Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

The High Kingdom has known 20 years of peace. The true reason is unknown to everyone, save Sultan Vilos the First. At the height of the Crown War, Vilos made a deal with a powerful sorcerer. Vilos’ reign would be secured in exchange for his first-born daughter. The sorcerer promised to come for the princess on her 18th birthday. That day is today. The sorcerer is coming to claim his due, and if he doesn’t get it, all Hell is going to break loose.

Everyone’s heard stories about ghost ships. But they’re just stories, right? On the hunt for a missing friend, Marcus and Solomon find a massive black ship in the unexplored regions. Now, they have to find a way to save their trapped friend, and defeat a galaxy-threatening danger. It won’t be easy, but that won’t stop Marcus. He never leaves a friend behind, and this time won’t be any different.

It’s Halloween night in 1987. The era of fast cars, big hair, and glam metal is in full swing. A group of young friends push their appetite for destruction to the limit as they race along dark and dangerous back roads in search of a rumored epic spook night beer bash out in the boonies. But things take a tragic turn when they encounter a smirking villain in a sinister black car. They become trapped in haunted nightmare country with no obvious way out. Before long, it’s time to strap in tight, grab another cold one, and race with the devil. First to the finish line might even get to live.

At the edge of Frontier space, renegade Templar Orin Lashra has evaded capture by the Marshals and their premier fighting force, the Lancers. Darting across the colonies, Lasher and his friends wage a brutal war against the Seven Seats cartel for their part in the murder of the woman he called mother. Lasher’s relentless pursuit of vengeance soon draws the attention of the Gun Wraith, a mysterious mercenary intent on taking Orin for a client who considers his capture a no-fail mission.

Are you constantly haunted by the past, replaying every poor decision you've made like a bad record on repeat? I know the feeling because that used to be me. Most of my 20s were a blur as I struggled with personal and financial hardships. I would go to sleep each night hoping my life was a dream and pray to wake up to something better. For eight years I struggled with making progress and accepting myself. Then one day I got tired of dreaming and decided to do something about it.

Faced with an ultimatum from a mysterious coalition of Apocalypses, Zeke and the crew are given a grim choice: submit, or die. Never one to roll over and give up, Zeke chooses the hard route. The only Apocalypses left are powerhouses who won not only their city but also the territorial battles afterwards. To the last, they're horrific monstrosities with the worst at heart.

Sebastian “Seb” McAlister has run out of luck in Vegas. Cornered by a trigger-happy gang and shot through the stomach, he makes a desperate escape in his supercharged Hellcat. Fate guides Seb safely out of Sin City and into the desert, but as his wheels fade into the horizon, he fades into darkness. He awakes among a tiny community in the middle of nowhere. A mountain range circles the hodgepodge of shacks like prison walls looming high. And the warden that resides in those mountains is big, ugly, and deadly - a creature straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare.

Thirty years ago, a progressive rock band called The Yellow Kings began recording what would become their first and final album. Titled The Final Reconciliation, the album was expected to usher in a new renaissance of heavy metal, but it was shelved following a tragic concert that left all but one dead.

Luke Titan. Esteemed college professor. Genius scientist. Incisive psychiatrist. Brilliant FBI agent. He was all of these things, until he paralyzed one FBI partner and tried to gut another. After waging war on the US government and killing thousands, he's driven his ex-partner, Christian Windsor, to the brink of insanity. Now, Titan is on the run one final time, and Christian will stop at nothing to catch him. Then kill him. But is Luke actually running, or is he putting the final touches on his masterpiece? Is he luring Christian to him so he can finish what he started years ago?

Carjacked and snatched by escaped mass murderer Terrence Hingle, timid diner waitress Tilly Mulvehill becomes the meat in a maniac sandwich when she and her kidnapper encounter the deranged Ritter twins, Dwayne and Dwight. As Tilly fights for her life, she soon discovers that sometimes the only choice you have is to do or die...to Die Dog or Eat the Hatchet. This pulpy Southern Gothic thriller takes no prisoners as it roars towards its gruesome conclusion.

