Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross is struggling. His father is in prison for murder. His mother has slipped into addiction. Even if he can survive the bullying and the sudden run of disappearances, he has little hope for a future outside of the sleepy Massachusetts fishing town he calls home. But there is something far more important on his mind. He found her down beneath the local entertainment pier, and she seems just about perfect. Except for the teeth. But she doesn't want to simply be a part of his world. She wants more . . .

Eight deliciously talented mystery authors have lent their skills of crafting murder and suspense to this collection of gripping short stories. Each of these eight provocative tales is designed to entertain and mystify—and maybe even chill you to your core. Get lost in the wild imaginations of such New York Times bestselling writers as Andrew Child, Heather Graham, Reed Farrel Coleman, and John Gilstrap, plus authors Rick Bleiweiss, Jennifer Graeser Dornbush, Amanda Flower, and Don Bruns.

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real...tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows.

For more than a century, professional wrestling has cultivated some of the most eccentric and compelling personalities. As the embodiment of flamboyance and intensity, the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair stood at wrestling's apex for decades, cementing his place as a once-in-a-lifetime athlete and performer. When he was in the ring, fans knew they were witnessing the very best, and he not only became a multi-time world heavyweight champion in the NWA, WCW, and the WWE, but his status as a generational great has been confirmed with inductions into numerous Halls of Fame.

X is trapped living in the slums of the last remaining city on Earth. He can only venture out beyond the towering walls to scavenge relics of the old world when the sun is up. At night, like everybody else, he hides inside from the monsters of the shadows...until an unexpected death occurs a little too close to home. With the blame on his shoulders, and trigger-happy guards on his trail, X has no choice but to run. But the city was never a safe place to begin with, not really, and his only slim chance of survival lies outside the walls, in a landscape empty of humanity.

Imagine being able to easily control your impulses so they no longer run your life. Imagine being able to persevere and go beyond your limits whenever you need to, exceeding your expectations and those of others. Imagine being able to take action according to your intentions and convictions so that you routinely achieve your goals.

Resuming normal life isn't exactly an option for Myreen after finding out she's a freak chimera and the daughter of a villainous vampire leader. But she can't forget about that kiss she shared with dragon shifter Kol, even if he's still acting hot one minute and cold the next. Juliet's love life isn't looking so great, either, while Kenzie's may be too hot to handle. And Leif's feeling the heat of his subterfuge with the vampires, while Oberon is struggling to keep the school together.

With the Heart of Alchemy in place, the Immortality Engine is complete. Now, all Otto needs is to learn how to use it. The secret to immortality can be found in only one place: the Sanguine Scroll. Written by the first and greatest Arcane Lord Amet Sur, the scroll services as a manual for the engine among other things. But Otto isn’t the only one seeking the scroll.

Ford and Neuland are paranormal mercenaries--one living, one undead; one of them kills the undead, the other kills the living. When a job goes bad in New York, they head west to wait for the heat to cool down. There, a young woman named Tilda Rosenbloom hires them on behalf of wealthy landowner Shepherd Mansfield to track and kill a demon haunting a mansion in remote northern California.

When James witnesses a brutal killing outside his home, he must choose between seeking help or waiting for rescue in a city overrun by the infected. Trapped in his lab as the city descends into chaos, scientist Daniel waits for the infected surrounding the building to disperse. When they refuse to budge even days later, he realizes he's going to be stuck there for a long time.

College professor Stephen Barlow needs cash. Badly. He puts his skepticism aside and signs on to a paranormal research organization in the hopes of scoring a fat bonus. Enter Chaythe Asylum: a long-shuttered and controversial institution where patients were allegedly subjected to unethical experiments. Stephen deems the old building, closed in 1989 after a series of grisly murders, as good a place as any to explore the possibility of the supernatural, and arranges to take a tour with his students. But it turns out that the asylum is not as abandoned as it seems. There is something sinister in the building.

Are you sick of procrastinating, losing focus and leaving projects unfinished? Do you feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities and unable to control the chaos of your day? Do you feel you could be more productive if only you knew how to manage your time?

Trapped in the hospital and cut off from the world, a mysterious voice on the radio is all they have to guide them. They're no longer on a mission to quarantine the remaining inhabitants. Instead, they have to destroy a multiplying menace that could infect the world before the Federal Government enacts a final solution.

Otto Shenk is the youngest son of a minor baron. He's also a wizard. Abused by his family and considered less than human by his kingdom, Otto does his best to survive. But everything changes when Otto stumbles across a tower hidden deep in a dark part of the forest near his home. A tower that was once the home of an Arcane Lord, the immortal wizards that long ago ruled the world. Otto’s life will be changed forever. And so will the world.

The door has been opened. It's already too late. The hunt is on for the thing that escaped from Chaythe Asylum. A life hangs in the balance. Dark plots set in motion more than thirty years ago wind to a close in this final, terrifying volume. Will Stephen Barlow intervene in time to spare the world the horrors of the Occupant?

Long overshadowed, at least in books, by Egyptian goddesses such as Isis and Sekhmet, Larson's book focuses the spotlight squarely on the jackal-headed god. His book features history and mythology but is also a practical guide to working with Anubis now. It features devotional practices and modern worship that includes rituals, prayers/invocations, correspondences, altars, and epithets. The book leads the listener on a journey of exploration into all things Anubis, exploring his various facets.

After a long and brutal conflict, the war is over. Otto controls all the portals on the continent, and Garenland has made vassals of the other kingdoms. But some people can’t accept defeat. While Otto hunts King Villares in Rolan, Axel chases Prince Uther across Straken. With Markane scheming to help their enemies, the future of the New Garen Empire is far from certain. Even worse, the Wizards Guild is challenging Otto for leadership of the empire’s wizards, and they’ll use any means necessary to win. The war may be over, but the battles are far from won.

When Dillon Storm's grandfather invites the gang to a "living memorial service" for himself over in his beloved vacation spot of Vero Beach, Florida, Dillon thinks it's a strange idea. Funerals are for the dead, and his grandfather isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Still, if it's what the old man wants, who is he to turn him down? When the daughter of Vero Beach's police chief goes missing along the shoreline and a man Dillon believes to be innocent is fingered for foul play, things take a turn.

After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise.

Unfazed by chaos and bad luck, Melvin Scott knows, "Some things a man must do himself. No matter how dumb that man is." His wife disagrees. In debt over his head, he learns that a penny will grow to more than $10,000,000 in 30 days if it doubles every day. He realizes that other things can grow that fast, too. Bacteria. Disease. Cures. Almost anything. Scott finds hope, and the adventures begin.