellish past, or a harbinger of things to come?

A striking collection of stories, poems, letters, travel essays, journal entries, excerpts from three novels, and more—including the complete text of The Sheltering Sky—from one of the most revered authors of the twentieth century.

An unforgettable and moving story of tragedy, heroism, resilience, and redemption that is sure to become an enduring document of American history, All the Brave Men is a sailor's moment-by-moment eyewitness account of the Japanese surprise attack that decimated the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and his inspiring return to active duty to carry on the Allied fight in the Pacific.

Set in the waning years of the Cold War, a stunning debut novel about a trio of young Armenians that moves from the Soviet Union, across Europe, to Southern California, and at its center, one of the most tragic cataclysms in twentieth-century history - the Armenian Genocide - whose traumatic reverberations will have unexpected consequences on all three lives.

Dragon Rebirth picks up where Dragon Soul left off. The plot line intensifies, new characters are introduced and the arena for the battle with the creatures attacking the Palmir People broadens as the story progresses. Mixed in all this, there are poignant moments of loss, love, spiritual growth and maturity as the characters face their fears and find within themselves the means to survive and prepare to prevail against the incursions.

The killer liked to watch them drown. First they gasped for breath. Then they thrashed around. Why did they even bother to struggle? They all ended up the same; floating dead in the water. Dr. Dean Grant, head of Criminal Forensic Medicine, was Chicago's expert on serial killings. Corpses were his business. But Grant's skills, cunning, and experience may not be enough to stop a psychopath from turning the city into his own private drowning pool.

Does the idea of progress still apply to our times? If so, what does progress really mean? Today, many believe that progress is a word to be avoided, a relic from a past, the dangerous product of an era of intellectual naivety that would be best forgotten. Yet, the idea of progress is rooted in a human impulse that is both profound and essential, a way of interpreting history without which our ability to plan the future, our very identity would be at stake.

Marked by a sure grasp of unusual subject matter and unfurling in gorgeous prose, the stories in You Should Pity Us Instead explore some of our toughest dilemmas: the cost of Middle East strife at its most intimate level, the likelihood of God considered in day-to-day terms, the moral stakes of family obligations, and the inescapable fact of mortality. Also, fundamentally, love in its many guises - family, romantic, friendship - each ensnared by rigorous demands and responsibilities.

The Committee pits friends against friends and threatens careers and lives in a struggle for the soul of a town, a university, and an ideal. Based on actual historical events and set against the backdrop of political, cultural, and class turmoil, this is a story of love - both licit and hidden - war, friendship, betrayal, compromise, and finally the necessity to stand firm against the encroachments upon freedom by men who believe they are doing God’s and the government’s righteous work.

Panic strikes at the highest levels of the French government when the former president is found hanging from the rafters in his home right after a terrorist attack at the airport. Is it suicide or assassination? Freelance operative John Spencer Larivière, his karate-trained partner, Victoire, and their computer-genius sidekick, Luc, must find out what he was hiding. Quickly the investigation turns into a globe-spanning confrontation in a world of high-frequency trading where manipulation and corruption reign.

A Punctual Paymaster travels 70 years through the secrets of the white Thanos family and the black Taylor family, twisted like strands of yarn woven together on a loom. Wealthy, powerful Nikkos Thanos owns a wool mill and almost everything else on the north side of Delphi, Missouri, and is the overseer of a fractured society. The brave, judicious Thaddeus "Cousin" Taylor owns a grocery store and a tavern on the south side and carries a past hauntingly shrouded in tragedy.

A fast-paced combination of environmental catastrophe, geopolitical stakes, freelance spies and Bond-like action. The Arctic ice caps are breaking up. Europe and the East Coast of the United States brace for a tidal wave. Meanwhile, former French intelligence officer John Spencer Larivire, his karate-trained, steamy Eurasian partner, Victoire, and their computer-genius sidekick, Luc, pick up an ordinary freelance assignment that quickly leads them into the glacial silence of the great north, where a merciless war is being waged.

The United States is more vulnerable than ever to an EMP attack that could shut down the country overnight, resulting in tens of millions of deaths and a 19th-century lifestyle for Americans for the foreseeable future, says a new book, A Nation Forsaken, written by a long-time national security expert. Even worse, the threat doesn't just come from terrorists, but from unpreventable solar activity - and a new peak period is on the way,

To a killer, murder is a game. To the victims, death is all too real. But when a popular computer game inspires a virtual crime wave, a female police psychiatrist must enlist a former police detective to help her cross the edge between games and reality, genius and insanity, life and death… Cutting Edge …is the shattering new thriller introducing officer Lucas Stonecoat and psychiatrist Meredyth Sanger.

When his young wife is brutally murdered in a senseless raid, Derick Davidson, son of a Scottish chieftain, seeks revenge. Suspected bythe English authorities, he flees Scotland,arriving in Boston at the onset ofthe American Revolution. He meets the colorful frontiersman, Daniel Morgan whotalks of war and freedom.