“You know that when you combine AC/DC song titles with stellar contemporary mystery writers that something special is likely to happen. It does in Back in Black.” —C. J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three-Inch Teeth
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- Back in Black
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Edited by Don Bruns
Stories by Reed Farrel Coleman, Heather Graham, Andrew Child, Don Bruns, Sandra Balzo, Rick Bleiweiss, Dave Bruns, Charles Todd, Tori Eldridge, and Ward Larsen
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 7/16/24
Formats: cpid_11
Inspired by songs from AC/DC’s bestselling album, Back in Black, this anthology contains ten murder mysteries from ten bestselling writers—including a new Jack Reacher original by Andrew Child.
The third collection in the Music and Murder Mystery Series, Back in Black features one story for each song from the seminal hard rock album of the same name. This book showcases ten brilliant mystery writers at the top of their game, including Reed Farrel Coleman, Heather Graham, Tori Eldridge, Ward Larsen, and Andrew Child, among others.
Chilling and unexpected, Back in Black has a mystery for everyone.
- Back in Black
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Edited by Don Bruns
Stories by Reed Farrel Coleman, Heather Graham, Andrew Child, Don Bruns, Sandra Balzo, Rick Bleiweiss, Dave Bruns, Charles Todd, Tori Eldridge, and Ward Larsen
Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 7/16/24
Formats: cpid_11
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- The Real Education of TJ Crowley
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Based on the novel by Grant Overstake
Adapted by Grant Overstake and May Wuthrich
Directed by May Wuthrich
Performed by Dani Martineck, Dion Graham, Tavia Gilbert, Johnny Heller, Kevin R. Free, Shayna Small, Ari Fliakos, Michael Crouch, Kirby Heyborne, Graham Halstead, Thérèse Plummer, Brittany Pressley, Peter Berkrot, John Wright, and Sheila Brown Kinnard
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Release Date: 6/11/24
Formats: cpid_11
Set in 1968 after the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this immersive audio dramatization, inspired by the author’s own experiences, features an award-winning cast of 15 actors, in a fast-paced, suspenseful coming-of-age story.
With his father’s mysterious disappearance and his brother Ronnie enlisting in the Vietnam War, 13-year-old TJ Crowley is left alone with his racist, unstable mother, Kate. The newly enforced Fair Housing Act results in the unthinkable for the Crowleys when a Black family, headed by the eminent Dr. Washington, crosses the racial red line and moves in next door. Kate is quick to warn TJ that their new neighbors are strictly off-limits and makes a panicked call to beg Ray, her old flame, to travel to their home in Wichita Kansas to help deal with “the problem next door.”
At his now integrated junior high, TJ resents that teachers tell him he must get to know his Black classmates, yet he understands that staying out of trouble can only help assure him an all-important spot on the basketball team. At school, a violent confrontation with Leon, the tough new kid in 7th grade, lands them in the principal’s office. And at home, Ray ropes him into building a fence that will send the Washingtons a message that they’re not welcome.
But the fence can’t quiet the sounds of unfamiliar music floating over the fence nor hide the strength and beauty of his new classmate, Ivy Washington, who fiercely stands up for what she believes in.
Over time, TJ begins to question the lessons he’s learned at home and decides to accept Dr. Washington’s invitation to visit their family. Devastated when his poor grades and bad behavior keep him from the basketball team, TJ turns to the doctor, a former athlete, who coaches him for the track team, teaching him how to throw the shot put.
When TJ’s secret visits to the Washingtons are discovered, and a series of escalating hate crimes point to Ray, TJ is forced to make a defining choice that will forever change his life.
Performed by Dani Martineck, Dion Graham, Tavia Gilbert, Johnny Heller, Kevin R. Free, Shayna Small, Ari Fliakos, Michael Crouch, Kirby Heyborne, Graham Halstead, Peter Berkrot, Thérèse Plummer, Brittany Pressley, John Wright, and Sheila Brown Kinnard, playing the role inspired by her mother, Josephine Brown.
Grant Overstake, a storyteller and educator, draws from his background as a former Miami Herald sports writer and decathlon All-American to write authentic sports themed novels of raw emotion. Grant and his wife, Claire, sing in the multicultural ARISE Ensemble, who’s music is featured in this program.
An award-winning producer and director with over 400 titles to her credit, May Wuthrich is a former actor with a background in traditional book publishing and book-to-screen script development.
