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James Gavin - George Michael: A Life
George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world.
Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael’s metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s Wham!; he then details Michael’s sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael’s albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George Michael: A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend.
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David Baldacci - To Die For (6:20 Man)
31:38|From a #1 New York Times bestselling author, the 6:20 Man returns, this time sent to the Pacific Northwest to aid in a complicated FBI case—and he’s about to come face-to-face with his nemesis, the girl on the train. Travis Devine has become a pro at accomplishing any mission he's given. But this time it’s not his skills that send him to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, twelve-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who’s under federal investigation. Instead, he’s hoping to lay low and keep off the radar of an enemy–the girl on the train.But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Devine digs for answers, and what he finds points to a conspiracy bigger than he could’ve ever imagined. It might finally be time for Devine and the girl on the train to come face-to-face. Devine is going to find out the difference between his friends and his enemies–and in some cases, they might well be both.Oliver Seneca - Shaded Grove
28:48|On their rainy drive home from a haunted house tour in a small Pennsylvania town, sisters Megan and Dianne Willis come across a drenched, confused old woman walking alone in the middle of the road. Concerned about her well-being, the sisters attempt to take the mysterious lady to the nearest hospital to get checked out. However, their plan is quickly flipped upside down as the woman’s suddenly violent behavior causes Megan to lose control of the car.After surviving the crash and waking up in the middle of the woods with the woman nowhere in sight, Megan and Dianne traverse the dark, hoping to find help. But help won’t come easy as the sisters soon discover they’re isolated on the property of Shaded Grove Mental Hospital, where abandoned spirits roam, and all is not what it seems. It’s up to Megan and Dianne to work with the ghosts of the past and the ever-changing environment before Shaded Grove traps them inside forever.Beau Johnson - Chainsaw Noir
25:26|I have published before, usually on the darker side of town. Seeing as I'm Canadian, I will always wish you well.JP Behrens - Missing in Miskatonic
31:05|Step into the shadowed streets of 1928 Arkham, where Miskatonic University holds secrets darker than the night.In this supernatural thriller reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and H.P. Lovecraft, Private Detective Travis Daniels is thrust into a harrowing investigation when a young woman disappears without a trace. As Daniels delves deeper into the labyrinthine mysteries of the storied New England city, he uncovers a web of sinister cults, ancient rituals, and eldritch horrors that threaten not only his own sanity but the fabric of reality itself.Set against a city steeped in occult lore and clandestine experiments, Missing in Miskatonic blends elements of hard-boiled detective fiction with chilling supernatural encounters. Daniels navigates treacherous alliances and confronts malevolent entities lurking in the shadows, all while racing against time to unravel the truth behind the girl's disappearance.With a narrative that grips from the first page, this novella combines suspense, mystery, and cosmic terror in a gripping tale where every clue leads deeper into the abyss. From the enigmatic corridors of Miskatonic to the eerie gatherings of the Silver Twilight Lodge, Daniels must confront his own demons as he battles forces beyond human comprehension.Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.Sydney Leigh - Insta-Goner
24:04|When lifestyle blogger Emily Dalle comes face-to-face with controversial talk show host, Jackie Hunter, she’s in for the shock of her life. But this time it’s not Jackie’s words that cause a stir—it’s her dead body.Emily knows the chance of Jackie’s death being a random hit-and-run is about as low as the blows she dished out on her gossip feed. The police are doing their best but with their limited resources, Emily enlists the help of her online audience to figure out what really happened. She gets some great tips, including one from the murderer who tells her to back off.Will Emily piece together who killed the Queen of Mean or will she fall victim to the same fate?David McCloskey - The Seventh Floor
42:48|Six CIA officers. Dear friends and cherished enemies. For a quarter century they have stolen other people’s secrets. Now they must steal each other’s.A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, operational chief Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat for the disaster and run out of the service. Months later, Sam appears at Procter’s doorstep with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole burrowed deep within the highest ranks of the CIA.As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter’s closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt requires Procter to dredge up her checkered past in the service of the CIA, placing the pair in the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow’s mole in Langley at all costs. What happens when friendships forged by sweat and blood—from the Farm to Afghanistan and the executive “Seventh Floor” of CIA’s Langley headquarters—are put to the ultimate test? What can we truly know about the people we love the most?Taking readers from Langley to Moscow to Paris and beyond, The Seventh Floor explores the nature of friendship in a faithless business, and what it means to love a place that does not love you back.Nick Cutter - The Queen
38:21|“One of the hottest horror authors on the planet” (Paste) and writer of the #HorrorBookTok sensation The Troop returns with a heart-pounding novel of terror about a young woman searching for her missing friend and uncovering a shocking truth.On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on to find a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity’s been missing for over a month. Most people in town—even the police—think she’s dead.Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything, know the most intimate details about one another…except for the destructive secret hidden from them both. A secret that will trigger a chain of events ending in tragedy, bloodshed, and death. And now Charity wants Margaret to know her story—the real story. In a narrative that takes place over one feverish day, Margaret follows a series of increasingly disquieting breadcrumbs as she forges deeper into the mystery of her best friend—a person she never truly knew at all…Christine Daigle - Heavy are the Stones
26:31|Facing the truth can be deadlier than facing the killer.Ten days to keep a lie.Ten plagues if you deny.Ten ways to watch them die.Five years ago, when Detective Jena Campbell put the Leviticus Killer behind bars, she locked her darkest secret away with him. Something never meant to surface. Something better left to rot with the madman who had destroyed so many lives.When a strange man calling himself Azrael appears on social media with threats to unleash ten plagues, ten deaths, in ten days, unless Leviticus is released, Jena is forced to reopen that door and face her past.Unable to share what she knows, she turns to the only man who can help her find Azrael before he kills again, the man she condemned. Jena quickly learns the only thing more terrifying than facing him, is facing herself.ROBERT WALASAN - UNMADE
45:16|For Bobby Walason, the turning point in his life began when he was thrown out of his house at age twelve. It was also the best moment in his short life.Forced to survive on his own, with no friends or family to turn to, his determination drives him without the benefit of a moral compass. Finding shelter in the basement of a Providence, Rhode Island inner city housing project, sleeping in an abandoned cardboard box, he tries to stay hidden from the world.Finding solace in the Olneyville Boys Club, where he learns to box, discovers a physical strength beyond his age, and hones an ability to fight. His ability to absorb punishment, forged under the fists of his brutal father, earns him a reputation for toughness. A toughness which built a powerful street reputation, enhanced in prison, drawing the attention of organized crime.This the story of the horrific life of a 12-year-old boy, enduring abuse no child should ever face, the lure of organized crime, descent into the brutal and violent world of a feared mob enforcer, and the power of resilienceBobby Walason unmasks the false patina of Organized Crime, finding a way to leave the life; alive, without spending life in prison, and without disappearing into the invisibility of the witness protection program.Turning from a life of brutality to the world of business, Bobby builds a successful life as an entrepreneur.This story casts a light onto the ebb and flow of the dark side of American society; a look at the forces that play havoc with the lives that go adrift on the streets of all our cities.And how one man found a way out against staggering odds.