House of Mystery Radio on NBC

A hall of mirrors with no exits, The Poet's Game is a sophisticated portrait of a spy working to uncover layers of deceit behind a Russian plot on the American president.Alex Matthews thought he had left it all behind: his CIA career, the viper's den of bureaucracy at headquarters, the deceits of the cat-and-mouse game of double agents, and the sudden trips to Russia, which poisoned his marriage and made him an absentee husband and father, with tragic results.But then the Director came asking for a favor. Something that only Alex could do because it involved the asset Byron—a Russian agent whom Alex had recruited. Byron had something of great interest to the CIA; the Director said it was a matter of grave national security that implicated the White House, and that Byron would hand over the kompromat once he was extricated from Russia.But Alex is a different man than when he had run Moscow station: he has pieced his life back together after a tragic accident killed his wife and daughter—but the scars remain. He left the agency; started a financial firm that made him wealthy; and met a new woman, Anna, who works as an interpreter in the CIA. Anna is beautiful and supportive and helps him find love again after years of drowning in grief alongside his son. Throughout the last years, Alex has remained, in his mind, a patriot, and so he begrudgingly accepts the Director's request.Something, though, doesn’t feel right about the whole operation from the start. The Russians seem one step ahead and the CIA suspects there is a traitor in the agency, passing along secrets to the Russians. Alex realizes that, by getting back into the game, he has risked everything he has worked for: his marriage, his family’s safety, and the trust of his closest colleagues—one of whom is betraying him. As the noose tightens around Alex, and the FSB closes in on Byron, the operation becomes a hall of mirrors with no exits. To find redemption, Alex must uncover Byron’s secrets or risk losing everything.The Poet’s Game is a remarkably sophisticated and emotionally resonant portrait of a spy from a renowned master of the genre.

Two cousins. Two paths. One unforgettable era. This award-winning historical fiction novel follows the transformative journey of Cate and Albie. Cousins and best friends, they are raised in 1960s New Jersey under the watchful eyes of their family and strict Catholic school nuns. Their bond seems unbreakable. Then the Vietnam War erupts, tearing them apart.Albie, driven by faith and patriotism, enlists in the military and is stationed at a base along the South China Sea nicknamed Paradise.Cate protests the war, challenges her upbringing, and seeks purpose by immersing herself in the bohemian counterculture of New York’s Greenwich Village while enduring life in a low-rent tenement in the gritty Hell’s Kitchen district.Tragedy strikes, and her world unravels. With the support of her family and an eclectic group of friends—artists, activists, and veterans—Cate embarks on a journey of resilience and personal transformation. Travel back to a pivotal era when men marched off to war and women burned their bras. Demonstrators protested for peace as the silent majority rallied around the flag and the American president’s call-to-arms. This compelling novel explores the:Emotional toll of the Vietnam WarRise of feminism and LGBTQ+ movementsConflict between faith, patriotism, rebellion, and personal freedomStrength in kinship, friends, found family, and communityAll the Broken Angels is a profound exploration of love, loss, and the indomitable spirit of a generation that resonates far beyond the final page.

In the tumultuous world of high school, Emma grapples with a devastating breakup, a damning social media scandal that threatens her reputation, and an overwhelming sense of isolation. Her parents are distant, she has no true friends, and her despair deepens with each passing day.One fateful night during a sudden snowstorm, Emma forges a connection with Sarah, a girl who navigates the treacherous high school terrain of 2001. In this improbable friendship, they bond through the digital ether, supporting each other's struggles at the same school, in the same town, while separated by two decades.The friendship becomes a lifeline for both girls. Their lives bear striking similarities, yet the differences are equally profound. While Sarah is spared from the perils of social media, she gains self-assurance and begins to discover herself. In contrast, Emma’s struggles intensify as she faces dire consequences for her actions online and misguided romantic entanglements.Sarah watches helplessly as Emma's life unravels, yearning to help but bound by the constraints of time. Emma’s perilous descent accelerates, and the danger of not receiving the help she desperately needs looms large. Sarah, trapped twenty years in the past, must find a way to intervene before it’s too late.This gripping tale of bridging the gap between eras explores the enduring power of human connection, the complexities of teenage life, and the lengths to which a stranger will go to save a life.

The people in Frankie Morgan’s life say she’s angry. Emotionally stunted. Combative. But really, who can blame her? It’s hard being nice when your clients are insufferable, your next-door neighbor is a miserable woman and the cowardly driver who killed your mother is still out living it up somewhere.Somehow, though, she finds herself at her very first anger-management group session—drinking terrible coffee and learning all about how “forgiveness is a process.”One that starts with a list.Frankie is skeptical. A list of everyone who’s wronged her in some way over the years? More paper, please. Still, she makes the pointless list—with her own name in a prominent spot—and promptly forgets about it…until it goes missing. And one by one, the people she’s named start getting hurt in freak accidents, each deadlier than the last.Could it be coincidence giving her the revenge she never dared to seek…or something more sinister?If Frankie doesn’t find out who’s behind it all, she might be next.