Presented by Grain Valley Publishing
“The gospel music of the ARISE Ensemble enhances the listening experience. The audio drama has moments of remarkable verisimilitude: from the play-by-play announcing of a basketball game to the whirring of a helicopter in Vietnam. Performed by a gifted cast, this slice of our history stays with the listener.” —AudioFile (Earphones Award winner)
- The Real Education of TJ Crowley
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Based on the novel by Grant Overstake
Adapted by Grant Overstake and May Wuthrich
Directed by May Wuthrich
Performed by Dani Martineck, Dion Graham, Tavia Gilbert, Johnny Heller, Kevin R. Free, Shayna Small, Ari Fliakos, Michael Crouch, Kirby Heyborne, Graham Halstead, Thérèse Plummer, Brittany Pressley, Peter Berkrot, John Wright, and Sheila Brown Kinnard
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Release Date: 6/11/24
Formats: cpid_11
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- The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/18/23
Formats: Digital Audy
A young man fights to save his father from a spirit’s curse in the epic finale to the Johnny Dixon series.
The sea is calm, the air is fresh, and the bobbing boat feels like a living creature underneath Johnny Dixon’s feet. Johnny hardly ever sees his father, who trains Air Force pilots in Colorado, and their annual Florida fishing trip is the highlight of his year. They’re on their way back to Duston Heights, Massachusetts, where Johnny lives with his grandparents, when a visit to a fortune-teller puts a terrible fright into Johnny. Inside the seer’s crystal ball, he sees a grinning ghost who cackles out a fearsome message: “The universe shall be mine!”
Johnny tries to forget what he saw, but when he and his father return to Duston Heights, his dad falls into a coma, and Johnny is certain that the ghost is to blame. With the help of his old friend Professor Childermass, Johnny will defeat the smirking ghoul—or never see his father again.
- The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/18/23
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 3/14/23
Formats: Digital Audy
Hidden away in the local library, a sorcerer’s book casts an evil spell in the next novel in the Johnny Dixon Series.
Johnny Dixon and his best friend, Fergie, are whiling away a rainy day at the Duston Heights library when Johnny asks a screwy question: “What’s the last book in the library?” After Johnny goes home, Fergie decides to find out. There, under number 999.99, he finds a very peculiar tome, The Book of True Wishes, which is all about Fergie’s favorite subject: himself. The book knows Fergie’s name and promises him everything he ever wanted, which means he is about to forget a very important rule: be careful what you wish for.
When the book puts Fergie under the spell of a mad old wizard, Johnny and his friend Professor Childermass will do whatever it takes to break the book’s hold and save their friend.
- The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 3/14/23
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Hand of the Necromancer
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 2/14/23
Formats: Digital Audy
In a Massachusetts town, an evil wizard is about to come back from the dead and a young hero must fight to stop him
In the days of the Salem witch trials, the sleepy hamlet of Duston Heights had just one practitioner of the dark arts: the notorious necromancer Esdrias Blackleach. As the fever for witch hunting reached its terrible peak, Blackleach was accused of using powerful black magic against his fellow townsfolk. But just before he could be brought to trial, he dropped dead, escaping justice forever. Or so it seemed …
Fast forward to the 1950s, the inquisitive young sleuth Johnny Dixon and his mentor Professor Childermass are getting ready to donate a box of Blackleach artifacts to the local museum when a descendant of the sorcerer shows up and attempts to steal his ancestor’s wooden hand. He has a fiendish plan to raise the old necromancer from the dead, and only Johnny and the professor can stop him and make the town safe from black magic forever.
- The Hand of the Necromancer
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 2/14/23
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/17/23
Formats: Digital Audy
A young sleuth and his professor friend fight voodoo, black magic, and a hungry zombie horde …
The drum is small, no bigger than a plastic cup, and decorated with sun-bleached bones. It is a token from the island of St. Ives, whose voodoo cults are infamous around the world, and it is one of the most dangerous objects Johnny Dixon has ever held. When he raps the little drum, the wind howls, and an explosion rocks the house. There are more surprises to come. An inquisitive young man, Johnny has tangled with all manner of supernatural beasts along with his friend Professor Childermass, and now they will confront the living dead.
The drum summons up a whirlwind of black magic and throws one of the professor’s colleagues into a strange trance. To rescue him, Johnny and the professor must defeat an evil sorceress, and send her zombies back to where they belong.
- The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie
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By John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/17/23
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Secret of the Underground Room
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 12/13/22
Formats: Digital Audy
A young hero and his professor friend set out to save a priest from a ghost, in this novel by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls
Aside from the eccentric Professor Childermass, young sleuth Johnny Dixon’s best friend may be Father Higgins, the kindly priest at the local church. When Higgins is transferred to the congregation in the tiny town of Rocks Village, Johnny and the professor are afraid they won’t see their old friend ever again. But they’ll be reuniting with Father Higgins sooner than they think—and the thing that brings them together will be positively out of this world.
No sooner has Father Higgins moved than he begins seeing a ghost lurking around the church. The apparition is a young girl who never speaks, but has a habit of leaving cryptic notes around Higgins’s house. When Higgins disappears, Johnny and the professor follow his trail, embarking on a haunting quest that will lead them all the way to England.
In The Secret of the Underground Room, this multimillion-selling, Edgar Award–winning author offers a good old-fashioned ghost story packed with adventure and suspense.
