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James Polchin - Shadow Men
On the morning of May 16, 1922, a young man's body was found on a desolate road in Westchester County. The victim was penniless ex-sailor Clarence Peters. Walter Ward, the handsome scion of the family that owned the largest chain of bread factories in the country, confessed to the crime as an act of self-defense against a violent gang of "shadow men," blackmailers who extorted their victims' moral weaknesses. From the start, one question defined the investigation: What scandalous secret could lead Ward to murder?
For sixteen months, the media fueled a firestorm of speculation. Unscrupulous criminal attorneys, fame-seeking chorus girls, con artists, and misogynistic millionaires harnessed the power of the press to shape public perception. New York governor and future presidential candidate Al Smith and editor of the Daily News Joseph Medill Patterson leveraged the investigation to further professional ambitions. Famous figures like Harry Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, and F. Scott Fitzgerald weighed in. As the bereaved working-class Peters family sought to bring the callous Ward to justice, America watched enraptured.
Capturing the extraordinary twists and turns of the case, Shadow Men conjures the excess and contradictions of the Jazz Age and reveals the true-crime origins of the media-led voyeurism that reverberates through contemporary life. It's a story of privilege and power that lays bare the social inequity that continues to influence our system of justice.
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Bruce Borgos - The Riddle Maker: A Porter Beck Mystery
32:03|In the latest in this USA Today bestselling series, Nevada sheriff Porter Beck receives an anonymous riddle leading him to a body hidden for decades, leading Beck and his team in a chase to unravel riddles that will help them uncover and stop a long-time serial killer.Porter Beck is the sheriff of Lincoln County, Nevada, a vast expanse of desert and mountains best known to the outside world for the top-secret installation called Area 51. Just down the highway sits a weathered mailbox where UFO believers leave messages for aliens. But this time, the message is for Beck.It’s a riddle. And when Beck and his team decipher it, the answer leads them to the shrinking waters of Lake Mead and an oil drum chained to the bottom. Inside are the remains of someone missing for more than fifty years, someone tied to Beck by a thread of DNA stretching deep into his own past.Enter Jett Lowell, a pint-sized but fearless FBI profiler who believes Beck’s riddle is connected to one she received seventeen years earlier, shortly before the disappearance of someone close to her.Convinced they are hunting a serial killer, Beck and Jett follow a trail of riddles from the deserts of Nevada to the mountains of Arizona, and finally to the red rock wilderness of Utah, racing to uncover a chain of murders spanning generations before the killer unleashes a final, horrendous act decades in the making.
Hank Schwaeble - Normal for the Spider
51:14|From Bram Stoker Award winning author Hank Schwaeble, Normal for the Spider is a spine-tingling thriller that will keep readers hooked to the very last page.Sienna Shaw is an apex predator. She kills without remorse when it suits her purposes, steals from those she judges undeserving of what they have, lives by her own set of rules. Just don't call her a serial killer. She knows what she is and what she always will be--a survivor whose governing creed is simple: Trust No One.Or so Sienna believes, until the day she encounters a shadowy group that calls itself the Book Club. A small, well-funded, highly secret society united by their shared taste for the macabre and a desire to instill fear among entrepreneurs, industrialists, politicians--any who imagine themselves in charge of civilization--to remind them who is really at the top of the food chain. Sienna soon finds herself as a reluctant guest on a remote and supposedly haunted island where the Book Club plans to unleash hell upon its next target and usher in a new chapter of its terroristic mission.But not even Sienna is prepared for the tangled web of betrayal and horror that awaits, or the very real monsters that will be let loose--including ones that may have been present all along.
