Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Thriller & Suspense

The 1940s, Washington, DC. Government girl Louise Pearlie has a new job inside the OSS - the Office of Strategic Services: recruiting German prisoners of war for a secret mission inside Nazi Germany. It’s a big chance for her, and Louise hopes she can finally escape her filing and typing duties. With the job comes two new colleagues: Alice Osborne, a propaganda expert, and Merle Ellison, a forger from Texas who just happens to speak fluent German. But when the three arrive at Fort Meade to interview the first German POWs to arrive there, their mission is beset by complications.

It’s 1942 in Washington, DC. Louise Pearlie is now a chief file clerk at the legendary OSS, the precursor to the CIA, and enjoys being an independent working woman despite wartime privations. But a casual friendship struck up with Alessa di Luca, a secretive war refugee, sucks Louise into a dangerous game of mafia bosses, Nazi spies, banished royalty, and Sicilian aristocracy - placing not only her job but her life in jeopardy.

February, 1944. Washington, DC. With the war entering its most dangerous phase, Louise Pearlie is thrilled to be reassigned to the London office of the OSS. But in order to take up her new post, she must make a perilous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the SS Amelia Earhart. Accompanying her on the voyage to Liverpool is an eclectic group of passengers, including the aloof Blanche Bryant, whose husband, Eddie, died in mysterious circumstances on the ship’s voyage out to New York, three months before.

The 1940s, Washington, DC. Government girl Louise Pearlie is asked to review the file usage of a missing analyst from the Office of Strategic Services - the United States’ wartime intelligence agency - only to learn he’d drowned in the Tidal Basin days before. The OSS confirms it was an accident, and Louise is sent back to her regular job in the file rooms. Her time spent investigating Paul Hughes at least has one positive outcome, though: Louise meets a young woman in the OSS Reading Room, who asks her to join her “salon".

Young widow Louise Pearlie seizes a chance to escape the typewriters and files of the Office of Strategic Services, the United States’ World War II spy agency, when she’s asked to investigate a puzzling postcard referred to the OSS by the US Censor. She heads off to St. Leonard, Maryland, to talk to the postcard’s recipient, one Leroy Martin. But what seemed like a straightforward mission to Louise soon becomes complicated.

On a bitterly cold night in December, 1943, government girl Louise Pearlie and her friend Joe Prager are enjoying a quiet drink in the Baron Steuben Inn, when a bloodstained body is discovered behind the bar. Although the victim had been a regular customer, no one seems to know anything about him. When it turns out there is a link to Louise’s top-secret work at the OSS, she is ordered to find out as much as possible about the murder while keeping the connection secret from those involved, including the investigating police detective.

Whatever you do, don't go on to the beaches at dusk, or the Sand-Walker will come to your window at night. Such is the sinister warning given to the new lodger at the Beach Farm, a lonely house on the North Sea coast of England. But who, or what, is the Sand-Walker?

Zane Shaw needs a fresh start. After his fiancé called off their wedding, he left his failed relationship to run the family restaurant back home. And just when he thinks he’s sworn off emotions for good, a former fling residing in Cliffside Bay reignites his broken heart. Honor Sullivan thought she had escaped her abusive background. But the terror returns when she learns the man who hurt her is out of prison. And when a dead bunny appears on her porch, she turns to her old crush Zane for the protection she so desperately desires.

During the wealth and glitter of the Gilded Age, a six-year-old heiress goes missing from her opulent hilltop estate. Detective Robert Trevitt sets out to find her. Using inside knowledge of her family's secrets, he searches for little Gwendolen where no one else can, and uncovers truths hidden to all eyes but his. The mystery unwinds in a tale of ghostly regrets, desperate deeds of love, and hopes of forgiveness.

Dorothy Scarborough was an academic and author who had a particular interest in the supernatural. The following collection, first published in 1921, features stories that have a strong comical or satirical focus.

The classic horror story of dual personalities gone too far, this full-cast narration explores the attempts of Utterson, a London lawyer, to investigate the strange occurrences surrounding his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the shocking discoveries he makes along the way. The impact of this story has been so strong that "Jekyll and Hyde" has become part of our vernacular, referring to those who are outwardly good but inwardly evil.

The mayor is running for governor. His wife is suddenly distant, distracted, and unhappy. And his new home is haunted. Has his wife seen a ghost? The elderly ladies next door watch day and night from their attic, peering into his windows. Watching for what? The mayor's wife has a secret that she has never confided to anyone. Rumors begin to appear in the newspapers hinting at the scandal. Will the scandal harm his campaign? What is her secret?

The main characters are Dr. Mark Ransford, his two wards, Mary and Dick Bewery, and one Dr. Pemberton Bryce - an assistant to Dr. Ransford. Bryce makes unwelcome advances to Mary Bewery and Ransford, after having warned him against these advances, dismisses Bryce. Bryce sets out to make Mary his own while suspecting Ransford and implicate him in the murders. A surprising twist toward the end of the story.

There is something fishy near the scientific foundation near Spindrift Island, NJ. A fishing trawler has wrecked upon well-known a reef by an experience fishing boat captain who says he was drunk when it happened. The experienced captain is a teetotaler, however, and refuses to talk about how or why his trawler suddenly crashed onto the reef. Rick and Scotty are also baffled and as they investigate they find many things don't add up.

Rachael is a formidable crime boss in the underworld of an unnamed city. Beautiful but deadly, her one rule for her right-hand man is: Don't get too close. Then she hires Mikey, a tough ex-soldier who is eager to please, especially given that one of his duties is to "service" his highly sexed boss. Every day, Mikey edges ever closer to breaking that rule as he unashamedly wears his heart on his sleeve.

Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now a part of the city of Pittsburgh, floods frequently and Mrs. Pittman has her boat tied to the stair banister, just inside the front door. It's 1904 and Jennie Brice, a stage actress, is missing from Mrs. Pittman's respectable boarding house. A blood-stained rope, bloody towel, floating slipper, a soaking wet fur coat, and a missing onyx clock are all clues. Most helpful is the installation of a periscope from Mr. Holcombe's floor through to ceiling of the room below. Where is Jennie Brice?

Coming of age during the Great War and seeing her brother shipped off to fight, Jane begins to feel trapped in her merry-go-round of social calls and hotel luncheons. As her desire to do something important for the war effort increases, she is astonished to be recruited by a government agent to keep tabs on her neighbors. And, as it turns out, Jane has a natural talent for being a spy.

Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, most well-known for her mystery novels. She was often called the American Agatha Christie, though her first novel, The Circular Staircase, was published years before Christie's. The Circular Staircase is as complex a mystery as anyone could wish for, full of twists and turns, mysterious intruders, a murder and kidnapping, bank failure, all revolving around the sinister staircase itself.

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Six international artists are invited to a residency in southern Spain. One falls in lust. Two fall in love. One talks only about New York. One makes installations out of feathers and stones. And one is left for dead on the side of a mountain.

If you had discovered a way to become invisible, would it bring you tremendous power? Or tremendous problems?