- The Secret of the Underground Room
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 12/13/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Trolley to Yesterday
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 11/29/22
Formats: Digital Audy
Johnny Dixon is worried about Professor Childermass. The professor has always been an odd duck, but lately his behavior has been positively bizarre. He’s been talking to himself and stalking down the street with his collar turned up and his hat over his eyes, and now he won’t return Johnny’s calls. Johnny’s afraid that the professor’s old age is starting to get to him, but he will soon find it’s something far more amazing—and far more dangerous.
The professor has discovered a trolley that can carry them five hundred years back in time, to the last days of the Byzantine Empire. In the dark and winding streets of Constantinople, he and Johnny confront crusaders, mystics, and thieves as they attempt to save the ancient empire from destruction at the hands of the advancing Turkish armies.
Created by the award-winning author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, Johnny Dixon is one of the most charming young heroes in literature—a spunky, bespectacled young man whose curiosity often gets him into trouble—and his “wonderfully warming friendship with cantankerous old Professor Childermass makes them an endearing detective team” (New York Times).
- The Trolley to Yesterday
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 11/29/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Chessmen of Doom
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 11/15/22
Formats: Digital Audy
In a thrilling adventure, a young sleuth and his professor friend are challenged to solve a riddle and win a fortune.
Professor Roderick Childermass may be the strangest person Johnny Dixon has ever met, but compared to his brother Peregrine, the professor is practically normal. Peregrine is a born trickster, and when he knows his death is near, he sends a letter promising the professor his entire $10,000,000 estate—assuming he can solve one final riddle. The professor feels that his brother is mocking him from beyond the grave. If Peregrine were alive, he says, he’d kill him.
To crack the puzzle and claim the fortune, Johnny and the professor head north to the wild countryside of far-off Maine. They’ll find that the riddle is the least of their problems. To inherit the money, the professor must stay alive until the end of the summer, and since everyone in Maine seems to want Peregrine’s heir dead, survival will be no easy task.
From the author of the Lewis Barnavelt novels, including The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the Johnny Dixon series is full of fun, adventure, and supernatural chills, along with “believable and likable characters” who are a delight to spend time with ( New York Times).
- The Chessmen of Doom
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 11/15/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Eyes of the Killer Robot
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 10/18/22
Formats: Digital Audy
When feared Yankees slugger Cliff Bullard goes barnstorming around the northeast, offering $10,000 to any local pitcher who can strike him out, Professor Childermass and Johnny Dixon get a sneaky idea. There’s a local legend about a crackpot inventor who once built a robot capable of throwing a baseball 110 MPH, and the professor thinks that if they find the machine, they can win Bullard’s prize. They discover the rusted old monstrosity in an abandoned workshop and put it back together, piece by piece. But when they screw in the robot’s eyes and it comes to life, they realize they have made a terrible mistake.
As soon as it’s activated, the robot attacks, trying to kill Johnny and the professor. Was it made to be a killing machine, or have its circuits been corroded? To save the town and get a crack at the $10,000, Johnny and the professor will have to tame the steel beast.
- The Eyes of the Killer Robot
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 10/18/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 8/16/22
Formats: Digital Audy
The abandoned schoolhouse sits just outside the town of Duston Heights, Massachusetts, and Johnny Dixon is not sure what called him there. Inside the darkened building, he finds three chilling stained glass windows which show a hooded monster, a vengeful angel, and the hateful, staring face of Zebulon Windrow. Impossibly, the old man speaks to Johnny, threatening revenge on behalf of one of his descendants—and then the room is filled with horrible insects. As they cover Johnny’s body, moving closer toward his mouth, he awakes and escapes the nightmare.
But is Johnny’s vision of the schoolhouse really just a dream, or is it a warning? When Johnny falls into a strange trance from which he cannot be awakened, his friend Professor Childermass races to save him. To rescue the young boy, the professor must unlock the secret of the dream and delve into the terrible mysteries of the Windrow estate.
The Revenge of the Wizard’s Ghost is suspenseful, spooky listening for fans of R. L. Stine or anyone looking for a story featuring a middle-school-aged hero facing down grown-up-sized scares.
- The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 8/16/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 6/28/22
Formats: Digital Audy
A bookish boy searches for his missing best friend in this spooky tale by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
On a country lane in snowbound 1950s New Hampshire, a car goes skidding off the road. Professor Childermass and Johnny Dixon escape unscathed, but their car is stuck, and they are forced to walk into town. Johnny doesn’t mind. A curious young man, he has fun anytime the professor takes him out, because he’s treated like an adult. Together they’ve gotten into all sorts of supernatural scrapes, and this winter night they’ll face their toughest challenge yet.
When Childermass suddenly vanishes, Johnny is the only one who can find him. The mystery is linked to a tiny skull taken from a child’s dollhouse, which seems to have powers too terrible to guess at. With the help of a crusty old Irish priest, Johnny chases the clues to his friend’s disappearance all the way to the rocky coast of Maine, where something evil hungers for revenge.