The Snowman's Children is a poignant, psychologically intense first novel that tells the story of an incident from one man's childhood in the 1970s, when a serial killer called The Snowman stalked the streets of suburban Detroit. The incident, a result of good but woefully misguided juvenile intentions, forced his family to leave their home, and eventually forced him, at age 29, to return to his hometown in search of three old friends.

After a police shootout where she killed a man, criminologist Maggie Tall Bear Sloan retires from the force to enjoy peace and quiet in rural California. When sets of young twins are murdered in her town, the local sheriff recruits her to solve the gruesome killings.

It all comes down to this. While Marcus is visiting Iaka on Alpha 114, a message arrives from from Marcus’s adopted father, Vlad Valcor. He needs help and Marcus never says no to family. Soon he and Solomon are off to Pleasure Planet 4 and a meeting that will hopefully bring peace between Vlad’s organization and the Jade Dragon clan.

Cheating husband Ricardo could never keep it in his pants, and now it's stuck in the worst possible place. His Mexican road trip becomes a nightmare straight out of urban legend when he agrees to take the wrong woman back over the border. A bolt of lightning sees him fused to his fellow cheater on a detour into the backwoods. Now he's fighting wild beasts and raw nature just to stay alive in this dark comedy romance that blends erotic horror with black humor and extreme splatter.

Perfect for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link, Jo Paquette’s Stories I Told My Dead Lover contains eight searing tales of psychological horror that probe the darkest and most deeply buried parts of the human psyche. A child is forced to grow up too soon. A woman trusts her doctor too much. An abandoned woman isn’t as alone as she thinks. An idyllic holiday masks an unspeakable act of violence. Driven, desperate, fighting for the power to choose their own fate, Paquette’s characters dare to push back at the walls that hold them in.

Tim's a streetwise detective, investigating the death of a homeless woman on his turf. Paired with grizzled veteran Gabe, they have to determine if the murder is a one-off, or if something more sinister is afoot. The trouble is, Tim doesn't always play by Gabe's rules. Nikki's past made her strong. Survival has been her goal since she was a girl, and it's the one thing the killer never counted on. She'll need to use everything she's learned if she doesn't want to become his next victim. Will the detectives overcome their differences and piece the grim puzzle together?

He was known as the Wildman more than 100 years ago, terrorizing lumberjacks and farmers who complained that their lives were at stake. The American Indians, depending on their tribe, had many names for the Creature: Sasahevas, Sasquatch, Bukwas (wild man of the woods), See'atco (one who runs and hides). What would Native American Indians have to gain from falsifying the existence of a Beast?

A hurricane is due to hit Florida hard. Two men take the opportunity to rob an expensive home. Surprised by neighbors, the burglars kill two people...and seven-year-old girl Lemon Madras disappears. Is the little girl dead or alive? Agent Tom Lange is taken off suspension and brought in to find her.

In the fog-enshrouded peaks of the island nation of Nehan, Ran, a newly minted shadow warrior is set loose on a musha shugyo, a wandering quest, whereby he must travel alone and hone his skills. Journeying aboard a merchant vessel, Ran hears tales of a mysterious lord believed to have the dead for his servants. Soon these tales prove all too real as Ran comes to the aid of Jysal, a beautiful sorceress, whose undeveloped power gives her the ability to heal a land - or destroy it.

It doesn't seem like the perfect house, but screw it, it's good enough to rent for a year. Unfortunately for Boyd, Adeline, and their two young daughters, it's immediately clear they chose the wrong place. The nightmare begins with violent coughs and headaches. Food starts to rot almost as soon as they take it inside. A pet tarantula goes missing. Some family members begin to exhibit creepy behavior. Then the ghosts arrive, and all hell breaks loose....