A twisting, deeply engrossing investigation into the many lingering questions surrounding the sudden disappearance of the McStays, a family of four who vanished from their suburban San Diego home without a trace—until their skeletal remains were found in the Mojave Desert nearly four years later—from New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother.On February 15, 2010, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and their two young sons were reported missing from their new home in San Diego County. They left eggs and fruit rotting on the counter. Their Dodge truck sat in the driveway. Their dogs were abandoned outside without food. But investigators found no blood, signs of a struggle, or clues to their whereabouts. Did the family take an unannounced vacation? Were they running away from personal problems? Or were they victims of foul play? Nearly four years later, a motorcyclist found the McStays’ remains in and around two shallow graves, one hundred miles away in the Mojave Desert. Their skulls showed signs of blunt-force trauma, likely due to the sledgehammer buried with them. Authorities focused on Charles "Chase" Merritt, a close friend and subcontractor for Joseph’s company. Despite a lack of physical evidence, scenarios that defied logic, and numerous unanswered questions, prosecutors convinced a jury of Merritt’s guilt. After an emotional sentencing hearing, the judge imposed the death penalty. But did another possible suspect, who was ignored by investigators and ducked a subpoena to testify, get away with murder?In this twisting, deeply researched true-crime mystery, New York Times bestselling investigative journalist Caitlin Rother hunts for answers to reveal the truth behind a heinous crime that became a nation’s obsession, with a controversial trial in its wake, and lingering questions of justice.

In 1878 a teenage Jew, the Hessex Kid, kills an Irish thug in a Five Point’s bar fight in front of hundreds of drugged and drunken killers, all members of the Whyo Gang, which controls all crime in Manhattan under the aegis of the corrupt Irish politicians at Tammany Hall.The boy is then grabbed by the rabble and murdered.By 1900, the Irish mob has gained control of the police departments, the gangs, and crime in every major American city, and from 1900 to 1910, a political operative named James Monaghan has risen to the pinnacle of power at Tammany, which is the icon of the nationwide Irishsnake.In 1910, a gambler from Chicago named Billy McGuinness, haunted by the legend of the Hessex Kid and the murder of a low-level gambler and his family, arrives in New York. He is connected to mid-west political powers and to gangsters Max and Moses Annenberg, Big Jim Colisimo, and Johnny Torrio, his sole objective: to destroy Monaghan and the Irish political and criminal machine,Arriving in New York, McGuinness begins atorturous maneuver through real historic events and within the confines of New York’s Bowery ghetto and its Tenderloin District, a.k.a Satan’s Circus, manipulating the real politicians and gangsters who marked the period, now long-forgotten.In the end, McGuinness, driven by dark forces, becomes the inadvertent moving force behind prohibition booze smuggling, Murder Inc. and the Cosa Nostra until he is ultimately embraces the hand of God.

What drove the inconspicuous sociopath to become a ruthless killer?During his nearly fifteen-year reign of terror, Ronald Lloyd Bailey’s depraved obsession with sexual sadism held communities across southeast Michigan in a shroud of fear. From the early 1970’s to the mid-1980’s, the former patient at one of Michigan’s foremost psychiatric hospitals, abducted as many as fifteen teens and over time became a sadistic serial killer.In this shocking, fast-paced account, retired police officer and true crime author Rod Sadler examines law enforcement's dedicated efforts in connecting the dots to stop an unknown killer, and he poignantly chronicles the determination of the victims' families to triumph over tragedy.Sadler also examines Bailey’s insanity defense that centered on the alleged abuse he endured at the hands of his psychiatrist. In doing so, the bestselling author of KILLING WOMEN asks and answers the question: What drove the inconspicuous sociopath to become a ruthless killer?

The Dokkrsdottir is not your ordinary Norse woman of the Viking age. One of the great warriors of her time, she soon learns that the hardest battles are not always those fought with a sword and shield. Through countless trials and tests, she is led by visions and omens on numerous adventures with the help of steadfast friends and family to discover her mysterious supernatural destiny, one more extraordinary than anyone could ever have imagined.Myrgjol the Dokkesdottir’s path may be fraught with physical dangers and battle, but some wars are fought with whispered words and deceitful lies. While in Saxon lands, she must learn to maneuver the battlefield as well as her position on the board in the game of Saxon politics. Will she be successful?And though she is blind to all the pieces in The Game, a Saxon gamemaster plays on her behalf as well as his own against many others, and the enormity of the risk spirals out of control for everyone.

Don Sawyer's THE TUNNELS OF BUDA, the second romantic fantasy thriller in the Soul Catcher series, in which a magical gem maker and an empath struggle against a hideous conspiracy of evil headquartered in a maze of fantastic tunnels deep below Hungary's Buda Castle.The Mester is dead or maimed and the black stone used to control his network of gem makers is in Barbara and Zoltan’s hands. But as Zoltan discovered in the ruin bars of Budapest from a former associate, who turned up beheaded and his hands cut off, the Mester was just a small part of a much larger cabal, an ancient Order dating back to Aristotle and beyond. The Order has one goal: to convince the populace that there are masters divinely intended to rule and slaves meant only to obey.Using magic and sorcery, both ancient and modern, they will stop at nothing to protect the rule of the aristoi.But this time the “slaves” are fighting back, drawing on the knowledge and skills from many traditions and backgrounds, including magic of their own, to battle this shadowy cabal and its message of fear, division and hopelessness.In The Tunnels of Buda Zoltan, the 110-year-old gem maker and Barbara, empath and gem wielder, veer in new and terrifying directions, facing evil on an unimagined scale. They are drawn to the lair of the Justin, so powerful he controls the minds of all around him and who commands the Company, a hidden underground futuristic complex that serves as the hub of the Order’s monstrous conspiracy to enact the darkest of Nietzsche’s Weltanschauung.Barbara and Zoltan find new allies and diabolical enemies as they fight for their lives in the mines and ancient tunnels deep below Buda Castle in Budapest.