The Johnny Dixon novels are charmingly old-school and shot through with suspense, and The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull may be the most chilling of them all.
- The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 6/28/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 6/14/22
Formats: Digital Audy
A clever young man and an eccentric professor search for a missing fortune in this spooky adventure full of “marvelous surprises” Publishers Weekly
H. Bagwell Glomus built an empire out of cereal. In the 1920s, his Oaty Crisps were the most popular breakfast in the United States, and Mr. Glomus was the wealthiest man in the little town of Gildersleeve, Massachusetts. But he was not a happy man. In 1936, he took his own life and his will was never found. Legend has it that his last will and testament is hidden somewhere in his office, but so far, no one has been able to find it and claim the ten thousand dollar reward. Yet, no one has looked as hard as Johnny Dixon.
A precocious young boy who’s happier reading old books than playing outside, Johnny has a best friend in the eccentric old Professor Childermass, who knows every detail of Mr. Glomus’s story—except the location of the will. Together, along with a new pal from Boy Scout camp named Fergie, they intend to crack the puzzle—but before they can claim their prize, they must defeat an ancient evil force: a living mummy intent on destroying them.
From the award-winning author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the Johnny Dixon stories are a refreshingly old-fashioned series of adventure and supernatural mystery. In the world of young adult suspense, few authors have the magic touch of John Bellairs.
- The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 6/14/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Curse of the Blue Figurine
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/19/22
Formats: Digital Audy
A boy sneaks into an old church to confront a mad ghost in this adventure by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
It’s the 1950s when Johnny Dixon’s mother dies, his father goes to fight in the Korean War, and he goes to live with his grandparents. Although life in a new house is strange, Johnny’s “Grampa” listens to his favorite ballgames, takes him on long walks, and tells him stories of the strange mysteries that lurk in the shadows. Best of all, he’s friends with Professor Childermass, an eccentric academic who’s about to take Johnny on the adventure of a lifetime.
When the professor learns Johnny loves ghost stories, he tells the boy the spookiest legend in Duston Heights, Massachusetts—the tale of the haunted church on the edge of town, with demonic carvings on its altar, and the troubled spirit of mad Father Baart, who is said to have killed two people before vanishing long ago. With the professor as his guide, Johnny sets out on a quest that will put him face-to-face with the crazy, long-dead priest.
- The Curse of the Blue Figurine
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Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/19/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Sunday Pigeon Murders
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By Craig Rice
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 12/22/20
Formats: Digital Audy
In this novel, two New York City street photographers develop a deadly get-rich-quick scheme.
Resourceful Bingo Riggs and his partner, Handsome Kusak, are in the sucker-bait business, snapping candid pics of tourists off Central Park. Their fly-by-night enterprise can be irresistible to souvenir lovers, but with one camera in a pawnshop and their developing room in the bathtub of a two-room dump near Hell’s Kitchen, their venture is wretchedly underexposed—until they stumble upon an insurance fraud scheme between the allegedly dead eccentric Mr. S. S. Pigeon and his business partner and beneficiary.
There’s only one way for Bingo and Handsome to muscle in on that half-million-dollar claim: kidnap Pigeon and blackmail his coconspirator. Unfortunately, their foolproof plan comes with mobsters, a dodgy chorus girl, multiple murders, a refrigerated corpse, and the strange Mr. Pigeon himself, who, it seems, likes being a hostage. In fact, he has no intention of escaping. It’s the surest way to protect his own secret—which could be Bingo and Handsome’s biggest threat.
- The Sunday Pigeon Murders
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By Craig Rice
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 12/22/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Afrikaans
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By Nick Pirog
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 6/25/19
Formats: Digital Audy
The gripping third book in the internationally bestselling Thomas Prescott series.
Intimate in scale, but grandly outfitted, the luxury cruise liner The Afrikaans hosts no more than 208 pampered guests, among them; former FBI contract agent Thomas Prescott. When the ship is overtaken by African pirates who are demanding the U.S. send medical relief to a small Zulu village in South Africa, it’s up to Prescott to keep the hostages alive.
As the U.S. tries to figure out how to combat the terrorists’ plot from the outside, World Health Organization doctor, Gina Brady, undertakes the impossible task of rescuing three children from the secluded Zulu village. With the deadline drawing near, Prescott and Brady must race against the clock to discover the truth; is it medical relief the pirates seek or a two billion dollar ransom from one of the richest men in the world? Or could the implications be so profound, and the stakes so high, a war hangs in the balance…
- The Afrikaans
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By Nick Pirog
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 6/25/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Gray Matter
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By Nick Pirog
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 5/28/19
Formats: Digital Audy
Thomas Prescott returns in a smoldering thriller of murder, treachery, and revenge.
