Showing results by narrator "Richard Ferrone" in All Categories

For Maddog, the killer who had Minneapolis in a grip of chilled terror, satisfaction came from the thrill of the contest. After each grisly murder he would leave behind one of the rules he had devised: Never kill anyone you know. Never have a motive. Never follow a discernible pattern. He was no textbook psychopath. But Lieutenant Lucas Davenport was no ordinary detective. To bring an end to Maddog's trail of death, he would have to play by his own rules.

A group of vigilantes known only as ‘The Five' are targeting the worst of society – rapists, murderers and thieves – and they use their unlimited resources to offset the damage done by those who they've killed, donating untraceable Bitcoin to charities and victims via the Dark Web. Soon, they are the most popular figures on social media . . . but their motives may not be entirely pure.

Jeffery Deaver loves writing short stories. "All bets are off," he says. "Short stories are like a sniper's bullet. Fast and shocking. I can make good bad and bad badder, and most fun of all, really bad seem good." And that is exactly what he does in these 17 superb tales. This is a collection of short stories that is instantly gripping and impossible to leave alone, taking your breath away time and time again. Nothing is as it seems...

When hotshot lawyer Elizabeth Brice turns up to collect her daughter, Grace, from football practice, the coach tells her she needn't have bothered, as Grace's uncle has already picked her up. The only problem is - Grace has no uncles. And so begins a furious race against time to save Grace from unknown kidnappers. Grace's Internet geek father, John, leads the search, forced to unite with his terrifying wife and even more terrifying father, Ben, a battle-hardened Vietnam veteran.

The first body is of a young woman, found on a Minneapolis riverbank, her throat cut, her body scourged and put on display. Whoever did this, Lucas Davenport knows, is pushed by brain chemistry. There is something wrong with him. This isn’t a bad love affair. The second body is found three weeks later, in a farmhouse six miles south. Same condition, same display—except this time it is a man. Nothing to link the two victims, nothing to indicate that the killings end here.

What really happened to TWA 800? On the 20th anniversary of the crash, author Jack Cashill reveals shocking new evidence. TWA Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 passengers onboard. Although initial reports suggested a terrorist attack, FBI and NTSB investigators blamed a fuel-tank explosion. But skeptics have long questioned the official story, and new evidence has surfaced that suggests a widespread conspiracy.

Walter Starbuck, a career humanist and eventual low-level aide in the Nixon White House, is implicated in Watergate and jailed, after which he (like Howard Campbell in Mother Night) works on his memoirs. Starbuck is innocent (his office was used as a base for the Watergate shenanigans of which he had no knowledge), and yet he is not innocent (he has collaborated with power unquestioningly and served societal order all his life). He represents another Vonnegut Everyman caught amongst forces he neither understands nor can defend.

"I know that many of you here have waited years for this Hour," Mater Motley said, using that voice that, though it was barely conversational in volume, was somehow heard everywhere. "The waiting is over. Tomorrow there will be no dawn. Only midnight, absolute and eternal." And so begins a new chapter in the epic story of 16-year-old Candy Quackenbush and her journeys through the world of the Abarat, where every hour is an island in one eternal day, and nothing is as it seems.

A house demolition provides an unpleasant surprise for the Minneapolis Police - the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic. It looks like they've been there a long time, and Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long. With the bodies discovered, an old case is resurrected - but there's something wrong with the evidence. As Davenport investigates, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: It wasn't just the bodies that were buried. It was the truth.

"You should have killed me," were Bekker’s parting words - perhaps he was right. All through the humiliations of the trial, the horrors of imprisonment, the daily agonies of not having the drugs that kept him humming, Bekker takes solace in the thought that one day he will make Lucas Davenport pay. Minutes before the jury’s verdict, Bekker slays his prison guard and escapes into New York City. Hiding himself in an elderly woman’s home, he continues to conduct his gruesome experiments, searching the eyes of his victims for the meaning of death.

As the battered earth reels under judgments from heaven, Global Community leader Nicolae Carpathia tightens the screws on anyone who refuses to proclaim total allegiance to him. He has a million of his enemies just where he wants them: massed at Petra and within striking distance of devastating firepower. Meanwhile, the Tribulation Force is compromised, forcing Rayford Steele, Buck Williams, and the others to run for their lives.

At first, Clayton Deese seems like your run-of-the-mill criminal – a gun for hire that keeps the boss from the cops. But after he skips bail following a job gone wrong, the US Marshals see that he could be the key to the whole operation’s undoing. As marshals begin the search of Deese’s place, they find something far darker than they ever expected. There are countless graves lining the back of the house, trophies from a score of killings. Deese may have seemed small-time but the evidence says otherwise - they are dealing with a frenzied and prolific serial killer.

Clara Rinker is the best hitwoman in the business. An attractive, well-spoken southern woman, she does her job, collects her money, and disappears. But when a prominent defense attorney hires her for a hit in Minnesota, her life gets complicated. A witness survives, and she's on Lucas Davenport's turf.

In Eyes of Prey, a depressed and unfocused Davenport takes on a macabre case, tracking down a serial killer whose attacks are focused on the eyes of his victims. With all of his current inner turmoil, Davenport isn't sure that he should accept the case when he hears about the murder of Stephanie Bekker, the wife of a prominent physician. But when a second woman dies, her face cruelly maimed like the first, he feels that clutching intensity of interest that means he is involved whether he wants to be or not.

When an important Mafia boss is assassinated, no one knows anything. Omerta, the Mafia code of silence, is at work. No information is to be found, not from corrupt banks, rival gangs, or even from the courts. However, the nephew of the dead man and the head of the FBI are determined to track down the murderers. So determined, they join forces to begin their own investigation. After all, in the Mafia world, everyone has a price.

Murder, scandal, political espionage and an extremely dangerous woman. Lucas Davenport's going to be lucky to get out of this one alive… Lucas Davenport is investigating a vicious smear on a US senator when the trail leads to a political fixer’s disappearance. Then, very troublingly, it leads to the Minneapolis police department, then, most troublingly of all, to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons.

The art world is a much dirtier, nastier business than you might expect. Tony Tetro, one of the most renowned art forgers in history, will make you question every masterpiece you’ve ever seen in a museum, gallery, or private collection. Tetro’s “Rembrandts,” “Caravaggios,” “Miros,” and hundreds of other works now hang on walls around the globe.

This book contains 26 of the greatest science fiction stories ever written. They represent the considered verdict of the Science Fiction Writers of America, those who have shaped the genre and who know, more intimately than anyone else, what the criteria for excellence in the field should be. The authors chosen for the Science Fiction Hall Fame are the men and women who have shaped the body and heart of modern science fiction; their brilliantly imaginative creations continue to inspire and astound new generations of writers and fans.

On March 29, 1975, sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyons, ages 10 and 12, vanished from a shopping mall in suburban Washington, DC. As shock spread, then grief, a massive police effort found nothing. The investigation was shelved, and the mystery endured. Then, in 2013, a cold case squad detective found something he and a generation of detectives had missed. It pointed them toward a man named Lloyd Welch, then serving time for child molestation in Delaware.

When Destiny was only a child, her family was murdered and she was transformed into a Carpathian: a powerful and shadowy creature of the night, but not quite a vampire. Destiny shares a telepathic connection with Nicolae, her mentor. But now Nicolae needs to find her, or he may lose his soul and succumb to darkness forever.