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

Based on the source material for the Alec Guinness classic Kind Hearts and Coronets, Murder in the Title follows the exploits of Anton Gascoyne, a poor and distant heir to one of Britain’s great noble families, who decides to murder his way to the Gascoyne earldom. But the closer he gets to the coronet, the greater the suspicion he falls under. Will Anton get away with it? Murder in the Title will keep you guessing until the end!

In the first installment of the Bowman Case Files, bored and entitled university student Julia Strauss meets a captivating man during a random encounter at a cafe. She is instantly attracted to the handsome stranger and pursues him obsessively. What she doesn’t know is that behind all the charm, he has a secret agenda of his own. Can Julia see beyond the haze of her infatuation before it’s too late?

River Rules is a small-town environmental suspense novel with a deep heart and powerful conscience. What the housing bubble didn’t break in Bridgeville - a small New England community blessed by the Connecticut River - greed, double-dealing, and rapid-fire change just might. Peter Russo, a part-time farmer and full-time rambler with his rescue dog, has a knack for conflict, and a burning desire to protect Bridgeville’s land and water from exploitation.

DEA agent Aliyana Montijo must stop a drug lord’s killing orders and find a government mole. With a contract on her head, she trusts no one. While heading back to Florida with evidence, lightning strikes her plane. As it careens into the ocean, she thinks she sees a pirate ship. What she finds is a dashing and most unlikely ally. Four centuries ago, Wolfaert Dircksen Van Ness captained a vessel for the Dutch West Indies Company. Then an unearthly storm in the Bermuda Triangle blew him into a parallel dimension.

In true Lovecraftian fashion a man's wife thought to be dead is entombed in the family crypt. The husband has an uneasy feeling, so he enters the tomb and finds the lid torn off the coffin. His wife is alive but in a state of delirium and shock. He sees a naked creature scurrying off through the inner vaults on all four semi-human limbs.

As the first light of dawn creeps in, the steady beep of a monitor becomes my anchor. When that beeping fades away, I'm thrust into a world where the North Star has lost its brilliance. It's scattered into a thousand glittering fragments, and nobody knows how to mend it. But how am I supposed to find my way back without the light of my guiding star? And how can I help North rediscover his own light?

William Hope Hodgson wrote "The Terror of the Water-Tank" in 1907 and the story has been published in several pulp magazines since then. Mike Vendetti has taken this story and turned it into an engrossing audiobook. The story takes place in England where crowning the heights on the outskirts of a certain town on the east coast is a large, iron water-tank from which an isolated row of small villas obtains its supply. The top of this tank has been cemented, and around it have been placed railings, thus making it a splendid "look-out" for townspeople who may choose to promenade upon it.

An oil painting "The Golden Patio" hangs in a stairway of Peter Romsey's grandmother's home. Peter is named after his grandfather a nefarious philandering sea captain who died rather mysteriously in Spain. The painting is the only portion of his grandfather's effects his grandmother puts on display, and it has been relegated to a dark corner in a stairway. Peter as a child was fascinated with the painting and fantasized about the scene. As an adult, he is still fascinated with the painting that has hung in his office since his grandmother's death.

When an ex-flunky devises an insane scheme to get back on the good side of crime lord Miguel Ortega, he finds James Sheppard who could make the plan succeed. Unfortunately, Sheppard is really Abraham Snow, to say nothing of allegedly being dead. If Snow walks away from the plan, his family could die. If he goes along with the scheme, he could die, this time for real. Ambition can be a real killer.

Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell's desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase—a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns. She is found savagely murdered, and she will not be the last to die.

Travel into the world of a pickpocket who has turned a new leaf. He has put his skills and fast hands to productive work and now is happily married. Everything is wonderful until he is the only witness to a murder. The murderer recognizes him immediately. Why not another Murder?

It’s 1942. Louise Pearlie, a young widow, has come to Washington, DC, to work as a clerk for the legendary OSS, the precursor to the CIA. When, while filing, she discovers a document concerning the husband of a college friend, Rachel Bloch—a young French Jewish woman she is desperately worried about—Louise realizes she may be able to help get Rachel out of Vichy France. But then a colleague whose help Louise has enlisted is murdered, and she realizes she is on her own, unable to trust anyone.

Abraham Snow heads to Hawaii with his grandfather, Archer, in town, for a visit with his old friend, and former undercover operative partner, Samson Brooks, and his brother, Walker Brooks, a former CIA officer. The Brooks brothers now work together as P.I./fugitive recovery consultants. Snow gets caught up in their latest case and finds himself in deadly danger in unfamiliar surroundings when an old enemy shows up with vengeance on his mind.

Conrad builds his story from the inside out, revealing a world of conspirators, police, fanatics, and bystanders whose inner lives are as explosive as any bomb they carry. Each figure—Mr. Verloc, torn between indolence and obligation; Winnie, holding a family together with quiet ferocity; the vulnerable Stevie; and the coldly obsessive Professor—is drawn with psychological depth that turns this political thriller into a devastating human drama.

What follows a wedding? A honeymoon, of course. The beginning of a happily-ever-after future in which Ivy and Mac will travel the country in their motorhome searching for the perfect place to settle down and live. No more dead bodies. No more murders. Instead, here they are on a detour to an old dinosaur park, and Ivy is up to her possum-gray hair in ghost goats, deteriorating dinosaurs, and… what else? A dead body, of course.

As a newlywed couple settles into a lavish mansion, they soon discover they are not alone. With a curse lingering over the estate for centuries, they must unravel its haunting history before it's too late.

Follow Charles Dennison, an inventor with a groundbreaking creation that could change the world. With so much at stake, Dennison must stay vigilant and protect his invention at all costs. But, are there larger forces at play here?

A possible crime of passion, but it might have been the hurricane. Will the trap catch the killer?

In the 1930's and 40's Southern justice could be quick or slow. "Terror in the Sun" narrated by Mike Vendetti and written by Talmage Powell originally appeared in Suspense, a pulp magazine in the Fall of 1951. A Southern farmer and his younger son find his older son murdered and left beside a creek being attacked by a vulture. The father's rage demands retribution, but how to satisfy that rage without going to jail is the problem. Listen to this short tale and discover his unique solution to his dilemma.

Clint Morgan's "Corpseless Coffin" is a gripping mystery tale that originally appeared in "Spicy Mystery Stories", a pulp magazine in July 1937. The story follows Jim Hargrove, who falls victim to a gypsy girl's spell of madness after a rather lengthy affair.