His love life in shambles, retired homicide detective Thomas Prescott returns to Seattle, the very place he fled from after his parents’ deaths nearly a decade earlier. Just as Prescott is getting settled in, he sees a body floating in the private cove behind his boyhood home. It’s a woman. But not just any woman. It’s Ellen Gray—the governor of Washington—who has been missing for the past six weeks.
The lead suspect in the governor’s murder is her husband, famed defense attorney, Adam Gray. But unlike the Seattle Police Department—where Thomas was fired from several years earlier—Prescott has his doubts about Adam’s guilt. Ignoring direct orders to stay away from the case, Prescott soon finds himself drawn into the heart of the investigation.Working side-by-side with SPD detective, Erica Frost, Prescott uncovers a sophisticated conspiracy linked to a new breed of killer. In his pursuit to catch a madman, Prescott’s investigation will take him from the state capital to the snow-covered peaks of the North Cascades and for the first time in his career, Thomas finds himself both the hunter…and the hunted.
- Gray Matter
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By Nick Pirog
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 5/28/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Unforeseen
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By Nick Pirog
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/30/19
Formats: Digital Audy
The first book in the bestselling series that has garnered over a million readers across the globe.
Retired homicide detective Thomas Prescott is reluctant to read the bestselling true-crime thriller, Eight in October. After all, it was his case, and he doesn’t need to be reminded of the gruesome details. The book dubbed the serial killer, Tristen Grayer, The MAINEiac. Grayer is allegedly dead, but only Prescott knows the truth: Grayer is alive and lurking in the shadows.
On October 1st, the anniversary of the first murder, The MAINEiac resurfaces, killing someone special from Prescott’s past. Suddenly, it’s déjà vu for Prescott, except this time the women closest to him begin to fall victim. With the help of his former flame, Bangor chief medical examiner, Dr. Caitlin Dodds, Prescott must race against the clock to stop Grayer from completing his encore.
- Unforeseen
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By Nick Pirog
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/30/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Crusader
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By Mike Guardia
Foreword by Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, USA, retired
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/02/19
Formats: Digital Audy
Although he missed combat in World War II and Korea, Donn Starry became one of the most influential commanders of the Vietnam War, and after Vietnam was one of the “intellectual giants” who reshaped the US Army and its doctrines. Throughout his career he worked to improve training, leadership, and conditions for the men who served under him.
Starry was a leading advocate for tank warfare in Vietnam, and his recommendations helped shape the contours for American armor in Southeast Asia—and paved the way for his success as commander of Eleventh Armored Cavalry during the invasion of Cambodia.
When commander of Fort Knox and the Armor Center and School in the 1970s, Starry redeveloped armor tactics and doctrine and improved training. In his sixteen months as commander of V Corps, he thoroughly tested the doctrine of Active Defense, then used his observations to create a new doctrine, AirLand Battle, which paved the way for overwhelming victory in the Gulf War. Like most battlefield commanders from the Vietnam era, Starry’s legacy is often overshadowed by the controversy of the war itself and the turmoil of the immediate postwar Army. However, with the invasion of Cambodia and the development of AirLand Battle, it is hard to imagine anyone who has had a greater impact on modern maneuver warfare.
In this new biography of General Donn Starry, armor officer Mike Guardia examines the life and work of this pioneering, crusading officer using extracts from interviews with veterans and family, and from Starry’s personal papers.
- Crusader
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By Mike Guardia
Foreword by Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, USA, retired
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 4/02/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Deadbomb Bingo Ray
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By Jeff Johnson
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/08/19
Formats: Digital Audy
Crime. Vengeance. Love. Physics.
The infamous Deadbomb Bingo Ray is a high-level fixer in the City of Brotherly Love. He’s the man you call when you’ve crossed the line into hopeless and there’s no way back to anywhere.
Three years have passed since Ray burned a hedge fund manager on behalf of a pool of retirees, and now the money man is back for revenge. While Ray unravels the plot and orchestrates some payback of his own, he unwittingly steps into the ultimate high stakes game. Falling in love with the beautiful physicist trapped at the edge of the burn was just bad timing.
When the fuse is finally lit, getting killed isn’t high on the list of the worst that could happen in this dark and stylish noir.
- Deadbomb Bingo Ray
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By Jeff Johnson
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/08/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Give-a-Damn Jones
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 5/08/18
Formats: Digital Audy
Not all the folks who roamed the Old West were cowhands, rustlers, or cardsharps. And they certainly weren’t all heroes.
Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He’s a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That’s what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions are running high, and anything—or anyone—could be the fuse to ignite them: a recently released convict trying to prove his innocence, a prominent cattleman who craves respect at any cost, a wily traveling dentist at odds with a violent local blacksmith, or a firebrand of an editor who is determined to unlock the town’s secrets.
Jones walks into the middle of it all, and this time, he may be the hero that this town needs.
