Showing results by narrator "Chris Monteiro" in All Categories

On a frigid winter night in early 1963, Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and were immediately embroiled in a deadly shootout with several unseen assailants. Unbeknownst to Rocco at the time, the men who returned his fire were several Boston police officers, waiting in ambush for him. It was, as Rocco later described it, a hastily planned rescue mission that went downhill in a hurry. In the aftermath, his beloved girlfriend and her toddler son lay dead.

In the year 2055, a quarter-century after the last firearm-related homicide inside the once-peaceful SafeCities, the unthinkable occurs: the murder of the president of this sprawling metropolis. Mark, a seemingly unassuming yet highly effective investigator and a potential suspect, is tasked with gathering the immediate evidence. But the investigation takes an unexpected turn, spiralling beyond the confines of his jurisdiction. What he discovers is a sinister plan to reshape the world, with himself unwittingly cast in the role of a pawn.

James Robard was a risk-taking con artist and thief before he turned over a new leaf as a loving husband and a dull suit in a law firm. He's never felt so unadventurous. That is, until the System descends upon Earth and he's initiated into a thrilling game world of magic and mayhem, training for exhilarating challenges that make him feel alive again.

James Robard returns to a System-integrated Earth a changed man in a world of ruin and disorder. A conquering hero of the Orientation, rewarded with the ruling title of Fisher King, he has a duty to rebuild civilization. It might look like Florida, but it's the Fisher Kingdom now. The good news is that James is reunited with his wife, Mina, newly gifted in magic; their newborn son; and Mina's sister. The impetus to stay strong amid the chaos has galvanized them, their friends, and neighbors toward the goal of reconquering Earth for humanity. It's pledge allegiance and stick together—or die.

We know that the key to getting ahead and launching our ideas is building and sustaining a high-quality and diverse network. But the days of handing out hundreds of business cards at conferences and hoping for the best are over. Our networks need to be both strategic and authentic, made up of real relationships that bring real value. The HBR Guide to Smarter Networking will give you the tools and the confidence you need to make valuable connections, get your ideas off the ground, draw on others' expertise, scope out business opportunities, and land coveted roles.

The world has become a dangerous place for Shane McDonald and his family since the solar storm wiped out the power grid. Tensions flare when it grows clear the dire situation will be prolonged and most are ill-prepared. Even the friendly small town of his prepper mother-in-law has drawn unwanted attention as word gets around about sharing their supply stores. And strangers begin to infiltrate the once peaceful Georgia community.

In an instant, the world changed. A catastrophic solar storm wipes out power, plunging the country into chaos. No phones. No help. No second chances. Now, survival is the only law. Lance races across a ruined America to reach his injured father. Sophie seizes her one shot at escape after years of captivity. They find each other. But survival comes at a cost. From isolated farms to lawless towns, corporate conspiracies and violent gangs tighten their grip. Trust is rare. Alliances crumble. Threats skyrocket—from the smallest act of betrayal to the deadliest showdown.

A System apocalypse has ripped humanity away from its home planet, Earth-73, firing the starting pistol on a marathon race for survival against beastly odds. And in the violent magical worlds of the System's "Orientation," it's getting harder to tell the monsters from the savage humans.

During World War II, Michigan became a temporary home to six thousand German and Italian POWs. At a time of homefront labor shortages, they picked fruit in Berrien County, harvested sugar beets in the Thumb, cut pulpwood in the Upper Peninsula, and maintained parks and other public spaces in...

Conflicts over specific rules lie at the heart of the disputes, which are about much more than sovereignty over islands and rocks in the South and East China Seas. Instead, the main contests concern the strategic maritime space associated with those islands. To consolidate control over this vital maritime space, China's leaders have begun to implement "China's law of the sea": building domestic legal institutions, bureaucratic organizations, and a naval and maritime law enforcement apparatus to establish China's preferred maritime rules on the water and in the diplomatic arena.