James Renner - A Cruise to Nowhere
40:06|Gripping, suspenseful, and layered with insight, this is the first full account of the infamous disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley while onboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean—from the acclaimed author of True Crime Addict.In March 1998, the Bradley family—Ron, Iva, and their children, Amy and Brad—boarded the Rhapsody of the Seas for a week-long Caribbean cruise. The trip was a chance to celebrate Ron’s success at work and Amy’s college graduation.In the early hours of March 24, Amy Bradley—a pretty, athletic 23-year-old—returned to the family’s stateroom with Brad after dancing at the ship’s nightclub. Amy grabbed a blanket and went out to sleep on the balcony. A few hours later, her father awoke to find her gone. What happened to her remains a mystery.Did Amy fall or jump into the water? Did she leave the boat voluntarily when it docked at Curaçao that morning? Was she smuggled off against her will and trafficked in one of the island’s brothels? In a baffling case filled with false leads, rumors, and conflicting witness reports, the only certainty is that, nearly three decades later, the Bradleys are still looking for Amy.Now, acclaimed investigative journalist James Renner provides the first definitive account of Amy’s disappearance, enriched with his own personal narrative that explores themes of identity, loss, and the deeply human need to find meaning in tragedy.With empathy and a keen eye, Renner interviews witnesses who speak on record for the first time, offering fascinating new theories, and explores a little-known side of Amy’s life that may explain everything about her fate.
Charles Salzberg - The Beginning of Everything
29:46|Josh Green has a secret.Since he was a child, Josh has had troubling visions that allow him to see into other people’s pasts due to his extrasensory perception. Frightened by this ability, he’s told no one about it, except his best friend, Tony. When Tony’s college-age stepdaughter suddenly vanishes, he asks Josh to help him find her, as well as determine the circumstances of her disappearance. For the first time, Josh is forced to embrace his psychic ability to help trace the young woman’s steps. Eventually, this leads him to not only learn why she’s missing, but where she is. Following a trail that unravels familial secrets, Josh finds himself in the middle of a very complicated web.
Richard H. Stephens - Witches and Wings & David M. Kelly - A Crimson Void
41:33|A Crimson Void: Hellhound Series, Book OneAn obsolete ship. A disgraced captain. One chance at redemption.For a hundred and fifty years, an uneasy peace has endured within the Ballenverse—a hundred-light-year sphere centered on Sol. But now Corporate forces have launched a ruthless surprise attack, leaving the United Earth Alliance fleet shattered and Earth, along with her allies, desperate and reeling.Disgraced Jumpship captain Tarak Draeger has spent three long, bitter years languishing in jail for war crimes after destroying a civilian ship. But now he’s dragged from his cell, placed in command of an obsolete cruiser known as Hellhound, and given a deadly mission in the heart of enemy territory.For Draeger, facing a hostile crew, doubting his own abilities, and dealing with a murderous traitor onboard, the vicious Corporate commander determined to annihilate him and his ship is almost the least of his problems.Witches and Wings: Part 1 - WitchesThe year is 1584. Covens from across England andScotland gather around sacred sites, offering homage totheir pagan gods on the night of nights, but everythingseems lost when those in power intervene.With the magical mysticism of Samhain tainted bybloodshed, a great quest is undertaken in hopes ofpreventing future catastrophes. A lone warlock and hisunlikely companion set out to discover the whereabouts ofa witch who legends claim can put an end to the unjustviolence sweeping across the land.Shadowed by a man tainted by family history, theunsuspecting witch must flee for her life across the Isle ofSkye’s rugged landscape. Hounded by King James’ menand a notorious witch hunter harbouring a secret of hisown, the witch finds she is unable to trust those who shouldhave her back, and her fate hangs in the balance.In this timeless adventure, the fate of three realms teeter onthe edge of a claymore as the goodness of mankind wageswar against the inherent evil present in our world.