- Give-a-Damn Jones
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 5/08/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Hal Moore on Leadership
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By Harold G. Moore and Mike Guardia
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/02/18
Formats: Digital Audy
Hal Moore led his life by a set of principles—a code developed through years of experience, trial-and-error, and the study of leaders of every stripe. In a career spanning more than thirty years, Moore’s life touched upon many historical events: the Occupation of Japan, the Korean War, Vietnam, and the refashioning of the US Army into an all-volunteer force. At each juncture, he learned critical lessons and had opportunities to affect change through measured responses.
Hal Moore on Leadership offers a comprehensive guide to the principles that helped shape Moore’s success both on and off the battlefield. They are strategies for the outnumbered, outgunned, and seemingly hopeless. They apply to any leader in any organization—business or military. These lessons and principles are nothing theoretical or scientific. They are simply rules of thumb learned and practiced by a man who spent his entire adult life leading others and perfecting his art of leadership.
- Hal Moore on Leadership
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By Harold G. Moore and Mike Guardia
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/02/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Greasy Grass
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 1/01/18
Formats: Digital Audy
Johnny D. Boggs turns the battlefield itself into a character in this historical retelling of Custer’s Last Stand, when George Custer led most of his command to annihilation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana in 1876.
More than forty first-person narratives are used—Indian and white, military and civilian, men and women—to paint a panorama of the battle itself.
Boggs brings the events and personalities of the Battle of the Little Bighorn to life in a series of first-hand accounts.
- Greasy Grass
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 1/01/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Gangster Nation
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By Tod Goldberg
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 9/12/17
Formats: Digital Audy
It’s been two years since the events of Gangsterland, when legendary Chicago hit man Sal Cupertine disappeared into the guise of Vegas rabbi David Cohen. It’s September 2001, and for David everything is coming up gold: temple membership is on the rise, the new private school is raking it in, and the mortuary and cemetery—where Cohen has been laundering bodies for the mob—is minting cash. But Sal wants out. He’s got money stashed in safe-deposit boxes all over the city. He’s looking at places to escape to—Mexico or maybe Argentina. He only needs to make it through the high holidays, and he’ll have enough money to slip away, grab his wife and kid, and start fresh.
Across the country, former FBI agent Matthew Drew is now running security for an Indian casino outside Milwaukee, spending his off-time stalking members of the Family, looking for vengeance for the murder of his former partner. So when Sal’s cousin stumbles into the casino one night, Matthew takes the law into his own hands—again—touching off a series of events that will have Rabbi Cohen running for his life, trapped in Las Vegas, with the law, society, and the post-9/11 world closing in around him.
Gangster Nation is a thrilling follow-up to Gangsterland, an unexpected examination of the seedy foundations of American life. With the wit and gritty glamour that defines his writing, Goldberg traces how the things we most value in our lives—home, health, even our spiritual lives—have been built on the enterprises of criminals.
- Gangster Nation
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By Tod Goldberg
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 9/12/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Violated
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 3/07/17
Formats: Digital Audy
Bill Pronzini is crime-writing royalty. His more than eighty published novels have won or been nominated for Edgar, Hammett, Anthony, Shamus, and Macavity awards—a clean sweep of the crime fiction award field—and received rave reviews from critics. He crafts masterful stories, often from multiple perspectives, in which the human condition is on full display. The Violated is no exception.
In Echo Park, in the small town of Santa Rita, California, the mutilated body of Martin Torrey is found by two passersby. A registered sex offender, Torrey has been a suspect in a string of recent rapes, and instant suspicion for his murder falls on the relatives and friends of the women attacked. Police chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz are under increasing pressure from the public and from a mayor demanding results in a case that has no easy solution.
Pronzini cleverly unfolds the case through alternating perspectives—Martin Torrey’s wife, caught between her grief and the fear her husband was guilty; the outraged husbands of the women violated; the enterprising editor of the local paper; the mayor concerned most with his own ratings; the detectives, often spinning in circles—until a surprising break leads to a completely unexpected conclusion. The Violated is Bill Pronzini at the height of his storytelling powers.
- The Violated
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Read by various narrators
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Release Date: 3/07/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Coaster
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A Poisoned Pen Press mystery
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 12/13/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Bob Patterson considers himself an everyman—albeit an everyman with a rich, beautiful wife, two good kids, and a mail-it-in job that ignores his law degree. Despite his good fortune, Bob is idling through life, bored at work and at home. In short, he is the proverbial coaster.
Bob’s wife, Sarah, is the anointed heir to the empire built by her father, Sam, a kind of Kansas City, Missouri, Warren Buffet. Fine by Bob, the family soccer mom, but early one morning he and Sarah awake to terrible news.
Sam’s death reveals he appointed Bob to be the trustee of his personal fortune and, as the IRS currently has it, he’ll be in charge of his mother-in-law’s money. Even more terrifying, Bob realizes he faces the prospect of actually working all day, for stakes that matter.
