Showing results by narrator "Ron McLarty" in All Categories

Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutor's office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station. The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular - the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating.

Established early in the last century as a memorial to O. Henry, this annual collection has consistently offered a remarkable sampling of contemporary short stories. Each year stories are chosen from large and small literary magazines and a panel of distinguished writers is enlisted to award the top prizes. The result is a superb collection of inventive, full-bodied stories representing the very best in American and Canadian fiction.

Love them or hate them, the New York Yankees have been an American institution for nearly a century. With their rich history and colorful cast of characters, the Yankees never fail to inspire or provoke. In this exciting compendium, some of today's most acclaimed writers - including Pete Dexter, Colum McCann, Roy Blount, Jr., Dan Barry, Jane Leavy, Charles P. Pierce, J. R. Moehringer, Daniel Okrent, Frank Deford, Bill James, and many more - step up to the plate to take their cuts. The result is a collection of original essays as idiosyncratic and expansive as the team that has inspired them.

Ed McBain concocts a brilliant and intricate thriller about a master criminal who haunts the city with cryptic passages from Shakespeare, directing the detectives of the 87th Precinct to a future crime, if only they can figure out what he means.

While investigating the death of one of Russia's top entrepreneurs, Renko, the chronically melancholic senior investigator in Moscow, follows a trail that eventually leads him to the desolate area of Chernobyl. In this bizarre wasteland, things might just be looking up for Renko.

Art in America tells the story of unknown writer Steven Kearney, an aging man whose lifelong commitment to his art finally brings him to homelessness in NYC. Then miraculously he receives an invitation to become playwright in residence of a troubled Rocky Mountain town.

Les Standiford is the best-selling author of the famous John Deal suspense series, including Presidential Deal. The quickly paced plot, intriguing characters, and electric dialogue found in Deal With the Dead will please longtime fans and enthrall newcomers. John Deal is attempting to resurrect his late father’s failed building firm when he makes an awesome discovery. Now he faces the strong-arm tactics of the same secret organization that ruined his father.

Johnny Deal is about to receive a presidential award for heroically rescuing 20 people from Miami waters. At the ceremony, however, as the president’s wife stands in for her husband, terrorists attack the stage. Now Johnny and the First Lady are hostages, and Johnny’s chances to remain a hero are rapidly slipping away. As each scene unfolds, it is sure to satisfy your thirst for brawny, fast-paced suspense. Standiford crafts a fascinating vision of one man determined to keep his equilibrium amidst the twisted residents of the Florida underworld.

Deputy Sheriff Carl Houseman is dozing in his cruiser near parklands in Nation County, Iowa when he hears popping sounds. Immediately, his radio screams to life with a call for assistance. What started as a simple raid on a marijuana patch has erupted into high-power gunfire. As the air clears, two men are known dead. But who was firing, and what else are they protecting? Houseman will find few heroes as he follows a convoluted trail that leads from the marijuana plants to an elusive international operator.

Two couples. Two love stories. One epic tale. Ninety-one-year-old Ira Levinson is in trouble. Struggling to stay conscious after a car crash, with his mind fading, an image of his adored - and long-dead - wife Ruth appears. Urging him to hang on, she lovingly recounts the joys and sorrows of their life together - how they met, the dark days of WWII and its unrelenting effect on their families. A few miles away, college student Sophia Danko's life is about to change.

When Judge Calvin Jeffries is found murdered in a courthouse parking lot, the crime shocks the community, but justice is swift. Soon a second judge is stabbed to death. Attorney Joseph Antonelli agrees to defend the accused. What he discovers challenges everything he knows about crime and punishment...and himself.

It should have been the night that launched a new pop idol. Tamar Valparaiso is young and beautiful, with the body and voice of an angel. The stage is set for her to launch her debut album, Bandersnatch, on a luxury yacht in the heart of the city. But halfway through her performance, masked men drag Tamar off the stage and into a waiting speedboat, while the partygoers look on helplessly.

A short story from James Lee Burke's story collection, Jesus Out to Sea. Burke is one of the country's most acclaimed and popular novelists.

A short story from James Lee Burke's story collection, Jesus Out to Sea. Burke is one of the country's most acclaimed and popular novelists.

Elvis Cole and former cop Frank Pike have been partners in a detective agency for 12 years. After an ex-girlfriend of Pike's disappears, the girl's father asks them to help the police with the search. When the missing persons case turns into a hunt for a killer who has been stalking victims in Los Angeles, Cole and Pike find themselves battling both a hostile police department and a madman.

Camp David, USA. A birthday party turns into a nightmare when a child is snatched after the celebrations. The First Lady enlists the services of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell to bring the child home safely. But she and King share a past. Years ago he saved her then-senator husband from political disaster. And this may not be all that passed between them.

A short story from James Lee Burke's story collection, Jesus Out to Sea. Burke is one of the country's most acclaimed and popular novelists.

Two couples. Two love stories. One epic tale. Ninety-one-year-old Ira Levinson is in trouble. Struggling to stay conscious after a car crash, with his mind fading, an image of his adored - and long-dead - wife, Ruth, appears. Urging him to hang on, she lovingly recounts the joys and sorrows of their life together - how they met, the dark days of WWII and its unrelenting effect on their families.

Ed McBain returns to his legendary 87th Precinct with a suspenseful story of greed, conflict, and the eternal search for money, money, money.

An intense tale of success and betrayal, Under Cover of Darkness is a frightening look into the darker side of the human psyche. Gus Wheatley is the youngest lawyer ever to grab the helm of Seattle's most prominent law firm. Nothing can interfere with his meteoric rise to the top, until his wife, Beth, vanishes. Her disappearance comes just as FBI profilers are called in to examine a bizarre and emerging pattern of brutal serial murders that rocks Seattle: first two men killed, then two women.