Showing results by author "Ronald Watkins" in All Categories

In the 15th century, the world beyond Europe began to emerge from myth and legend, and it was the Portuguese who led the way. They founded an empire that stretched from China to Brazil, and the peak of their achievement was Vasco da Gama's discovery of a sea route to India. Still today, landmarks, coastlines and currents around the world bear Portuguese names, and the oceans of the world are one vast watery grave for Portuguese seamen. For those who sailed beyond the known world life was harsh beyond measure.

Richard and Victoria Tinyes feared the worst when their thirteen year old daughter Kelly Ann vanished from their quiet suburban community of Valley Stream, New York, on March 3, 1999. But the nightmare to come was worse than they could ever imagine. Only five doors away, in the home of John and Elizabeth Golub, police found Kelly Ann's body stuffed in a plastic garbage bag. She'd been brutally beaten, stabbed, strangled, and mutilated. After weeks of intense investigation, police arrested the Golubs twenty-one-year-old son, Robert - a reclusive young man obsessed with bodybuilding and given to fits of rage. The sensational trial and subsequent conviction of Robert Golub shocked the nation and tore the once peaceful community apart. Neighbors took sides. So did the media. And no one who lived on Horton Road would ever be the same. Note on audio book: Except for the beginning and end of the book, there is no longer any music.

The stolen payroll is out there, hidden somewhere in Arizona's fabled Superstition Mountains. The con said he'd buried it at The Dutchman. Did he mean the Lost Dutchman mine? No one knows where it is. Or did he mean somewhere else? Now ex-reporter Dan Brodie is in the town of Madrid, searching for the loot but he soon learns he's not alone. And that what started as a treasure hunt is instead a desperate fight to save his life!

In the final months of World War Two, a young German finds himself serving as a guard at a Nazis concentration camp. Having escaped the horror of the Eastern Front he now descends into a new kind of Hell. The Holocaust told through the eyes of the oppressor. Powerful and relentless. A mustlisten.

A story from the anthology Masters of True Crime, which spans murder cases from the beginning of the 20th century to today. This is a must-hear for fans of true crime and will also be compelling to mystery and thriller listeners.

When Derek Sodoc, only son of the world's richest and most powerful man, dies attempting to climb Mt. Everest, questions are raised. Was it the mountain? Or perhaps something more sinister? After reading the book Abandoned on Everest, which details Derek Sodoc's untimely death, Sodoc's father convinces the surviving expedition members to return to Everest, presumably to recover Derek's body. With billions at stake and a relentless father searching for someone to blame, everyone is a suspect.

Evil Intentions explores to depravity of this crime, taking the listener into the lives and minds of the killers, relating the tragic consequences to her family and loved ones. Written by the court investigator who prepared the presentencing reports on the killers, it offers rare insight into the criminal investigation, plea bargaining, and trial.

Hero Scott Devlon is once again sent by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency on another climbing expedition. This time the mountain is Aconcagua, the highest in South America. His mission is to confirm a report that three Inca golden idols have been discovered and are headed to Venezuelan strongman, Hugo Chavez. Legend says he who possesses them is invincible. Scott's assignment is to prevent that from taking place, but he quickly learns that there are those who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the idols.

Sexual obsession and murder set against the backdrop of the modern West. When his illicit lover is discovered brutally murdered, Alex Byrne watches as his former lover, the lead homicide detective, slowly closes in on him. But is he the killer? Or is he being framed? And is Byrne trying to find the real murderer? Or set up a fall guy? A Suspicion of Guilt offers an explosive view inside the real world of criminal courts, where justice is only an accident.

Having failed to acquire the legendary golden Inca idols on Aconcagua in South America, Scott Devlon is hot on their trail. Kira Stern, former wife of Quentin, has murdered to steal them and is now headed to Punta Arenas, Chile, where she hopes to sell them to Robert Ainsworth, a crazed international arms dealer. Joined by Quentin, Scott soon finds himself in Antarctica, compelled to join the expedition about to attempt an unprecedented winter climb of Vinson Massif, the highest mountain on the world's most inhospitable continent.

Murder on Elbrus begins with world famous mountaineer Scott Devlon scarcely recovered from the disaster told in Murder on Everest, when he is sent to observe an EU sponsored conference in southern Russia. This casual assignment turns deadly with the murder of a Russian official atop Europe's highest mountain. Joined by the beautiful Natasha, the most powerful woman in the media world, Scott must run for his life, uncertain of her loyalties and true motives. Joined by a tread worn CIA agent, a Russian mobster and Georgian nationalist, they flee....

Once again Scott Devlon is thrust into the middle of a murder mystery atop one of the world’s Seven Summits. In Murder on Mt. McKinley, the chief executives of two rival oil companies attempting to construct a new Alaska pipeline opt to merge their efforts, and reap billions in profits. During the process, in celebration, they decide to climb Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. What they don’t expect are deaths. But they have enemies at every turn and one by one, that’s what begins to happen.

When USNR Ensign Jon Hunter is thrown back in time and space to a strange, unknown world, he must struggle to survive. First enslaved, then trained as a Seker, a warrior of this savage land, he is soon embroiled in rebellion. The ancient continent of Doridia is vividly created in all its splendor and savagery. From the exotic Slave Dancers of Rashmalan, to the towering spires of the walled city of Taslea where nubile beauties are displayed and sold at marketplaces, there has never been an adventure quite like Hunter: Warrior of Doridia.

When retired chief of Arizona Rangers, John Goodnight, stumbles on a murder, the Old West comes alive in the modern West. Treachery, betrayal, lust and greed, all the old motives, are also the new ones.

Adventurer Scott Devlon is out to climb Puncak Jaya, one of the world's Seven Summits. Located between the Himalayas and Andes, Puncak Jaya is the highest mountain in Oceania. But conquering this challenging peak is the least of Devlon's concerns. Situated in the heart of primitive New Guinea, Puncak Jaya is one of the most forbidding regions on earth, home to cannibals and headhunters. In this isolated land, Devlon begins by slashing his way through a primordial jungle teeming with exotic and deadly wildlife. His journey takes him to the icy precipice of Puncak Jaya only to find murder.

A series of random sniper attacks, sexual assaults and murders continued at a relentless pace with no end in sight. The victims were both men and women, young and old, of all races and ethnicities. Most disturbingly, they had done nothing to place themselves in harm's way. They'd not visited the "bad" parts of town, frequented a gambling den, solicited prostitutes or sought out drug dealers. They were assaulted and murdered as they went about the routine activities of their lives, the kinds of things we all do without a second thought.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, heiress Tess Van Dorn meets professional athlete Dan Thornton. What follows is a remarkable May-December love affair. Set within the plush mansions of Nob Hill and among the fog shrouded streets of San Francisco, their fierce love burns against all odds until at last fate steps in.

All that glitters isn't gold. Sometimes its the glint from a sniper rifle. When the dying man told Scott MacKenzie about the stolen $200,000 he'd left buried, it seemed like an easy score. Drive to the border town of Trinidad, nose around, put the clues together, then make off with the money. But MacKenzie isn't alone in searching for the treasure. Beaten, shot at and finally hunted like prey, just staying alive is a challenge.

When the President's mistress reveals the existence of a sex tape and demands money for her silence, it falls to the long suffering First Lady to deal with it. Unwilling to trust the Secret Service or any other federal agency, she calls on childhood friend and former lover, Dan Powers, to negotiate the deal. But with bodies quickly falling Powers soon learns nothing is as it appears and that he's been marked for death.