Is the reappearance of Bob’s wildest fraternity brother from college and a proposal from a bland businessman with a plan that seems too good to be true mere coincidence? After a lifetime of choosing the path of least resistance, will Bob finally take a stand when his family needs him most? If so, where?
Bob peppers his story with sports and pop culture references and wry commentary on everything from the sex lives of married couples (such as they are) to the enormous cost of being “honored” at a charitable event. Bob knows what the hero should do in the situations he encounters (he’s read the books and seen the movies, too). He doesn’t have “a very particular set of skills” or a secret past in the special forces. He’s just a regular guy who handles extreme pressure and threats to his family about like you’d expect (not well). It’s going to take all he’s got (really, more than he’s got) to raise his game. Fortunately he’s got an ace-in-the-hole—at home.
Darkly comic, The Coaster turns the conventions of the mystery/suspense genre upside down.
- The Coaster
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A Poisoned Pen Press mystery
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 12/13/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Kolchak Collection
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A Blackstone Audio production
Featuring novels by Jeff Rice, Joe Gentile, and C. J. Henderson
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 11/01/16
Formats: Digital Audy
The Kolchak Papers: The Original Novels by Jeff Rice
In 1972 Jeff Rice’s novel The Night Stalker introduced Carl Kolchak to the world. This spine-tingling novel of supernatural terror became an instant bestseller and served as the basis for the film of the same name. After The Night Stalker became one of the highest rated television movies of all time, a sequel, The Night Strangler, was released the following year to great acclaim. Now, after more than three decades out of print, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler are together in one volume.
Cry of Thunder: Sherlock Holmes & Kolchak the Night Stalker by Joe Gentile
Two of the most unique investigators of all time try to untangle the same mystery … one hundred years apart from each other. Set in the lawless Wild West, the hidden world of Victorian London, and the present-day hell of Hollywood, Cry of Thunder: Sherlock Holmes & Kolchak the Night Stalker follows Holmes’ trail of a man who was wrongfully—and willingly—imprisoned; a shocking New World Order anarchy; a beautiful woman who needs Kolchak to delve into the surreal past; and the shunned man who holds the key.
Kolchak and the Lost World by C. J. Henderson
After convincing a serial killer to confess, newspaper reporter Kolchak is offered an international assignment with massive coverage around the world. With fame and fortune finally within reach, he’s ready to cover the story—until he’s confronted by a mysterious monk who warns him that “the seventy-two must always be.” What this means is not explained. But before he knows it, Kolchak’s dreams are invaded by inexplicable images warning him that every step he takes toward the big story is bringing him closer to death.
- The Kolchak Collection
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A Blackstone Audio production
Featuring novels by Jeff Rice, Joe Gentile, and C. J. Henderson
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 11/01/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Kolchak Papers
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By Jeff Rice
Introduction by Mark Dawidziak
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 9/13/16
Formats: Digital Audy
A legend is born …
In 1972, Jeff Rice’s novel The Night Stalker introduced Carl Kolchak to the world. This spine-tingling novel of supernatural terror became a bestseller and served as the basis for the film of the same name, starring Darren McGavin and adapted by legendary Twilight Zone screenwriter Richard Matheson. After The Night Stalker became one of the highest rated television movies of all time, a sequel, The Night Strangler, was released the following year to great acclaim.
Carl Kolchak, as the world’s first paranormal investigator, would prove to be an irresistible draw for viewers and inspire a weekly dramatic television series which debuted in 1974.
A legend returns …
Now, after more than three decades out of print, Kolchak’s creator Jeff Rice has released the original novels which sparked the television phenomenon! At last, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler are together in one volume … The Kolchak Papers!
Twenty-one years before Kolchak inspired Chris Carter to create The X-Files, there was only one paranormal investigator. Now fans everywhere can relive the adventures of Carl Kolchak in this single, remarkable volume!
- The Kolchak Papers
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By Jeff Rice
Introduction by Mark Dawidziak
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 9/13/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Cry of Thunder
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By Joe Gentile
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 9/06/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Based on true events, this historic unveiling is not a dream, not a hoax, and not a parallel universe! Two of the most unique investigators of all time try to untangle the same mystery … one hundred years apart from each other.
Set in the lawless Wild West, the hidden world of Victorian London, and the present-day hell of Hollywood, Cry of Thunder: Sherlock Holmes & Kolchak the Night Stalker follows Holmes’ trail of a man who was wrongfully—and willingly—imprisoned; a shocking New World Order anarchy; a beautiful woman who needs Kolchak to delve into the surreal past; and the shunned man who holds the key.
- Cry of Thunder
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By Joe Gentile
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 9/06/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Thrill Kill
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By Brian Thiem
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 8/09/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Cops in Oakland seldom meet people whose lives are going well. That’s certainly the case when homicide sergeant Matt Sinclair recognizes the dead woman hanging from a tree as a teenage runaway named Dawn he arrested ten years before. And as Sinclair and his partner, Cathy Braddock, soon learn, many of Dawn’s clients, not to mention the local and federal officials who protect them, will go to any length to keep the police from digging too deep into her past.
