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

A stormy night. A seemingly deserted farmhouse in the north of England. A young farmer returns to find a well-dressed woman seated at his desk, dead from a gunshot wound. John Leslie is completely mystified. Who is she? The police identify her as Mrs. Draycott, a visitor to the area. And since John cannot provide a plausible alibi, he is charged with her murder.

As the city of Minneapolis prepares for a visit from President William McKinley, someone else prepares for murder. On the day before the visit, a union activist is found hanged, naked, outside a ruined mansion. A placard around his neck reads "THE SECRET ALLIANCE HAS SPOKEN." Who is the alliance? What does it want? How was the victim involved with the city's corrupt mayor? And why did he possess a photograph of a prominent citizen in a compromising position?

Virginia Woolf’s most famous "stream of consciousness" novel, Mrs. Dalloway, records the events of one June day in 1923 - the day on which Clarissa Dalloway is hosting a party in her London home. Mrs. Dalloway continues to fascinate and challenge, hinting at homosexuality, mental illness, racial prejudice, infidelity, and unrequited love. It presents a perfect picture of London between the wars, in an England where the class system is still firmly entrenched while carrying throughout an undercurrent of rage at the resulting inequalities.

Winifred Page and her sidekick corgi, Watson, join an assortment of family and friends to celebrate her uncles’ anniversary at Baldpate Inn, nestled above Estes Park, Colorado. A blizzard is approaching, but the prospect of being snowed in means more time in the lovely mountain retreat - complete with river rock fireplaces, log cabin rooms, and a collection of thousands of keys from around the world.

Mystery, murder, deception, obsession, and vendetta abound in Chesterton's third collection of eight adventures for the unassuming but insightful Father Brown; including a happily temporary demise for the little priest himself; a millionaire killed with an arrow from heaven; another disappeared from a sealed room; a maniac determined to possess a precious relic; and a decaying family and a mysterious portrait.

A fifth collection of eight golden-age detective mysteries for H. C. Bailey's eclectic scientific detective Mr. Reginald Fortune. Including a stock market bubble and a sudden death; a wealthy businessman threatened by a mystery man; a mountaineering accident in the shadow of the Jungfrau; a curious archaeological discovery; a series of crimes in a quiet cathedral close; and two very different violent deaths, with an unexpected link.

St. Paul, Minnesota. October 1, 1917. High above the city, a renowned local financier named Artemis Dodge lies facedown on the floor of his armored penthouse sanctuary, a single bullet hole in his head. Thirty stories up, in the city’s tallest building, and not a shred of evidence or sign pointing to anyone having broken into the wealthy man’s fortress. It is - to all appearances - an impossible crime.

A complete collection of R Austin Freeman's short stories of his great scientific investigator, Dr John Thorndyke. Including every story from John Thorndyke's Cases (1909), The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke (1912), Dr Thorndyke's Case-book (1923), The Puzzle Lock and Other Stories (1925), and The Magic Casket (1927); along with the two stand-alone stories Percival Bland's Proxy (1913), and The Missing Mortgagee (1914) (collected with others in The Great Portrait Mystery and Other Stories (1918)).

Elizabeth is utterly alone in her Montana cabin, shocked by the sudden, brutal death of her brother, the last of her family. His killer has threatened to return and claim her, and she has only one thought: to flee across country to the East and search for relatives she has never known. With the villain and his gang in pursuit, she rides across perilous terrain, encountering those who help her and those who, in their own way, are just as dangerous as the men she is fleeing.

Two children savagely stoned to death in the California desert. Top employees of a U.S. defense contractor dying at an alarming rate. A cryptic message sent by a strange, secretive source warns the contractor’s products have been corrupted and could be used against the U.S. Armed Forces. They all seem to be connected. But how? Only two men on earth are capable of putting it all together; those men are Jack Wilder and Jeff Bradshaw, two of the greatest special operations forces soldiers who have ever lived.