The United States has been the world's dominant power for more than a century. Now, many analysts believe that other countries are rising and the United States is in decline. Is the unipolar moment over? Is America finished as a superpower? In this book, Michael Beckley argues that the United States has unique advantages over other nations that, if used wisely, will allow it to remain the world's sole superpower throughout this century. We are not living in a transitional, post-Cold War era.

On the night of August 6, 1930, Joseph Force Crater, a newly appointed judge and prominent figure in many circles of Manhattan, hailed a taxi in the heart of Broadway and vanished into thin air. Despite a decades-long international manhunt led by the New York Police Department's esteemed Missing Persons Bureau, the reason for Crater's disappearance remains a confounding mystery.

Con Thien was a United States Marine Corps firebase that was the scene of fierce combat for months on end during 1967. Staving off attacks and ambushes while suffering from ineffectual leadership from Washington as well as media onslaughts, courageous American Marines protected this crucial piece of land at all costs. They would hold Con Thien, but many paid the ultimate price. By the end of the war, more than 1,400 Marines had died and more than 9,000 sustained injuries.

Kip Garrity’s father is the only family or friend he has left. After a viral catastrophe known as “the Outbreak” destroyed human civilization, Kip and his family locked themselves inside their fortified home to protect against a horde of mindless, infected killers that rose from the ashes of the old world.

While on a trip into the backcountry, Henry Shaw, a veteran bush pilot is forced to depend on his estranged daughter to survive an unforgiving wilderness. Stranded miles from civilization, injured, and with winter bearing down, hope is bleak. After a terrifying turn of events reveal the plane crash may not have been an accident, tempers flare, secrets unravel, and a trauma from the past resurfaces. Facing overwhelming odds and nonstop danger, it’s now up to Kara to decide whether to remain or embark on a perilous trek across a harsh landscape to make it out alive.

Gabacho is the true tale of youthful angst, crime, misunderstandings, love, friendship, and redemption. Over Christmas break of his senior year, a University of Utah theater student, disenchanted with his conservative Mormon upbringing, took off for Mexico with a college friend seeking a wild adventure. If the adventure hadn’t included smuggling drugs it might have been another college road trip. To survive, Jewkes starts a theater group with a rag-tag bunch of Mexican convicts.

Jodi McDonald and her family have escaped from the Helios cult. But their freedom has come at a heavy price. Now, grief-stricken and fractured, they are once again on the road. As they search for a new sanctuary, Jodi is driven by one need above all others: to protect her family at all costs. Every person has their breaking point, and Owen McDonald has reached his. To cope with unbearable loss, he fixates on finding a new home—a fresh start. But his obsession with reaching the coast could have deadly consequences.

The four-year-old Brandon Sims had not been seen since July 3, 1992, when he attended a birthday party with his 20-year-old mother, Michelle Jones. For years, Jones lied to her friends about Brandon, telling some that he was living with his father and others that he was staying with his grandmother in another state. When Brandon’s father, who had been in jail, came looking for Brandon, Michelle’s shocked friends confronted her. She confessed that Brandon was dead. She repeated her story of how Brandon died to a detective. The detective didn’t believe her story.

Disaster has struck the McDonald family. Everything they’ve built since the fall of civilization has been destroyed by a devastating fire. They’ve lost their community, supplies, and even loved ones. The death of Mike and James hits hardest of all. The other survivors are scattered. There’s nothing left. All that remains is the indomitable will to survive. Jodi is lucky enough to have several family members survive the fire, as they take to the road to find their new home.

Lance was just trying to get through his terrible day when his world came crashing down. As the blazing sun dipped below the horizon, Lance's heart pounded in his chest, each beat pushing him closer to the edge of desperation. Racing against time and a cosmic cataclysm, he must navigate a ravaged world after a monstrous CME strikes the Earth, plunging it into darkness. But this harrowing journey is not solely to survive the aftermath; it's a race to reach his injured father in distant Kansas, where a lonely farmhouse stands as their last beacon of hope.