Then the killer goes public, and Sinclair and Braddock must race to uncover the secrets Dawn was killed to protect before the killer unleashes a major attack on a scale the city has never seen before. But in the process, Sinclair runs into secrets from his own past—some of which could end his homicide career for good.
With Thrill Kill, the second novel in the Detective Matt Sinclair mystery series, Brian Thiem, a veteran of the Oakland Police Department and the Iraq war, has written a nuanced police procedural that could only be written by a trained detective with years of hard-earned experience.
- Thrill Kill
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By Brian Thiem
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 8/09/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Red Line
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By Brian Thiem
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 8/11/15
Formats: Digital Audy
When a teenager from a wealthy suburb outside Oakland is dumped at an inner-city bus stop, homicide detective Matt Sinclair catches the case. It’s his first since being bumped to desk duty for a bust that went south—fast. With few leads and plenty of attention, it’s the worst kind of case to help him get back up to speed.
And it only gets worse as the bodies start to pile up—first at the same bus bench, then around the city. Sinclair is unable to link the victims to each other, and the killer is just getting started. Time is running out for Sinclair’s career, not to mention for the people closest to him.
With Red Line, Brian Thiem, a veteran of the Oakland police department and the Iraq war, has written a nuanced police procedural filled with the kind of insight that could only come from a detective who has walked the streets and lived the life.
- Red Line
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By Brian Thiem
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 8/11/15
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Gangsterland
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By Tod Goldberg
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 2/03/15
Formats: Digital Audy
Sal Cupertine is a legendary hit man for the Chicago Mafia, known for his ability to get in and out of a crime without a trace. Until now, that is. His first-ever mistake forces Sal to botch an assassination, killing three undercover FBI agents in the process. This puts too much heat on Sal, and he knows this botched job will be his death sentence to the Mafia. So he agrees to their radical idea to save his own skin.
A few surgeries and some intensive training later, and Sal Cupertine is gone, having disappeared into the identity of Rabbi David Cohen. Leading his growing congregation in Las Vegas, overseeing the population and the temple and the new cemetery, Rabbi Cohen feels his wicked past slipping away from him, surprising even himself as he spouts quotes from the Torah. But the Mafia isn't quite done with him. Soon the new cemetery is being used as both a money- and body-laundering scheme for the Chicago family. And that rogue FBI agent on his trail, seeking vengeance for the murder of his three fellow agents, isn't going to let Sal fade so easily into the desert.
Gangsterland is the wickedly dark and funny new novel by a writer at the height of his power—a morality tale set in a desert landscape as ruthless and barren as those who inhabit it.
- Gangsterland
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By Tod Goldberg
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 2/03/15
Formats: Digital Audy
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- When Corruption Was King
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By Robert Cooley, with Hillel Levin
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/01/15
Formats: Digital Audy
Bob Cooley was the Chicago Mafia’s “mechanic”—a fixer of court cases. During the 1970s and ’80s, Cooley bribed judges, court clerks, and cops to keep his Mob clients—hit men, bookies, racketeers, and crooked pols—out of jail. Paid handsomely for his services, he lived fast and enjoyed the protection of the men he served.
He had enough money to blow on all the vices the Windy City could offer, and enough standing among mobsters to know he would never be caught. Yet, through the ’90s, Cooley became the star witness in a series of trials that took down the Chicago outfit, arguably the most powerful Mafia family in the history of organized crime.
This is the story of a Mob lawyer turned mole with a million-dollar contract on his head, a man who has clanged back and forth between sin and sainthood like a church bell clapper—a turbulent youth, a stint on Chicago’s police force, law school, and then the inner sanctum of Chicago’s leading mobsters and corrupt political officials. With wild abandon he chased crooked acquittals for the likes of Pat Marcy, an Al Capone protégé, who had become the Mob’s key political operative; ruthless Mafia capo and gambling czar Marco D’Amico; and notorious hit man Harry Aleman. He dined with Mob bosses and shared “last suppers” with friends before their gangland executions. Cooley watched as Marcy and the Mob controlled the courts, the cops, and the politicians. Then, in a startling act of conscience, he walked into the office of the US Organized Crime Strike Force and, without a pending conviction or a hit man on his tail, agreed to wear a wire on the same Mafia overlords who had made him a player.
Cooley’s tapes and testimony would be at the center of nine landmark trials that together exposed and then broke the Mob’s unprecedented stranglehold on Chicago’s government and court system. With stunning detail and brutal honesty, Cooley now tells the personal story behind the federal government’s most successful Mafia investigation.
- When Corruption Was King
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By Robert Cooley, with Hillel Levin
Read by Johnny Heller
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Release Date: 1/01/15
Formats: Digital Audy