The life of a magician isn't all kiddie shows and card tricks. Sometimes it's murder. Especially when magician Eli Marks very publicly debunks a famed psychic, and said psychic ends up dead. The evidence, including a bloody King of Diamonds playing card (one from Eli's own Ambitious Card routine), directs the police right to Eli. As more psychics are slain, and more King cards rise to the top, Eli can't escape suspicion. Things get really complicated when romance blooms with a beautiful psychic, and Eli discovers she's the next target for murder, and he's scheduled to die with her.

Winifred Page might feel apprehension as she steps into the Koffee Kiln—Carla Beaker’s new charming coffee shop and pottery studio—but her corgi sidekick, Watson, welcomes the idea of a new place for snacks. With Carla’s disdain for the Cozy Corgi Bookshop and Bakery, Fred fears the caffeine will come with a side of drama. What she finds is delicious chocolate espresso scones, decaf coffee … and a dead body.

Immediately after the death of the aunt who raised her, Joyce Radway's cousins treat her like a servant. They even attempt to block her from taking exams to qualify as a teacher and earn her own living. Angered by their constant demands, she impulsively grabs her hat and purse and runs to her aunt's grave to weep and rest. But she's not alone; thieves are using the cemetery to hide stolen goods, and she's heartsick to discover their leader is a man she once knew and admired.

An intense and gripping short story audiobook that delves into the unsettling psyche of a twisted individual, "A Fire at Night" by Lawrence Block narrated by Mike Vendetti is a chilling exploration of the mind of a deranged arsonist.

Winifred Page’s twin brothers-in-law are finally ready to open their invention shop right next to the Cozy Corgi Bookshop and Bakery. But the noise level is keeping customers away from the bookshop and driving Fred and her corgi sidekick, Watson, out of their minds. Adding to her stress, family and friends are gearing up to celebrate Fred’s fortieth birthday—not that she’s overly concerned about her age … Mere hours after entering her new decade of life, resentments reach an explosive level as downtown Estes Park is rocked by a fearsome calamity.

The year is 1896, and the magnificent winter carnival is under way in St. Paul, Minnesota, when Holmes and Watson are summoned by the city's most powerful man, railroad magnate James J. Hill. A wealthy young man has disappeared on the eve of his wedding - and his fiancée suspiciously discards her wedding dress. After a grisly discovery in the carnival's ice palace leads to a flurry of clues, Holmes is on the case.

In The Red Thumb Mark, the doctor works to clear young Reuben Hornby of stealing a parcel of diamonds from his uncle's safe, despite the apparently damning evidence. Then, in The Eye of Osiris, an amateur Egyptologist abruptly goes missing, leaving behind a strangely vexatious will. In The Mystery of 31 New Inn, Thorndyke's long-time collaborator Dr. Jervis consults his mentor regarding a mystery who may be being slowly poisoned. And in A Silent Witness, someone is making very determined attempts to murder inoffensive newly-qualified Doctor Humphrey Jardine.

Rachel Rainsford should be excited. She was on a train traveling across the US to a well-paid position as an old lady's companion. But after several hours spent with the man who hired her and is accompanying her on her journey, she's having doubts. His manner seems strange, and she may have acted too hastily in accepting a job so far from home. Meanwhile, in the parlor car, Chan Prescott overhears two men concocting a plan to abduct a young woman. When her name is mentioned, Chan recognizes it as the daughter of a former beloved teacher.

The first three mysteries for Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic sleuth: first, a body is discovered in a Battersea bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez, on the same night that financier Sir Reuben Levy disappears from his Park Lane home. Then, Wimsey returns to England when his brother, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murdering the fiance of their sister, Lady Mary, and a trial in the House of Lords looms; and finally, an overheard conversation in a restaurant begins an investigation of the strangely premature death of wealthy and terminally ill old lady Miss Agatha Dawson.

Backed by Russian airpower, Syria has begun an operation to push Turkish troops out of Northern Syria. Despite US efforts not to get dragged into the conflict, the US 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines "Lava Dogs", find their hilltop combat outpost encircled and their Kurdish allies under siege. Further west, a Syrian armored advance across the border into Turkey pivots, threatening US troops at the Turkish and NATO airbase of Incirlik. But will Syria be satisfied with reclaiming its northern border region, or is the operation just the first move in a bolder plan to regain lost territories?