W.H. Chizmar - Them
25:35|The solo debut from the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Widow's Point: The Complete Haunting, a post-apocalyptic/survival horror novel written in the bestselling traditions of Stephen King’s The Mist and Josh Malerman’s Bird Box.A top-secret government project hits upon a revolutionary idea for transporting matter across the vast reaches of the universe, and it succeeds in bringing something back. Something alive. Soon, mankind’s reign comes to an abrupt halt when a truck hauling a very special shipping container overturns and rolls off the highway, unleashing an otherworldly horror upon an unsuspecting New England countryside, where it cannot be contained…Several years later, an unidentified man emerges from the rubble of humanity, seeking other survivors and a shred of hope amid an eerie and lonely landscape. He travels by night up the rural East Coast, discovering Americana ruins and encountering monsters the likes of which no one has survived. Scarred and molded by the cruel horrors of this new natural order, he must face his own dwindling humanity and pray that any others out there have not become monsters themselves…
Bill Gauthier - The Monster in the Closet
52:22|What if the monster in your child’s closet is real?Tim Beaulieu’s daughter, Cleo, says that the monster is also her invisible friend, whom she blames for innocuous trouble. The whole thing makes Tim uneasy as he tries to remember a part of his childhood that is missing. Surely nothing can be wrong. Can it?When the boy in the apartment upstairs goes missing after hurting Cleo, horrific memories begin to resurface as Tim finds himself under suspicion for the unthinkable. His daughter and those around him are in danger.Tim must face his past to save Cleo but can they survive the monster in the closet?****************“Stephen King fans will be enthralled.” — Publishers Weekly“At first, Bill Gauthier’s The Monster in the Closet feels like a traditional love letter to iconic horror authors like Stephen King, Michael McDowell, Peter Straub, etc. However, this marvelously unique, terrifyingly unpredictable tale suddenly goes off the rails in an unexpected direction that quite surprised me, shocked me even. Imaginative, tense, and deeply heartfelt, this novel moved me and chilled me in equal measure with unforgettable twists and flawed, richly textured characters. Highly recommended!” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke“I have watched Bill Gauthier’s career from the very beginning, and he never fails to impress. Steadily and consistently he has become one of the finest up-and-coming writers at work in the horror genre today. And he’s done it the right way, through years of hard work, determination, perseverance, and a focus on constantly honing and improving his craft. There are a lot of pretenders out there. Bill Gauthier isn’t one of them. He’s the real deal. Do NOT miss his work.” —Greg F. Gifune, author of Pack Animals and The Standing Dead
Mandy Eve-Barnett - The Commodore's Gift
21:54|Under the Buldrick Empire’s rule, Owena finds herself fighting alongside a rebel force. Her aptitude for strategy and swordsmanship come to the fore. When she meets Galen, not only does she fall in love but becomes even more determined to join the fight to restore the rightful King to the throne.
Michael Balter - Dead Exit
27:23|A DEADLY RECKONING UNFOLDSin book three of Michael Balter's award-winning crime thriller series.Marty Schott and Bo Bishop are trying to extricate themselves from a dangerous business partnership with a Russian oligarch when a midnight phone call shatters their plans. Bo’s brother-in-law has been murdered—and the Portland police detective on the scene recognizes them instantly. He’s questioned them before. He hasn’t forgotten.As Marty and Bo dig for answers, they uncover a hidden wire, criminal activity inside their own company, and a killer who isn’t finished. What begins as a murder investigation quickly spirals into a high-stakes web of cigarette smuggling, counterfeit money, and a covert FBI operation they don’t yet understand. Every lead pulls them deeper into a conspiracy that blurs the line between criminals and law enforcement—and puts their families squarely in the crosshairs.At the same time, the cracks between them begin to widen. Marty is still entangled with Natalya, the alluring power broker linked to the powerful investor they’re trying to escape, and Marty’s inability to cut ties threatens everything. Bo’s loyalty is pushed to the limit as secrets, suspicion, and past betrayals collide. With pressure mounting from every direction, a single misstep pulls Marty into a deadly trap—and forces a choice that could cost him everything.In Dead Exit, danger isn’t over—it’s waiting for one wrong move.